SLK AMG 55 as a reliable second car/boxster alternative?

[Tiggsy]

Had a boxster as a second car 2 years ago then switched to an Astra lease as the main car switched to an A45.

Now the A45 has switched to a Volvo the Astra needs to go back to being the fun car!

Must be a 2 seater and big enough for me at 6ft6 (so no Mx5, fiat, etc)

Budget is low £20's

Got it down to a Z4 (she's not keen on a BMW though) or the AMG SLK (we had a 2l diesel SLK in 2014 and it was fine apart from the engine - V8 should solve that?)

Don't want another boxster and dont think we are in convertible 911 territory and if we are.....bigger bills than the Merc?

Seen a couple on auto trader around 2012 (new shape) with 30k ish on them at £23k ish.

Don't want massive bills (if possible!) or 911 servicing costs.......and something that wont drop "too" much money....big V8 engines are getting rare....might be a good buy in January?

Any thoughts?

[ZX10R NIN]

These are very reliable there really isn't anything that goes wrong with them & a very worthy alternative.

[tallstevef]

Am the same height and have looked at these in the past - I managed to fit in the SLK of around the 2013 vintage which had a surprising amount of room (considering the small size of the car).

Only thing I've seen / heard on these is that the autobox can be a bit sluggish...

[underphil]

How about the SLK350? - Not going to give the drama of the 55, but is a lot cheaper and still >300bhp, with less tax and a lot better mpg

[TXG399]

I owned an R171 SLK55 for nearly 2 years. I found the car to be very reliable and there were no issues at all during my ownership - the phrase 'bulletproof' is often applied to this engine and I can't argue! It was also exceptionally fun and the boot is surprisingly big. I'm 6' 4" and had plenty of space in the cabin too.

The running costs however are very high relative to the cost of the car (circa £20k). RFL is over £500, tyres last 6-7000 miles and servicing is expensive. A regular service was under £200, but a major service was £800 - the interval is roughly 7k miles or 12 months between services, alternating between regular and major. Additionally mine was fitted with the Performance Park, which included carbon composite brake discs. These are roughly £1000 per axle to replace with OEM disks and last approximately 20-30,000 miles.

On the plus side, the fuel economy was higher than expected (normal driving saw low 20's) and I once managed 34mpg on a 200 mile motorway drive. On the other end of the scale I used 2/3's of a tank of fuel on 3 laps of the Nordschleife!

It was a very enjoyable car to own - the exhaust note was utterly delicious - surprisingly comfortable and spacious but it is not cheap to run compared to most of its rivals. You can get a service plan from Mercedes however, which makes the servicing cost more manageable.

[steve-5snwi]

I struggled to fit in the SLK it felt a little cramped to me, the traction control would always like to make itself know, I preferred the 987 Boxster S, that had a little more room too, somewhere in the middle was the Z4 35i, for me it would be between a Boxster with PDK or the Z4. Unless you fancy going for an Ecoboost Mustang ... but you might feel robbed with it not having 5.0 on the side.