Nice car, but check for rust around the boot handle aperture:



and on the inside leading edges of the rear wheel arches.

Vario roof operation MUST be faultless, but is very reliable.

Heated seats (if fitted) can be unreliable.

2001 model with a mere 54000 miles and a fsh are definite plus points!

If you plan on doing any touring, you'll be glad to know that the R170 model SLK (such as the one you're looking at) has the largest boot of any SLK - a much more useful shape than on later models. You can buy fitted luggage from www.roadsterbag.co.uk which fits perfectly under the boot 'top down' space limit:



As for fuel economy, mine gave me an average of almost 28 mpg over 4 months of mixed driving. I only sold it when I was able to trade it in for an SLK32 AMG!

Snap! My CPS started to fail a couple of weeks ago. Car would crank over but not start until the engine had cooled after about 10 min. Next day I took it to the dealership as the EMU light was on - they charged £40 to tell me that there was a 'crankshaft position sensor' failure recorded. But even though the car is on a Tier 1 extended warranty, they didn't change the sensor; instead they told me to 'monitor' the situation. A few short journeys during the following week were fine. What they didn't tell me ws that CPS failure is more likely after the engine has reached normal operating temperature, otherwise I would have checked.

Roll forward a week and I'm stuck in a car park with a car which won't start. Mobilolife arrive after 90 minutes and quickly find another logged instance of CPS failure - which they fixed in 15 min by replacing the sensor.

The car now being over 8 years old, I have to have it serviced by a main dealer in order to retain Mobilolife benefits and the Tier 1 warranty. Yet that dealer didn't see fit to change the obviously faulty CPS? As a result I missed an important meeting and wasted nearly £15 on petrol and £5.70 on a railway car park ticket. £60 out of pocket and a missed appointment all because the dealer was more interested in extracting £40 for a diagnostic check than providing a proper warranty service.

Congratulations, Woody4 - I'm sure you'll love the car! The SLK320 is probably the nicest R170 for grand touring; it isn't as fast as the SLK32 AMG but has a more comfortable ride and smoother automatic transmission.

A 'Used Roadtest' for the SLK320 in the Feb 2009 issue of Mercedes Enthusiast gives a 0-62 mph time of 6.9 sec, top speed of 147 mph and fuel consumption of 27.2 mpg (for the more automatic version). Incidentally, the M-B Mobilolife chap who changed the crankshaft position sensor for me the other day was full of praise for the build quality of the R170 SLK.

Is yours a manual or automatic? Both performance and economy for the automatic are actually better than the manual.

Colour? Options??

I had to wait a week between agreeing to buy my current SLK and picking it up back in 2005. Those 7 days went VERY slowly! But you'll have yours just in time for Spring.

Photos when you've got it safely home would be nice!

The heated seat issue is only the SLK32 so there should be no problem with the seat elements, do however check they work as the switches are also the control module and they can fail.

Nice cars and I have had two over the years with a total of 9 years ownership and never had a reliability issue.

PS. Are there any SLK owners clubs recommended in Hampshire?

I can't help about owners clubs, but if your in Hampshire, then I highly recommend taking your car here for any servicing it needs:

http://www.prestigecarservice.co.uk/

They've looked after my R129 wonderfully every time I've been there.

3300 worth of extras on a 35 grand car isnt that much though is it..

Hi Chris333, thanks for the contact - will put them in my contact list.

Woody4, the SLK320's M112 is a 90º V6 with 3 valves per cylinder (2 intake, 1 exhaust) driven by one overhead camshaft per cylinder bank.

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detail...

The SLK has the supreme advantage of the metal vario roof which the R129 does not.

There are plenty of nice SLK320s out there - you'll find one soon!