RE: PH Blog: shifting expectations

[George H]

redgriff500 said:

Are you being serious ?

So a fully automated car is fun ?

On that basis you must get your kicks being chauffeur driven.

I enjoy karting

I'm being completely serious. I never said fully automated is good, I said automated manual with paddleshift is good, you still get input. It doesn't ruin the car at all, if anything I find it better as the car can do more - i.e. relaxing in auto or paddles for when pushing on.

[redgriff500]

George H said:

I'm being completely serious. I never said fully automated is good, I said automated manual with paddleshift is good, you still get input. It doesn't ruin the car at all, if anything I find it better as the car can do more - i.e. relaxing in auto or paddles for when pushing on.

No you said

"How does making a car less involving ruin it?"

And the way to ruin a car is to make it less involving.

[George H]

redgriff500 said:

No you said

"How does making a car less involving ruin it?"

And the way to ruin a car is to make it less involving.

It doesn't ruin it at all. It makes it appeal to different markets. It might ruin it for you but it might make it better for me.

[Moogle]

Wow, you're all being quite harsh on George H.... even by my standards.... he's wrong but still, if that's what he likes then so be it?

[andy355]

my conclusion after driving the sls is that you would leave it in auto - the manual changes were just awkwardly slow - knowing that it was the same box at the time left me wondering if the were all like that or just the car i tested. Another thing is the paddles feel cheap, those on the cali are nice brushed metal.

[jamesghwilson]

The parking ticket (or whatever it is) in the passenger foot-well must be feeling car sick after that lap!

[essa26]

The other day I was driving my SLS, normal conditions, great weather, everything was incredible. Then, all of a sudden, I lost power and pressing the accelerator only made terrific noise. Looked at the dials and it said it was in "P". Seeing that I was doing about 70km/h (around 45mph) this was worrying. Started to slow down and head to the emergency lane, when I got down to 20km/h (around 15mph) heard horrible sounds of gears biting and the car ground to a halt. The gear selector was stuck on P, so I called the dealer and had them send over a flatbed. The guy came and just locked the car and unlocked it then started the car, this made it possible for him to get out of P. Also made me feel very dumb. However, they still took the car in to check it over because the engine warning light came on. A couple of hours later, I was waiting at the dealer's, they told me there was a communication error between the ECU, engine and gearbox. Next day I went back to have a chat with the resident German technician (keep in mind this is all happening in Kuwait). He told me that there was a communication error, and there might be a mechanical problem too. He also claimed there were cases where the gearboxes were replaced. He wanted a couple more to better diagnose the issue.
Hate to be the first one to mention as SLS gearbox problem, but there.
Sorry about the super long post, felt I had to share.

[John Southworth]

Trust me. there are plenty of issues with this gearbox, not the least being the inability to get parts. Thanks Mercedes for the USD$30T gearbox offer(box ony) cause you won't sell a $20 solenoid.