16 years living with my Mercedes SL500
Discussion
My 2003 Mercedes SL500 arrived from the dealer in July 2003, late in the model year. Not really a sports car of course, but more of a very comfortable two seater cruiser. My personal preferences when it comes to higher performance sports cars is to go for coupes as I do not like the feel of 120MPH in an open car for instance.
16 years later, it is still with me, by far the oldest car in my garage. The first pic above is how it looks at this moment, and it has just under 28,000 miles on it.
The car was planned to be used as a long-distance weekend car rather than a daily driver. The car was fairly heavily optioned, with a panorama roof, red leather, aluminum rather than wood interior trim , AMG wheels and xenon lights among other things, and also got fitted luggage.
For the first thirteen years it was based in Toronto and I trailered it back and forth to the winter house in Scottsdale AZ. The car has done almost as many miles on a trailer as on the road, and has spent a lot of its time in storage. Eventually it was being used so little in Toronto that it made sense to move it permanently to Arizona where it is far more suited to the weather. It is a very nice car for a pleasant ,comfortable sunset cruise in the desert.
Service history has been very good with only one serious items, a Xenon headlight failure that resulted in a new unit which was about $2300, and a replacement of a bunch of wiring which had basically dried out in desert storage and ended up with a very expensive replacement work. It happened on a trip to Pasadena CA, but there was a great dealer there. The only scary moment with the car was a complete brake failure..I was driving slowly in Toronto and suddenly the dash lit up like a Christmas tree and I had zero braking..going down a hill. I pulled suddenly into a level side street and rolled to a halt. The car was about 12 years old at the time. Dealer was a bit non specific about the failure but mentioned it was a a hidden warranty item and all relevant components were replaced at no charge.The car has only been serviced by dealers.
At this stage I can see no reason to ever sell it. I have faster and more capable cars, but there is a level of refinement here and a feeling of a well-built car, and for a casual and relaxed evening cruise it is hard to beat.
The miles on the car are almost all long distance..Toronto-Montreal, Toronto-Philadelphia, Scottsdale-LA and so on, and the car has never been abused or damaged. The electronics are of course completely dated but Siri solves all things in that respect.
I expect at some stage the ABC suspension will fail as it often does on these cars, but so far, so good. It has never had to deal wth inclement weather, and given the bone dry climate of Arizona there will be no rust. Overall, a car that has been a pleasure to own. I am a diehard Porsche fan, but there is no doubt that the SL delivers a much more relaxed and pleasant way to just relax when driving.
Ambleton said:
Beautiful, a timeless grand tourer, but at an average of 1750miles per annum, you sir, need to drive her more. 
Indeed! Hope you find some time for a couple of true grand tours in particular.Thank you for sharing. Next to the story I enjoyed the pictures in particular, good to see more of the States on here. Please feel free to share if there's more.
Fantastic example of what I think is one of the best looking designs Mercedes have built. Even today, it still looks nicely proportioned and smart. Somehow it hasn't dated despite not looking like a brand new design.
My other half owned a 2006 SL350 and it was a really lovely car to drive. A really good cruiser and despite not being hugely powerful, went well and was great with the roof down. The only thing that perturbed us was how fragile the car felt. We had it a couple of years and it cost us about £600 in repairs plus servicing.
I can imagine a garaged example owned from new would be a far better prospect though. If I had the place to store an SL55 in the dry (and the cash) I'd have another that's for sure!
My other half owned a 2006 SL350 and it was a really lovely car to drive. A really good cruiser and despite not being hugely powerful, went well and was great with the roof down. The only thing that perturbed us was how fragile the car felt. We had it a couple of years and it cost us about £600 in repairs plus servicing.
I can imagine a garaged example owned from new would be a far better prospect though. If I had the place to store an SL55 in the dry (and the cash) I'd have another that's for sure!
Alex_225 said:
Fantastic example of what I think is one of the best looking designs Mercedes have built. Even today, it still looks nicely proportioned and smart. Somehow it hasn't dated despite not looking like a brand new design.
My other half owned a 2006 SL350 and it was a really lovely car to drive. A really good cruiser and despite not being hugely powerful, went well and was great with the roof down. The only thing that perturbed us was how fragile the car felt. We had it a couple of years and it cost us about £600 in repairs plus servicing.
I can imagine a garaged example owned from new would be a far better prospect though. If I had the place to store an SL55 in the dry (and the cash) I'd have another that's for sure!
£600 in two years is what I'd expect to spend on maintenance on a Ford, I think you did well! My other half owned a 2006 SL350 and it was a really lovely car to drive. A really good cruiser and despite not being hugely powerful, went well and was great with the roof down. The only thing that perturbed us was how fragile the car felt. We had it a couple of years and it cost us about £600 in repairs plus servicing.
I can imagine a garaged example owned from new would be a far better prospect though. If I had the place to store an SL55 in the dry (and the cash) I'd have another that's for sure!
TVR Sagaris said:
Great photos OP. Any pictures of the fitted luggage? I'm curious.
As requested, here are some pics. For some reason Mercedes appears to have deleted this option a long time ago. it is possible to get aftermarket ,but the specific leather case is much nicer. It is also much bigger than it look as it expands like an accordion. about the size of a small suitcase, bigger than a carryon, and easily with enough space for weekending.If you look at the rear parcel shelf on the SL you will see two silver buckles at the top of the bulkhead:
These are to hold the leather case:
which tidily an securely fills the rear parcel shelf ( just did one buckle for illustration):
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