In the world of inexpensive high-performance cars, few vehicles stand above this: the Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG, originally a car with a price tag of well above $160,000; now a vehicle that’s available for $21,795 at Pro-Sport Motorsports, a used-car dealership in the Philadelphia suburbs. Depreciation has not been good to this car. Performance remains very, very impressive.
Here’s the situation: The S65 AMG uses a twin-turbocharged V12 engine, which made an amazing 604 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque back then. Those numbers are, quite obviously, absolutely massive, and so this car cost something like $165,000 new, just 11 years ago. Now this is among the cheapest on Autotrader: It’s still probably in the neighborhood of 604 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque, but it costs under $22,000, or something like 15 percent of its original value.
Why has it lost so much value? A few reasons. One is, obviously, the fact that most people don’t really want to maintain and repair an 11-year-old high-performance luxury sedan with a 604-horsepower twin-turbocharged V12. Then there’s the fact that most people who really want a car like this also want to buy it new from the original dealer with their preferred options and features — so the secondhand market is pretty minimal until the car becomes a lot less expensive.
Interestingly, this one seems surprisingly nice: Although it’s had four owners and covered nearly 90,000 miles, its Carfax report shows a lot of maintenance and no accidents. It’s also among the cheapest S65 AMGs on Autotrader, which will likely be a selling point for someone somewhere down the line. Possibly a Mercedes-Benz technician. Find a Mercedes-Benz S 65 AMG for sale
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