Usable R129 or 'nicer' r230? - advice please!

[Joehow]

Afternoon All,

I've grown up around mercs mainly w123s and now mid 30s have come back to where I'm looking for a bit of that old school charm again.

I do a lot of trackdays...(bear with me) but sold my 996.2 GT3 last year as the value just got a bit ridiculous to throw around uninsured so purchased a Caterham 310R. I'm a sadist so I've driven it to Germany and Belgium for trackdays at those famous and I love it...but my wife hates the thing.

I'm not gonna sell the Caterham as I love it for early Sunday blasts but I would like something that is more hospitable for road trips with the other half and general weekend use.

The rationale for an SL is this seems to take the comfort of the S212 e350 CDI that I have but with the open top motoring I've rediscovered a love of with the caterham.

I have a budget of £10kish for purchase which buys me a workable R129 SL320 that will need tidying OR a tasty SL350 R230. Heart says R129 but head says R230 probably one of the last 3.7s to avoid the crank issue on the 3.5s

Any advice? Or am I just in a pipedream and should I give it up?

Thanks
Joseph

[Joehow]

cliffords said:

I did lots of research on this last year as a fun car for my wife and I . I did heaps of internet research and then last year drove 5 cars as a test drive . I over thought it and did not buy any of them. The earlier car felt a bit like an old car to me , 4 speed auto and not a lot of power. The newer cars 3.7 and 3.5. The 3.7 feels lots less powerful once you have driven the 3.5. Of the three the facelift 3.5 is the nicest but Google the engine number range for the timing chain sprocket issue you have highlighted. Last summer the nearest we got was a 2008 car that was £12 k. It remained unsold and was £10k in December.

Above all it's not a very engaging drive , it's smooth and easy to drive , could not be further from your Caterham. I actually decided it's too remote from a driver's car , just boring in the end .

You wait I will buy one yet ..

The engaging drive isn't what I'm looking for as like you say Caterham takes care of that. For me it's just being able to waft down to the Alps or Tuscany for example.

Yeah the 3.5 seems like you need to be Sherlock Holmes on which one you buy.

The r129 for me is as much about how the door shuts etc... I love that reassuring thunk so I'm not looking for speed etc.

Thanks for the tips though! I'm quite cut throat with buying cars so will find one if I do go for it and pull the trigger

[Joehow]

cliffords said:

If you are going that far the 3.7 real world is about 23 mpg the 3.5 may see 30 on a autoroute. I drove a 3.5 for almost 60 miles thanks to a really friendly owner . I filled it back up for her afterwards and full to full those 60 miles some on DC was about 18 litres

Thanks pal. I used to have a Cayenne Turbo so I don't mind bad fuel on an occasional use car

[Joehow]

Venisonpie said:

I owned an R129 SL500 (97 car) for 5 years and have recently bought a 2012 R230 SL500.

I loved the earlier car which was charming, useable, fast enough and comfortable. It did feel old though and the removable roof was tiresome - mine had a glass pano which was comically heavy. Reliability was good with the only issues I had being the temperature sensor for the air con failing and the roof locked itself open which required attention but I can't remember what it was. It was much better when I used it regularly and the roof failed one spring having not been used for several months over winter. It was starting to show rust along the edges of the front wings when I sold it which being an old car is par for the course I guess.

My R230 feels equally well built but is much more up to date, quiet, refined and much faster. The later 7 speed gearbox while not perfect is miles ahead of the 5 speeder in terms of shift quality and extracting the best from the engine. Everything feels well engineered and the ride/ handling balance is better - despite wearing 19" wheels it's comfortable on ABC suspension but doesn't roll about like the earlier car. Having only owned it for 3 weeks I can't comment on reliability yet but if it reflects how the build quality feels I can't see it being an issue beyond consumables providing it's well used and looked after.

To summarise, as much as I enjoyed the R129 I prefer the R230 - I've immediately bonded with it and love the schizophrenic coupe/convertible hard top which with pano feels light and airy even when roof up.

Thanks fella this is a great.

[Joehow]

Thanks all loads of good comments here. Ive found a few of both I like the look of. Once the weather clears up going to get and view a few.

Caterham I have for driving dynamics and thrills so the SL.is purely for summer wafting and touring. So not worried at all about driving dynamics

[Joehow]

So I bought an SL320 1997 75k miles with a decent service history. Car is in aquamarine over tan. Hopefully pick up Saturday.

Plan is to get it into my local specialist (they do lots of SLs) and give it a clean bill of health

[Joehow]

Thanks dude. I've started a thread in readers rides but car is below.

I'm pretty flipping anal so I've already got a long old list of things to fix but knowing what I paid in not too fussed.

[Joehow]

cliffords said:

I have never seen that colour in a Mercedes before .
Appreciate screens give different versions of colours . I am sure you established it is a Mercedes original colour ?

Yes it's aquamarine. You can find it on the SL Shops colour chart. There's a few for sale as well

[Joehow]

Venisonpie said:

That's a smashing looking car.

Thank you sir