Solid chassis, composed ride, comfortable front seats, fast power top operation in Cabriolet.
Cons
High price, some subpar plastic trim, a few hard-to-use controls.
What’s new
This year the CLK's standard eight-speaker Bose audio system is scrapped in favor of a 10-speaker Harman Kardon unit, while the navigation system is now DVD-based. The 320 model gets upgraded standard wheels, and offers a lighting package with foglights that illuminate with the turn signals, or when the steering wheel is turned. The 500's five-speed automatic is replaced with a new seven-speed unit with steering wheel shift controls. Also, ventilated front seats are now optional. The complimentary scheduled maintenance program has been dropped for 2005.
Edmunds says
A stylish, if expensive, melding of comfort and performance suitable for all but the most serious driving enthusiasts.
After 5 years of ownership, having purchased new, once my extended warranty (5 yr, 100k miles) ended, the sobering realization that major repairs costing more than the car is worth was a wake-up call. I'm being told by the dealer and MBUSA that the 7-speed transmission and torque convertor has to be replaced at a cost of $7k.
With just barely over 130k miles, this first generation tranny … is now defunct. It turns out it was a sealed transmission with no prescribed maintenance schedule to prevent problems. I'm told metal seems to be floating around and it has to be replaced -- at full cost to me! What OEM does that?? Add to that another $8k in other repairs, and $15k!! Last MB I'll ever buy.
Beautiful Car: Horrid Reliablitiy
3.75 out of 5 stars
Autooracle, 11/05/2007
2005 Mercedes-Benz CLK-Class CLK320 2dr Coupe (3.2L 6cyl 5A)
Reliability issues. Climate control: 5 times in the shop for now, and going in now for the 6th. Rough Idle: 4 times. Seat belt motor: 3 times. Driver's seat motor. Rain sensor activating on a dry windshield. Reverse Ttilt for rear view mirror: repaired 4 times. Radio: 2 times. Steer clear. Overall reliability of electrical items is horrid.
What women over 50 think
4.38 out of 5 stars
jkp, 09/11/2004
2005 Mercedes-Benz CLK-Class CLK55 AMG 2dr Coupe (5.4L 8cyl 5A)
Fun to drive. Great handling with
tight turns. Significant blind spot
with top up but when it's down, what a
rush. The excelleration is exceptional
and the ride is so smooth with higher
speeds. Limited trunk space but can do
overnighters without a problem.
Comfortable even on longer drives.
Bought this car in December 2004 for my wife and we have enjoyed the car a lot. The car has been pretty good as far as problems. If I were thinking of buying a used one I would check the service record of the car and if it did not have a problem history, I would buy one. I have found in driving Mercedes Benz it really depends on if you get one that is made good or one that is a lemon. I … have had both in my 30 years of Mercedes. They are very expensive cars to buy and to maintain but style and good looks and the Mercedes emblem never have come cheap.
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="1200" height="588" fill="none" preserveAspectRatio="none"%3E%3Cmask id="b" width="1200" height="588" x="0" y="0" maskUnits="userSpaceOnUse" style="mask-type:alpha"%3E%3Cpath fill="url(%23a)" d="M896 513c116 45.015 222 64 304 75V0H0v501c40 36.024 154 76 340 76s344-146.269 556-64Z"/%3E%3C/mask%3E%3Cg mask="url(%23b)"%3E%3Cpath fill="url(%23c)" d="M896 513c116 45.015 222 64 304 75V0H0v501c40 36.024 154 76 340 76s344-146.269 556-64Z"/%3E%3Cpath fill="url(%23d)" fill-opacity=".15" d="M581.718 62.893c42.993 1.53 86.281 5.888 129.704 13.204 311.828 52.485 552.538 242.016 657.698 483.656-149.97-147.971-450.891-226.33-789.375-232.079-338.534.839-640.434 74.572-792.746 220.292 108.75-240.047 352.255-425.97 664.832-473.803a1041.548 1041.548 0 0 1 129.887-11.27Z"/%3E%3Cpath fill="url(%23e)" fill-opacity=".5" d="M611.247 209.93a1458.84 1458.84 0 0 1 139.573 27.692c333.61 83.239 577.16 267.208 668.67 475.188-148.93-138.63-468.279-241.218-835.209-290.421-367.6-43.915-702.265-24.445-881.281 72.561 140.567-178.524 422.355-295.817 766.181-293.074 47.867.484 95.274 3.212 142.066 8.054Z"/%3E%3Cpath fill="url(%23f)" d="M735.039 879.394c48.524-6.62 97.023-16.967 145.3-31.2C1227.03 746.059 1475.76 472.327 1564.28 145c-151.17 209.633-482.23 344.436-865.05 388.31C315.515 568.571-35.93 504.564-227 330.342-73.333 632.61 226.169 849.617 586.429 878.604c50.15 3.871 99.74 4.07 148.61.79Z" opacity=".3"/%3E%3Cpath fill="url(%23g)" d="M694.222 783.712c50.956 12 103.317 20.27 156.946 24.578 385.102 31.013 738.232-146.76 952.062-439.434-231.22 151.216-613.24 158.795-1012.047 55.796C394.784 312.716 68.643 114.101-55.211-133c37.44 360.528 253.087 691.895 601.449 858.946 48.557 23.091 97.963 42.302 147.984 57.766Z" opacity=".9"/%3E%3Cpath fill="url(%23h)" fill-opacity=".5" d="M896 513c116 45.015 222 64 304 75V0H0v501c40 36.024 154 76 340 76s344-146.269 556-64Z"/%3E%3C/g%3E%3Cdefs%3E%3ClinearGradient id="a" x1="1005" x2="989.087" y1="23" y2="552.522" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse"%3E%3Cstop stop-color="%23007EE5"/%3E%3Cstop offset=".333" stop-color="%231561D4"/%3E%3Cstop offset="1" stop-color="%230A4AAB"/%3E%3C/linearGradient%3E%3ClinearGradient id="c" x1="1005" x2="989.087" y1="23" y2="552.522" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse"%3E%3Cstop stop-color="%23007EE5"/%3E%3Cstop offset=".334" stop-color="%231561D4"/%3E%3C/linearGradient%3E%3ClinearGradient id="d" x1="675.999" x2="879.999" y1="648.999" y2="120.999" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse"%3E%3Cstop stop-color="%23fff"/%3E%3Cstop offset="1" stop-color="%23fff" stop-opacity="0"/%3E%3C/linearGradient%3E%3ClinearGradient id="e" x1="656.5" x2="637.602" y1="213" y2="622.259" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse"%3E%3Cstop offset=".115" stop-color="%23fff" stop-opacity="0"/%3E%3Cstop offset=".944" stop-color="%23017D8D"/%3E%3C/linearGradient%3E%3ClinearGradient id="f" x1="398" x2="737" y1="599" y2="387" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse"%3E%3Cstop stop-color="%2300ABB5"/%3E%3Cstop offset="1" stop-color="%2300A0B5" stop-opacity="0"/%3E%3C/linearGradient%3E%3ClinearGradient id="g" x1="1051.5" x2="271" y1="567" y2="575" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse"%3E%3Cstop stop-color="%230098C2"/%3E%3Cstop offset="1" stop-color="%23033E96" stop-opacity="0"/%3E%3C/linearGradient%3E%3ClinearGradient id="h" x1="1005" x2="986.038" y1="23" y2="587.43" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse"%3E%3Cstop offset=".813" stop-opacity="0"/%3E%3Cstop offset=".972"/%3E%3C/linearGradient%3E%3C/defs%3E%3C/svg%3E)
