On the topic of buying a great used car instead for the price of a cheap but new economy box:
I wouldn't have thought it, but there actually are quite a lot of CL Mercs at that price or lower advertised. I suspect it might have a rather more severe depreciation than other models as buyers might need some enticing to get themselves an aging 12-cylinder with lots of electronics to possibly go wrong, and which is at the same time larger and less practical than conceivable alternatives. (The CL is longer and wider than a Subaru Legacy station but has only two doors and, I suspect, not even a folding rear seat.)
I wonder how much of a point James actually has with the cost of ownership.
Granted, the biggest factor usually is depreciation, and with the luxury cars, most of that has already happened, while the Nissan will lose about quarter as soon as you stick the license plates on.
But the 12-cylinders will consume about 14 liters of petrol per 100 km, or do about 16.8 mpg. So you need twice to three times as much fuel, for starters.
Tires for the Beemer (235/45 ZR 16) can be had for as little as 60 Euros per one, but with that kind of power and rear wheel drive you might not want to go for the cheapest kind of Chinese rubbish, so make that more like 120 Euros for a regular brand.
The Merc's OEM tire sizy is 225/55 ZR17, which, ha-hem, is actually narrower and with an even taller cross-section than the Beemer's 'Smarties'. And rather more expensive, so you'd be looking at some 160 Euros per tire. More if you insist on playing Clarkson and running it on 18 or 19 inch rims. The Nissan uses common-or-garden, 165/60 R14 75H, for which prices start at roundabout 35 Euros, and you can get decent branded rubber for as little as 60.
Then there's insurance. The Merc is in the 23 type class bracket in Germany, which is quite a lot more than the Nissan at 16.
Surprisingly, the Beemer is even lower at 13. But on the other hand, it might be quite expensive to tax over here. Hammond's '94 Ci would incur 817 Euros per year, although it could be upgraded with an additional catalytic converter for about 120 Euros, putting it in the Euro-2 bracket and roughly halving that sum. The Merc is rated a little lower but has even more displacement, incurring similar costs. At least they're not Diesels, because that would double or triple that figure. The Nissan costs 1/20 of that - 20 Euros a year.
The biggest worry would be repairs, I think. And to be fair, this can't be properly assessed within two weeks, as suggested on the program. Nissan offers three years of warranty on the Pixo, so that would probably be a more informative time span - slightly offset by the chance to have some freelancer maintain your 12-cyclinder while the Pixo probably needs some authorized Nissan servicing in order not to forfeit any chances on warranty repairs. As soon as either of the 12-cylinders develops a cryptic engine management malfunction or some such, you're in it up to your neck.
