SL600 - Dream or disaster to live with?

[quantum_man]

This is a general enquiry, as curious more than anything... Does anyone here have experience or owning or working on an early 2000's (well, 2003 MY to be precise) SL600?

I've always loved the look of them and a friend of mine used to drive an S600, and I loved the power / refinement.

Seem to be almost within budget these days, but is there a lot to go wrong (and likely to go wrong) or are they pretty solid?

Can you work on them yourself or do Mercedes lock you out of general maintenance?

If anyone could give me an idea as to whether to avoid at all costs or genuinely consider taking one on I'd love to hear from you.

Also, is the 500 or AMG 55 a better alternative? (I just fancied a V12, hence looking at the 600!!)

Thanks in advance

[RudeDog]

I don't know but one of the links at the bottom of this page took me to this article:

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyI...

Where this was one of the key lines:

Mercedes also had two cars in the least reliable top ten, the SL and the CLS.

[Gouki]

Please check 'my garage' for typical costs to date for the SL55 variant. The SL600 certainly did come up for consideration when I bought the SL55, however they were rarer than hens teeth. Apparently a simple tune and the 55 won't see where the 600 has gone.

I would imagine a major service for the 600 if it has two plugs per cylinder could be costly...