Having jumped ship from Mercedes 2 years ago I would be reluctant to return to the indifferent build quality and reliability of the newer Mercedes.
Now in 1997 I very nearly bought a 6 months old C36 AMG - absolutely fell in love with it, but they wanted £42,000 for it and I would only go to £40,000. I ordered a new Audi A4 Quattro tiptronic estate ( bad move) and a week later the Mercedes dealer rang me offering to sell me the C36 at my price...……………..
I think that in those days the AMG cars were the real deal.