RE: Mercedes-Benz SL500: Review

[rtz62]

Pennyroyal Tea said:

Axionknight said:

Average female weight in the UK is circa 70kg so it's not too far removed from the truth and hardly a grossly unhealthy weight. How shallow of you to be embarrassed about what other people think of the looks of your partner, mind you with this being Pistonheads she is probably the fittest and filthiest woman in the world

Pistonheads: because Daily Mail-style hyper-reactions to tongue-in-cheek statements, matter.

Anyway, commiserations on your heffing wife *

* wink smilie added this time in the interest of clarity for the humourless.

The above remarks will no doubt insult all Premiership footballers who may buy one for their WAGs who are plutonium blondes with more boob jobs and Botox injections than. I could wave a stick at.
And who would instantly freak out if someone suggested they weighed more than a pillowcase full of feathers, demanding that their boyfriend pays for liposuction immediately.
As others, I wonder who is designing the Merc range these days, as they seem to have attended the Ray Charles school of car design

[Amanitin]

That front overhang!!

http://images.pistonheads.com/nimg/33826/sl550_021...

no wait, it's not a Peugeot.
My bad, carry on.

[k-ink]

Amanitin said:

That front overhang!!

http://images.pistonheads.com/nimg/33826/sl550_021...

no wait, it's not a Peugeot.
My bad, carry on.

It is quite laughably ste isn't it.

[Britcar driver]

Still looks terrible. It lacks the class that previous generations were known for. Unlike the earlier iterations, this generation will not age well at all.

[WokkaWokka]

The chintz is strong with this one.

[anonymous-user]

nickwilcock said:

Not a patch on the R230!

Bloated, fussy styling with that ridiculous snow-shovel nose. Absurdly over-complicated geek-fest interior, with those silly offset vents.

Mercedes - you can could do better than this!

The 'face-lifted' R172 SLK (which M-B want to be known as the 'SLC') is equally disastrous.

Do they have Specsavers in Germany?

Seconded! The R230 remains the high point in a series of otherwise low points called the SL!

[dbdb]

I suspect am very out of step with modern taste, but this looks just as horrid to me as pretty much all other modern Mercedes. They look like they're from Korea.

[sidesauce]

dbdb said:

They look like they're from Korea.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

I love this and having run a R230 for a while, this will most definitely be my next car purchase.

[kambites]

The problem is it doesn't look like it's from Korea, it looks like it's from Germany.

[k-ink]

It's been decades since anything this offensive rolled out of Korea. The cock bonnet SLK was not ideal. These new efforts are a total disaster. It's not even subjective anymore. It's as obvious as day.

[sealtt]

I think it looks good, but most importantly they are just one of the absolute best GT cars on the market. Absolutely brilliant.

[steveirl]

I own an R230 (SL55AMG) and I like this, I think it will look even better in the flesh. The stats are very impressive too, so much progress in performance and economy in such a short time.

[chris333]

Regardless of what you think about the looks, (IMO: Bleurgh!), it's incredible how much car you get for your money these days.

Compare the current SL500 to the price of an R129 in 1999...

[Dafuq]

Bit too much Liberace and not enough Lenny Kravitz for my liking.

Next........

[sidesauce]

Dafuq said:

Bit too much Liberace and not enough Lenny Kravitz for my liking.

Next........

One could argue that with the ostentation removed Liberace was objectively a better musician with some originality as opposed to Kravitz's entire career being based on pastiches of people he admired.... This car may appear chintzy to some but its skills and raw performance numbers are not to be sniffed at IMO.

[big_rob_sydney]

sidesauce said:

Dafuq said:

Bit too much Liberace and not enough Lenny Kravitz for my liking.

Next........

One could argue that with the ostentation removed Liberace was objectively a better musician with some originality as opposed to Kravitz's entire career being based on pastiches of people he admired.... This car may appear chintzy to some but its skills and raw performance numbers are not to be sniffed at IMO.

Ostentation removed, eh?

I will applaud your point, because I think its logical, and well made.

I will, at the same time, disagree with you. Because I think many people would find it hard to look past the superficial (says a lot about superficial people these days).

And for what its worth, I personally don't care what it looks like. I prefer Subarus and Nissans, simply because of the objective performance.

In this cars instance, I'm very much surprised at its weight, so I actually don't like it, purely on weight-related performance terms. Imagine how well it would go if it weighed 1400-1500 kgs.

[Dafuq]

sidesauce said:

Dafuq said:

Bit too much Liberace and not enough Lenny Kravitz for my liking.

Next........

One could argue that with the ostentation removed Liberace was objectively a better musician with some originality as opposed to Kravitz's entire career being based on pastiches of people he admired.... This car may appear chintzy to some but its skills and raw performance numbers are not to be sniffed at IMO.

Good point, well made sir. Skills and raw performance I am all for, chintzy st you can keep

It's what is great about life, I like Lenny, you like Liberace and without us two they would both have less purpose in life.

High fives all round me thinks.

[AH33]

Strange that everyone seems to hate it, I like it. I also think most of their current range is awful, including the amg gt and that gle....thing.

[sidesauce]

big_rob_sydney said:

I think many people would find it hard to look past the superficial (says a lot about superficial people these days).

My point is simply based on actual ability and let's understand that early Liberace wasn't the flamboyant guy we remember him to be, he was in fact a child prodigy and classical music virtuoso long, long, long before the outlandish outfits.

It's not so much people are superficial rather than they don't know their history! Likewise with the SL - people can pan it but its abilities, as well as its history, are undeniable.

[sidesauce]

Dafuq said:

sidesauce said:

Dafuq said:

Bit too much Liberace and not enough Lenny Kravitz for my liking.

Next........

One could argue that with the ostentation removed Liberace was objectively a better musician with some originality as opposed to Kravitz's entire career being based on pastiches of people he admired.... This car may appear chintzy to some but its skills and raw performance numbers are not to be sniffed at IMO.

Good point, well made sir. Skills and raw performance I am all for, chintzy st you can keep

It's what is great about life, I like Lenny, you like Liberace and without us two they would both have less purpose in life.

High fives all round me thinks.

Don't get it twisted, I like Lenny too - I'm simply stating that his entire career is based on ripping off other people (Hendrix being the main one) that's all!