SLK55 AMG

[ba65]

Hello all,

Just bought one of these - it's currently undergoing prep (full major service at Mercedes, brake discs and pads front and rear pads, new foglight due to leaking and a few small bits - I'm very fussy!). Garage is also refurbing all the alloys, new centre caps, new bolts and repainting the plastic side skirts as they are showing some light stone chipping.

Car is on 67k miles with FMBSH.

It's black/black with next to no options (not even electric seats!). Quite rare on UK streets - anyone got one?

Keen to hear about ownership experience I'm coming from an E46 M3 SMG.

Cheers,

Bill

[ba65]

Good to hear from you.

Few weeks and I settled on this one as it was the right colour combo, price and prep. To be honest my budget was very low (£13k) so this one seemed right. It has 67k miles with FMBSH which I also verified by calling around each Merc garage just for peace of mind. Has all the service books and documents.

No airscarf but heated seats, command, parking sensors, climate, Bluetooth and telephone but shes sitting on the 5 spokes which I actually prefer (as you can see the massive brakes).

Any ideas how easy the airscarf can be retrofitted? Loads of threads around but can't see anything straightforward. A quick summary of parts required would be nice.

She's had 3 previous owners but I presume that's normal for a convertible - unfortunately the car hadn't been serviced since 2011 (and 12k miles) so the dealer (a well known Ferrari specialist) is getting it into Mercedes for a major service, full set of discs and pads, new foglight, reset of the SRS light, refurb of alloys etc etc.

I'm waiting to hear back from Mercedes on the full inspection report of the car and to know if there are any underlying issues that need sorting. If it turns out to be a dog I will be rejecting the car but I doubt it...

Cheers,

Bill

[ba65]

Just to add unfortunately it does have the 6 piston calipers (so £2k at MB for discs and pads) but the garage is picking up all the work including this mentioned above.

[ba65]

Cheers for the tip with GP - useful and I've got loads of bottles sitting in the garage. Are you interested in selling your turbines? I think they look stunning in the original finish and really set off a black car. The 5 spokes however do have their own appeal though and the brakes look so good poking through.

The garage checked the price with MB and confirmed a-ok so I presume they've agreed to foot the £2k bill on top of all the other bits and pieces. Truth be told they've got loads of Ferrari / Lamborghini / AM super cars so I presume they'd want this motor out the door. Plus it's pretty low on spec but I'm all about the driving experience and have never really cared much for spec. I don't keep my cars long enough either!

The airscarf would improve the driving experience and hence i'm keen to get it done. Now where can I find a salvage SLK55...?

Have you been to any meets in the UK - any coming up? I'm from London by the way, would be nice to meet and compare motors!

Thanks,

Bill

[ba65]

rgv250ads said:

I'm just north of London by 40 Miles, up the A1, Biggleswade.

I dont have the wheels, done an exchange with http://www.fawheels.co.uk/
Managed to wrangle a deal whereby i gave them the (horrific condition) turbines and they gave me a set of refurbed, freshly powdercoated AMG 5 spokes in Merc Sterling Silver. £288 all in. Incredible value IMO and just set off the car lovely.

I hope you get the airscarf installed, it's a very nice 'to have' and one of those things that just works. Das Germans for you.

Like above, they must have wanted rid for £13k plus a two grand bill on their part from MB. wonder what they gave for it to start with aye!
Like you i'm a bit of a serial changer of cars but this one is staying. really has grown on me, i think the blend of quality and value (now so cheap for what you get IMO) plus the N/A V8 experience in a small car is so much to be admired.

Cannot reccomend a 2nd Cat delete and x-pipe enough. Had mine done at Infinity Exhausts just off the M4 near bristol (our side of bristol). So worth it, and with the roof off, the noise is childishly addictive.

Ah Biggleswade! I know it well, my uncle used to live in the mansion on Rose Lane, I think it was called Brunswick House?

That's a really good deal on the alloys - did they swap over the tyres for you too? Not sure, however it got traded against a Bentley Continental GTC (which now wears the plate V8 RKT!) so I presume the p/o had a few bob. He kept the car 5 years so it must have been a good one for him.

I've been reading about the x-pipe - very tempted. Do you attend any meets? Would be good to see and hear your motor from the inside. The SLK sounded really loud and throaty on the test drive even at low speeds and medium throttle so I'd imagine these mods really open that V8 sound up.

[ba65]

rgv250ads said:

If you are noticing 'throaty' sounds already you might have some exhaust mods done. I only say this because i test drove a totally standard 2005 car before buying mine and it was very refined/'too' quiet. I also test drove one with 2nd cats out, and had a nice 'almost there' V8 burbles. the x-pipe & 2nd cats out install you get the full beans.

You might have 2nd cats out..... if it's easy to get under your car have a look or ask P/O if you can?

A mate of mine lives in rose lane, small world eh. ?!

Below is a pic completely standard, The 2nd cats are the small cylinders before the big box. The big box is the resonator which is where this gets binned for an xpipe. you might have the 2nd cats out. it'll look like pic two but still retain the big box.

Edited by rgv250ads on Thursday 20th November 15:26

Thanks for sharing. I'll check it out next Saturday when I collect

[ba65]

smashy said:

Thats funny behind a silver one today,,,,the 4 hosepipes!! excellant ,good luck with the beast

Cheers mate! How did it sound? They look good in silver too, but mine had to be black! Brings out the badges, alloys and exhaust pipes so well.

Only issue is that I'll be cleaning it all day

[ba65]

I did look at a few but as above many are uncared for,on the flip side there are a few very nice examples with all the options but then your talking about £18-20k + which is just not what I want to spend. Mine is not mint but it's very very good, the interior is in nice condition.

Good shout on the plugs and gearbox oil, mine had the plugs done at the last service at c. 55k miles and the gearbox oil at 40k. The car is now at 67k miles.

Just had a chat with the MB technician, he said the car is in very good shape. They also replaced an SRS module as it was showing up as faulty (light was on) and did the brake fluid etc alongside oil and all filters. Aside from that they said the car is very good and bone dry from underneath. All tyres have 6mm on Pirelli P-Zero's - personally I prefer Michelin PS2/PSS due how quiet they are and grup but I'll see how I get on with these. They said the brakes do not need changing but obviously I'd agreed with the dealer to get them done anyways.

They said both gearbox oil and plugs don't need doing (are plugs every 4 years?) however I will get the car into MB in the summer and have both done again at around 72k miles.

Looks like I should be picking her up next Friday - cannot wait!

[ba65]

rgv250ads said:

In my search 11 months ago, I looked at two before mine. both previous efforts were not great, almost dogs. Mine was good underneath but wasn't what i'd call 'really well looked after'. Alot of these cars fall into the hands of people wanting cheap V8 convertibles who then scrimp on maintenance & general TLC.

I found i needed north of £16k to get into the decent stuff. was Dec 2013 though.

Any photos of yours?

[ba65]

MattyB_ said:

This is my problem - I feel like my budget isn't enough to get A) What I want, or B) one that isn't a complete dog. Even now, I think you need to be north of £15k to get the better examples.

Hence the reason I'm kinda hanging around on forums, hoping to catch someone before a P/X

Look around now mate, good time to buy a car of this type, probably why I got the deal I did.

[ba65]

^ very nice mate!