High Mileage SL55 AMG...

[Herbs]

I wouldn't run one without a warranty - I found my SL500 to be more expensive than the Aston Martin. If you do decide to buy go in with your eyes open as there are lots of niggly faults that all cost a fair bit to resolve and soon adds up.

BTW I found the Z4M to be a far better car on the smiles per £ scale.

[Dracoro]

andymc said:

PHAB said:

Strong odour of hairdresser though, esp a rag top which I'm assuming is the point of this exercise!

hairdresser???these do 200mph with the limiter removed

Depends on how you define a "hairdressers" car. For some here, it's just any convertible no matter how fast or otherwise it is.

[miln0039]

AD77 said:

I'm after a lovely sound in a good looking, fast car- s

I agree, a Porsche is none of those things and beauty is in the eye of the beholder etc...

But an SL - good looking?!?! It's smart and quite handsome indeed, but "good looking"?!?!

Edit to add - http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/m...

Just as many brave pills needed

Edited by miln0039 on Thursday 16th May 10:01

[AD77]

miln0039 said:

AD77 said:

I'm after a lovely sound in a good looking, fast car- s

I agree, a Porsche is none of those things and beauty is in the eye of the beholder etc...

But an SL - good looking?!?! It's smart and quite handsome indeed, but "good looking"?!?!

I'd say so yes! What would you go for then?!!

[miln0039]

AD77 said:

I'd say so yes! What would you go for then?!!

See above post edited...fighting fund and balls of steel required though!

[vinnie83]

Be very careful, get a good MB specialist to give it a good going over.

I know someone who owns a MB specialist in Leicester, and he has mentioned one SL55 on numerous occasions that has almost bankrupt the owner on repair costs.

My own E55 AMG was constantly back and forth to MB for warranty work.

IIRC they became better after about 2005 - although I'm not certain on the year, a little googling should find the answer... 2003/2004 were terrible build years.

They are VERY expensive to run - it was ~£110k when new IIRC?

There is however, very few cars that make that noise.... oh that noise! I very nearly swapped my E55 for an SL55.... and I still plan to have an SL55/SL65 in my garage in the future.

The 55AMG engine (supercharged) is amazing! The sledgehammer acceleration from standstill and any rev is second to none - I still feel that my 997 turbo feels slower!

Take your time, drive a few, get inspections done, and buy carefully.... I'm sure you can get a lower mileage car than that for your budget no?

[Rotaree]

vinnie83 said:

....I'm sure you can get a lower mileage car that for your budget...

I refer you to my previous post!

Rotaree said:

How about one with fewer miles?
Autotrader Link

[AD77]

Rotaree said:

I dont think that one looks as nice, worng wheels and also Romans perhaos more trustworthy?

[tigerkoi]

AD77 said:

Rotaree said:

I dont think that one looks as nice, worng wheels and also Romans perhaos more trustworthy?

The Roman's SL has been on there for awhile. I haven't seen it, but unsure why it hasn't shifted.

Posting this on the Mercedes forum would of course get you more informed and accurate discourse by past and present owners. Quite a few threads about known issues with the car, and general areas to look out for.

The clean facts are:

- it's part savage, part Luxe*
- Mercedes engines, by and large, and more so if AMG'd, are dependable and robust units. So mileage is not what you should be considering but a healthy stack of receipts that highlight preventative and normal maintenance
- battery drainage can be a concern, and more often than not kills ownership proposition as individuals either don't have the endurance or the 'benjamins' to get to the heart of the problem. So if possible, check this on inspection

A mate of mine has just careered past me in Docklands with the new 991. I can appreciate it. But when you fall in love with something so visceral and 'alive' (like the SL, and a lot of AMGs for me), then you don't get green-eyed.

It's that good.

For sure there's loads of people out there who've 'heard' it can cause financial hell, blah blah blah, but if you're thinking that you want the good, without the potential bad, then look elsewhere. It's a heart, not head, decision purchase, and you need the wherewithall for the rainy days.

Or get something less exotic

*Some days you can swear it just gargles, rumbles and growls along the tarmac, like a bully in an ill-fitting suit. Then others it just gran turisomos it's way from A to B, like the boulevardier it is. If a car could ever be called bipolar....

[P700DEE]

You only do 4000 miles a year ? Then a big supercharged V8 is just what you need
Its not the engines where the costs will be but expect suspension wear and with the weight tyres !
That said my money is in a Jaguar XKR and the soft top convertible is fine , quieter than some hard tops, vandalism rare.

[vinnie83]

miln0039 said:

But an SL - good looking?!?! It's smart and quite handsome indeed, but "good looking"?!?!

Edit to add - http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/m...

Edited by miln0039 on Thursday 16th May 10:01

I feel that particular shape of SL (the one with the twin oval headlights) was, and still is, a very good looking car.

Both with the roof up and down, it still turns heads (including my own). I think they spoilt it with the facelifts, and the new SL looks IMO terrible.

I personally think it's a nicer looking car than the Maser you posted.

As mentioned before, I will be adding one of these SL55/SL65's to my collection when I am in a position to do so!

[daveco]

vinnie83 said:

miln0039 said:

But an SL - good looking?!?! It's smart and quite handsome indeed, but "good looking"?!?!

Edit to add - http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/m...

Edited by miln0039 on Thursday 16th May 10:01

I feel that particular shape of SL (the one with the twin oval headlights) was, and still is, a very good looking car.

Both with the roof up and down, it still turns heads (including my own). I think they spoilt it with the facelifts, and the new SL looks IMO terrible.

I personally think it's a nicer looking car than the Maser you posted.

As mentioned before, I will be adding one of these SL55/SL65's to my collection when I am in a position to do so!

+1. It is probably the best looking SL they've ever created. Even with it being 10+ years old it is still better looking than their entire current range imo. A lot of manufacturers got their design right about the early to mid-noughties (M3, SL, Audi RS range) and have lost their way a bit since.

There seems to be an inherent need to refresh a design when it really doesn't need it!

[ducatti]

I bought a black 2002 SL55 in June 2011 and paid £21k . She was in good condition, had 43k miles and a full MB service history. I also got the remaining ( 2 months ) of MB Tier 1 extended warranty and renewed same a couple of months later, which cost £1300, with no excess. This warranty is a must as, to date, I've had around £20,000 worth of repairs done to the car. You name it , I've had it repaired / replaced by MB.
She now has 61,000 miles on the clock and ,having had the wheels refurbished by Lepsons ( diamond cut ), is ready for summer.
I love this car and will probably keep her for another couple of years. I will then replace her with a 2007 SL55 as I prefer this engine to the normally aspirated SL63.
My point is, if you buy an SL55 , BUY THE WARRANTY. I can only vouch for the MB Tier 1 extended warranty as it covers pretty much everything.
All servicing is carried out by MB Guildford as they offer a 40% discount on labour and 15% on parts. Their prices are more competitive than my local MB indies too.
I've also had the centre silencers removed, which makes it sound 20% louder under acceleration.

[Patrick Bateman]

treetops said:

Get in a Z4 and look like you're driving your wifes / girlfriends car.

Get in a SL, get approving looks and feel like a REAL man.

No contest.

I can only presume this is a wind-up.

[BigBen]

Patrick Bateman said:

treetops said:

Get in a Z4 and look like you're driving your wifes / girlfriends car.

Get in a SL, get approving looks and feel like a REAL man.

No contest.

I can only presume this is a wind-up.

More objectively, I share my commute with a colleague who has an Alpina roadster so not a Z4M but similar breeding, it is slower than the SL, has less space, is nosier / breezier with the roof down. On the plus side it sounds really good (assume the Z4 M sounds like the Alpina), looks good and gets many many more MPG. I don't think it looks any more or less hairdresserish than the SL, but then again I am a slaphead.

I have had my SL55 a year now and it has just had the expensive B service from a respected indy for about £450. I changed the poly belts myself for about £70.

The only other fault has been a xenon headlight ballast which I fixed myself with a second hand unit (would have been £400 + labour at a dealer I suspect) the ballast is shared with most xenon lit cars of that era so could have happened on any of them.

Did an 800 mile weekend trip to Scotland last weekend and averaged around 22mpg, mostly motorway driving at speeds I may not want to describe on a public forum. Day to day I get somewhere around 18mpg on my commute which is mostly lightly trafficed A roads.

A set of new rear tyres was about £700.

So my experience has all been positive, it has cost me about £1.5k to run the car for a year, which when you look at its performance equals is a bargain.

However, the previous owner had spent more like £4k per year over the previous four years, mainly sorting out suspension woes, so I am aware I have been lucky / bought a sorted example.

Ben

[AD77]

HI Ben,
How old/how many miles are we talking with yours when you bought it?

[vinnie83]

ducatti said:

My point is, if you buy an SL55 , BUY THE WARRANTY.

One of the most valuable posts in this thread.

[BigBen]

AD77 said:

HI Ben,
How old/how many miles are we talking with yours when you bought it?

Mine is a 2002 so an early car and had about 76k miles when I bought it now on 84 ish.

What attracted me to mine was the struts are all the Arnot units from the US which are guaranteed for life (actually the guarantee is not valid outside of the UK but the fact they offer such a guarantee is enough for me) so much less suspension risks than with MB kit.

Ben

[AD77]

For some reason Romans would't budge on price at all so sadly that ones out the window. Looking at this now, they are just seeing what they can do on p/x etc. Any thoughts?:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/m...

[Beefmeister]

Not the same car, but a few years ago I went from a hot hatch to buying a mint RX-7 FD (see profile). It had 340bhp, was immaculate and was around £10k.

I agonised over the fact that they are notoriously thirsty, with excessive amounts of maintenance required on the rotary engine, but the fact that it was a dream car won my over.

Did it make me drive it less, knowing that there might be a big rebuild bill around the corner? Nope, ran it as my daily driver for a year and averaged 13mpg and one £3000 rebuild.

But damn, what a year...