They are fantastic, you won't be disappointed. Mine may be for sale, sixteen months old '61' plate, silver with 7k miles.

Manual? Really?

Oh, someone is reading this thread after all. I know it's only available in DCT.

I did wonder about the manual comment

Anyway, I bought mine in January and it was somewhat a dream car for me so, despite having come from a plethora of nice cars, I had high expectations of the SLS. Four months on, in many respects it has lived up to those expectations.

The sense of occasion you get from the looks, the doors, the noise is something else, it draws a lot of positive comments and nothing clears the outside lane of a motorway like an SLS!

The noise is typical AMG but turned up to 11 and is always present the minute you touch the loud pedal (which has never been a more appropriate use of this term than in an SLS). You buy this car as much for the noise as anything else so if the trademark AMG sound doesn't appeal, walk away!

The handing is great at anything up to 8/10's with the most amazingly direct steering (it's front end is very sharp!) and flat handling - in fact it has a most unique feel, what with the steering happening some distance out front and you sat almost over the rear wheels - its far from the lazy GT/muscle car that the styling would have you believe. Note that you are coming from a very good Porsche in this respect so it's not going to be as technically brilliant - set your expectations accordingly! Also, the car is very wide which you do get used to but still affects everyday things like threading it through narrow country roads with oncoming traffic, multi stories etc. Performance is in the supercar league and once rolling, it's as quick as my 997.2 Turbo was, which is very fast.

I concur with everything that's been said on economy - average is 18/19mpg, a high of 22/23 on the motorway and it rarely dips below 14mpg. Amazing really for a car like this.

The doors are easy and require, if anything, less width and height (don't forget the height!!) than normal doors although they can make you feel a bit of a tw@t when you're not in the mood for turning heads every single time you get in or out of it! When you are in the mood, they always deliver

It's nice inside if tight...I'm only 5'9" and nearly fill it length wise....I reckon if you're anything over 6'2" you're going to feel uncomfortably tight. Driving position is great, right up there with the Porsche which was excellent and the seat support is awesome. Overall, a great place to spend time.

The gearbox is just OK. At first, I thought it was great getting back into a DCT but after living with it's lethargy for a few months, this isn't (currently) a well designed one. It's OK in auto/sport modes, if still too slow to change down multiple gears. But in manual, it's criminally slow to instruct the gear change (the actual change is perfect, it just takes too long to get there!) - there are various reasons banded about as to why a gearbox which is the same as fitted to the 458 Italia can be so different but it's not even as quick as the DCT in my previous M3! However, AMG have a performance studio in Affalterbach where they can pretty much upgrade anything on your car and my SLS is currently out there saving the new SLS GT gearbox ECU and software fitted. I hope that new version is as good an improvement as the press reports say it is. It's not a software upgrade that an be done at a dealer and I'm actually surprised AMG even entertained doing this for me given they'll primarily want to sell new GT-spec cars! I have a thread on this currently if you want to read up what it's like when I get it back in a coupe of weeks.

Other bits that aren't so good are the Bang and Olufsen audio which is utter crap - some people don't care about in car audio but if you do, you won't be impressed. I've already upgraded the subs to rid it of distortion and, before i did this, it was by far the worst 'premium' audio system I've ever encountered. Other than this, I've had a few rattles and a forever squeaking drivers seat, all of which have largely been fixed which leads me onto the dealers....in most cases, as a previous C63 owner and current owner if a non-AMG Merc, the dealers aren't very competent (I'm being tactful here) but as an SLS customer, service and willingness to make me happy have been beyond question.

My only regret was not buying one with ceramic brakes. Not that the normal ones aren't good (they're very good for road driving, if again not Porsche-levels of good), more that since driving one with ceramics, it displayed none of the poor characteristics I've previously read about (poor cold performance, hard to modulate etc...all of which made me actively seek one without ceramics!). Goes to show, don't believe everything you read until you try it for yourself because the ceramics were, in a word, brilliant.

Hope that lot helps for a balanced view - I'm sure you won't regret buying one and at £100k'ish, I can't see them continuing to shed money at the same rate.

Andrew

Andrew....I'm yet to book and make the journey to AMG for the upgrade. Are you booked yet? I am desperate to get the ECU update but not so keen on the journey.

As far as choosing between Aston and SLS they're poles apart. Though I've not driven the Vantage my Wife has the DBS and whilst Astons are a truly beautiful car they just don't have the dynamic qualities of the SLS. So if you want a drivers car go SLS but Aston for glamour.

Thanks slippery...I've never driven a v12v or DBS but feel that an Aston would not be for me. I have been in one of each and found them to be quite harsh with too many vibrations / rattles for my liking. A great car (the best?) from an image / aesthetics perspective but I feel not as well engineered as I would likely demand. Owning a 997.2 Turbo and a host of other well engineered German cars somewhat raises ones expectations in this area!

vpr...whilst I'm currently sunning it up in California (had to get that in ), my SLS at this moment is at AMG in Germany having the gearbox and a few other trinkets done (see my other thread 'SLS Upgrades'). Oh, and the drive out there is one of the best bits of taking it to AMG!....the SLS was not made for the constraints of UK roads so was finally in its element once able to be let loose!

Yeah, you mean you didn't quite hit 7th on the Lake district run...LOL!!!!

Well, it wasn't the best car I've had for a drive around the Lakes, that's for sure. Too wide and too stiff and bumpy for such tight and poorly surfaced roads. My XKR-S and 911 (and even M3 and C63 too) would have been more appropriate 'fun' cars than the SLS on such roads.

But like I said above, the SLS's presence and sense of occasion more than makes up for such things.


Honestly, out here in California I'm seeing so many really nice cars - lots of Porsches and Ferraris in the right places (although C, E and CLS AMGs are easily the most popular 'performance' orientated cars out here). All these cars look great and I always question not buying a new 991 instead of the used SLS. But then when I've seen an SLS (only 3 so far, so still nicely exclusive even out here) it just looks so special and distinctive. I don't think it's a particularly pretty car in the same way an Aston is, but as something that makes you think 'wow', I think it's even beyond the likes of 458's, lower-end Lambo's etc. Or quite possibly my excess of Corona's and hot weather is just making me talk cr@p!

Thanks Andrew. Really appreciate your comments. I know what you mean about the sense of occasion and the theatre of the car. Every time I hear the AMG noise, it makes me want one again. I agree that it's not as pretty as an Aston Martin but it has a brutish muscular quality which works with the engine note.

I have two Porsches, both with PDK and I think PDK is the best semi-auto transmission I've driven. The new version in the GT3 sounds better, particularly with the clutch kick option on the paddles but I know that I'll always be comparing the Merc's DCT to the PDK and I don't know how long a more aggressive PDK will take to hit the Cayman. I've not spent more than a test drive in an SLS so living with it may prove a different experience. Did you have PDK in your 911? If so, how does it compare?

What is the ground clearance like? I live in central London but garage at a specialist outside of London but still bring the cars to my home address from time to time. There are a lot of speed humps and they're of various shapes and sizes. I struggle with my CR and it's 5mph or farewell front splitter.

I'm slightly staggered at the lack of response or interest by Mercedes marketing (still waiting for a test drive call and brochure two weeks in). This is further cemented by my wandering into a dealership and being treated with complete indifference. If that's what they're like when they're selling, god help me if I have a problem with the car!

I would really recommend booking a session at MB World - Brooklands in the SLS. It's an opportunity to get the car out on to their test track for a while and drive it far harder than you'd ever be able to on a test drive on public roads. There's a really nice hotel on site too if you need to travel.