Am I being realistic SL350
Discussion
Thinking about buying a 2004/05 SL350 for around £13K and using it a second car doing say 4K miles a year. Would expect to pay around £1k a year servicing and minor repairs, and assume rear tyres would last say 10K miles. Dont expect the fuel consumption to be great but noticeably better than say a SL500. Assuming mileage to be around say 60k when purchased I would not expect any nasty surprise when it came to mechanical faults or body work issues. Would it be much better to pay more and get the face-lifted 3500cc model. Am I being realistic in my expectations.
Thanks
Thanks
Haven't we been through this on the Merc forum? 
http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?t...
The advice on there is good and valid.
To the poster above - the SL500 of that vintage is a potential massive moneypit - sure there will be people out there who have run a 500 with nothing broke for x months, but there are other people (eg, me) who have sunk endless thousands into keeping them running. I got very badly burned on mine but I've a very good knowledge of what goes wrong with them.
You may as well get a gun and stick it to your head. Or take your holiday savings and go out and give it to the nearest homeless person - end result is the same (you'll be skint and not going skiing) but at least you'll have done some good with it.
The "funny" thing is that at the time I had the option of either a 350 or a 500, same vintage, same price. I bought the 500 which was a huge mistake - I suspect if I'd bought the 350 I would still be enjoying it now and have a much healthier bank balance.
t! Sure - nice when it works but is it *that* much better? I say not.
http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?t...
The advice on there is good and valid.
To the poster above - the SL500 of that vintage is a potential massive moneypit - sure there will be people out there who have run a 500 with nothing broke for x months, but there are other people (eg, me) who have sunk endless thousands into keeping them running. I got very badly burned on mine but I've a very good knowledge of what goes wrong with them.
You may as well get a gun and stick it to your head. Or take your holiday savings and go out and give it to the nearest homeless person - end result is the same (you'll be skint and not going skiing) but at least you'll have done some good with it.
The "funny" thing is that at the time I had the option of either a 350 or a 500, same vintage, same price. I bought the 500 which was a huge mistake - I suspect if I'd bought the 350 I would still be enjoying it now and have a much healthier bank balance.
BigBen said:
unless the 500 as air suspension in which case could cost loads more
Ben
This. ABC is absolutely sBen
t! Sure - nice when it works but is it *that* much better? I say not.Dog Star said:
Haven't we been through this on the Merc forum?
http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?t...
The advice on there is good and valid.
To the poster above - the SL500 of that vintage is a potential massive moneypit - sure there will be people out there who have run a 500 with nothing broke for x months, but there are other people (eg, me) who have sunk endless thousands into keeping them running. I got very badly burned on mine but I've a very good knowledge of what goes wrong with them.
You may as well get a gun and stick it to your head. Or take your holiday savings and go out and give it to the nearest homeless person - end result is the same (you'll be skint and not going skiing) but at least you'll have done some good with it.
The "funny" thing is that at the time I had the option of either a 350 or a 500, same vintage, same price. I bought the 500 which was a huge mistake - I suspect if I'd bought the 350 I would still be enjoying it now and have a much healthier bank balance.
t! Sure - nice when it works but is it *that* much better? I say not.
ABC aside what is the difference? I know that ABC faults can cost thousands to sort out, my car came with receipts for about £18k in the last 3 years (which I am gambling has sorted it)http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?t...
The advice on there is good and valid.
To the poster above - the SL500 of that vintage is a potential massive moneypit - sure there will be people out there who have run a 500 with nothing broke for x months, but there are other people (eg, me) who have sunk endless thousands into keeping them running. I got very badly burned on mine but I've a very good knowledge of what goes wrong with them.
You may as well get a gun and stick it to your head. Or take your holiday savings and go out and give it to the nearest homeless person - end result is the same (you'll be skint and not going skiing) but at least you'll have done some good with it.
The "funny" thing is that at the time I had the option of either a 350 or a 500, same vintage, same price. I bought the 500 which was a huge mistake - I suspect if I'd bought the 350 I would still be enjoying it now and have a much healthier bank balance.
BigBen said:
unless the 500 as air suspension in which case could cost loads more
Ben
This. ABC is absolutely sBen
t! Sure - nice when it works but is it *that* much better? I say not.Ben
Dog Star said:
ABC is just about all you need to worry about. However the ABC is the real time bomb - there are no cheap components or cheap fixes beyond some O rings on the valve blocks.
For what they cost the ABC and SBC equipped SLs are, quite frankly, a disgrace to Mercedes.
Agree. No excuse on cars that were that much money new. Mind has the USA Arnot bits all round now so should be ok, in fact worth looking out for on any second hand ABC equipped car purchase.For what they cost the ABC and SBC equipped SLs are, quite frankly, a disgrace to Mercedes.
Gassing Station | Mercedes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff