abiazis

Tough question........I am holding on despite what seems like more than average warranty repairs......I have a year left on my Easy Care warranty and will see how it goes......buying a car with a warranty and learning about it over the course of a few years is probably the only way to go.....

I was offered 50K at local dealer today for mine...after picking up from oil change/new belt service............I told them I would see them in the future.....

I heard the opposite on Bentley GTs from a Bentley service manager in LA as far as reliability.......go figure........depends on perspective I guess....

TheRoadWarrior

hmm strange... ive asked quite a few owners here locally and havent had a single one complain. my friend even took his, i believe 05 conti, on the goldrush rally last year, no issues, and that is being driven quite "enthusiastically"
either way, conti is still a 2nd choice , backup plan.

initially i wanted a w216 cl600, but eventually the idea of cruising with the top down and spending a lot of time lurking this forum has sold me on the beauty of the SL65, so that is still my first choice.

there seems to be quite a large reduction in price when you go from 20-30k miles, down to one that has 40-45k miles (the max i am considering). the difference is around $10-12k.... is there any specific reason for such a large difference for a small amount of miles, or is it just the low mileage owners trying to get the most for their car?

should i be afraid of cars with 40-45k miles on them? of course i will be getting an extended warranty with any of them.

sf65

RoadWarrior, I think you are over reacting. In my 2.5 yrs of owenrship the car was in the shop probably 5-6 times and most of them were due to scheduled maintenance, it is true that in some case they've discovered other problems but I only had one CEL case due to same ignition issue abiazis had and another case where my original IC pump finally failed and I was happy to have EasyCare get me a new one.

Where are you located? I might entertain an offer

abiazis

Road warrior.......your analysis seems right on the pricing which is fairly typical with lower mileage cars and owners trying to max out......

If you find a well cared for car, 10k miles difference is probably not significant.

cal1

Obviously, I can't speak about the awesome V12, but many of the issues are more R230 related which I can speak to. A number of people believe these cars are better off being driven as opposed to being garage queens. The car that is being driven is experiencing some of the normal problems and they are getting fixed. The low mileage car which you will pay more for might have a higher propensity to have issues once you start driving it.

It seems to me a car that has been driven routinely and had issues which the owner addressed properly is the best deal.

TheRoadWarrior

Thanks all!

sf65, I'm in florida

abiazis

+1 Cal1's comment above......

Enjoying my fixed trunk again!!

sf65

I agree, I made a habit to drive 2-3 times a month to work, easy albeit somewhat congested hwy miles, so I rarely cross the 2K RPM mark.

That way I put about 4k-5k miles/yr where otherwise it would be a lot closer to 2K and the car would be idle for many weeks.

Dave in VA

I know I have only had my SL65 for only a week but just did an oil and filter change and found the filter was normal price - the biggest thing I ran up against was I couldn't get all 9 quarter at one place. Walmart only had 5 quarter of Mobil 1 0W-40 in stock. ;-)

Question, for those who do their own work, where did you find a repair/service manual for your car? I asked the dealer and they looked at me like a just landed from another plant. I didn't even ask them about a parts manual. I did see some CD's but not sure if they would cover a 2011 SL65. Any direction would be appreciated, even if I could copy files from a web site onto a CD would work for me.

Thanks,

Dave

BobLibSL55

Ive had my 04 55 for 15 months now and put 3,000 miles on it. I bought it with 10,700 and its currently at 13,700.

The only expenses Ive had so far are a bad switch which was intermittently preventing the car from coming out of park, a $900 fix and two routine state inspection/emission and oil change services averaging about $400 each.

Thats $1700 over 15 months, roughly $113/month or $1360/yr. Its currently moth-balled until April and if I make it thru next summer until Sept without any additional problems it will be roughly $850/yr for service.

Potential problems that I so see though are the ABC...twice since I've parked it I've started it and both times I've gotten the ABC too low warning...and Ive notice that when the wheel is turned left and hit the 'up' button on the left side of the steering wheel, the horn blows once.

TimsSL65

I had a Kleeman chipped SL65 that was recently sold. My first major repair item (52,000 miles) happened immediately after the warranty expired. It was an air conditioner repair that required an engine removal, and a final cost of approximately $5000. Having tasted the reality of such a large repair, I sold the car and purchased a nicely depreciated 2011 SL63 AMG (loaded, certified, $76,000...great price). What the SL63 somewhat lacks in raw acceleration (compared to the SL65), it more than makes up for in a great exhaust sound, much improved handling and the piece of mind of an extended factory warranty.

Tim

SL65amg

not even including buying the aftermarket warranty and upgrades/mods, i have already spent about 10 grand on the car since i bought it in march....stuff always seems to need fixing or repairing.....

Upshift

2003 SL55
Owned 12 months (car was totalled 3 weeks ago in a rear-end collision)
Drove 14,000 miles (bought at 25K miles, lost at 39K)


$3.4K maintenance (tires, 2x pads/rotors, Svc B, cabin filter)
$3.0K repairs (SRS wiring, SC pulley, SC coolant pump, 3rd brake light)
$3.0K fuel
$2.1K depreciation (at $0.15 per mile)
$1.8K insurance
-----
$13.3K -- about $1 per mile (not including the cost of money)


By the way, the car did a great job protecting me in the accident. I was stopping for traffic on a congested interstate, and the other driver hit me from behind doing around 45 mph. The impact deployed the roll bar and belt pre-tensioners, caved in the trunk, bent the frame and quarter-panels, and twisted the chassis enough to mis-align the roof -- but I walked away with nothing more than a stiff neck for a few days (hopefully no lingering symptoms).

abiazis

Glad you were okay after the accident........are you going to buy another SL?

I also computed $ 1.00 a mile for my 65 in an earlier post and I did not count depreciation as it has flattens out a bit the last few years on the 65....

So.....I would say the estimate or calculations at $ 1 a mile is pretty good estimate......

Upshift

Yes, I'm shopping for a black SL65 under $50K, which is how I ended up reading this thread.


For me, operating costs are important because my car budget competes with my boating budget. Suppose I ignore the costs of fuel, insurance and depreciation (which will be similar for any $50K car). That leaves repairs and maintenance, which cost me $6500/year for the SL55.

So I find myself asking: would a 2003 911 X-50, which sells for the same price and delivers similar driving thrills, cost less to operate? Those engines have a reputation for being bullet-proof. (Although it begs the question, if I get rear-ended in a 911, will I walk away unhurt?)


By the way, I got the depreciation rate for my SL55 by surveying online ads. I looked up 100+ ads for SL55s, plotted the asking price vs. mileage, and fit a trendline through the data. The slope of the trendline is the depreciation rate.


What I found is:
SL55, $1500 per 10k miles
SL65, $2100 per 10k miles


In other words, if you are comparing two SL65s that are similar except one has 10k more miles on the odometer, the higher-mileage car will have an asking price around $2100 less.


(I corrected my previous post, which accidentally used $0.19/mile instead of $0.15/mile.)

Upshift

BTW - those depreciation rates are for 2003-4 SL55 and 2005-6 SL65.

abiazis

996 911 is pretty good car, but interior is not very nice and the ride can be really harsh.......I had a 2003 C4S with same suspension as Turbo and after a while, got sick of it (as I think I would of the turbo 996 or 7 for that matter), traded in on my 65 and I never get tired of driving the 65......

Ryan Bell

That's it?

I was looking at an '06 S65 (with about 32k miles on it) about 6 months ago, and I was quoted $8,100 for 2 years coverage (I know...it's a different car, but look at the massive, massive price difference).

How in the world did you get an easy care warranty on an SL65 for $1,000 per year??

GeorgeJ

I'm sorry that was my original warranty. The last one I bought in Nov. 2011 was from Bruce on this site and that cost $7900 for the Platinum Coverage from Fidelity and that was for another 5 years or 60,000 miles. I only had 29,000 miles on it at the time. I really haven't had any major problems with the car. I did replace my brakes, disks and rotors, about a year ago and a convertible arm part that broke once. The Nav system used to blink off and on once in a while but they replaced a part under warranty and it's been fine since.

abiazis

The price I paid in 2009 was the price at the time for the bumper to bumper warranty capped at 60,000......bought the car with 27K....have 50K now.....3 plus years later...I thought 4K was outrageous at the time, still do....the dealer helped subsidize by giving me an additional 4 k discount off the car which was 71 k discounted in total to 63k at the time.....as part of the deal......

overZealous1

i have had my car about 3 months. it has cost me about $18k so far. everyone is forgetting the other end of the spectrum where everything stock is working great but you just have the want to modify to make the car even better!!!!

abiazis

Mods are discretional expenses and definitely add up quick....

I did not find the need to mod this car, other than someday having wider rubber in the back for hopes of better traction......

Maintenance on cars that are stock provide a baseline for expenses of owning one of these beasts......

overZealous1

i understand the purpose of the thread, and it kind of falls into the "if you need to know how much it costs........................" type of thing. either know how to work on your car, have a good warranty, or don't stretch your dollar to get into one and not be able to maintain it.

abiazis

U R right)

Ray G

I'm on my second SL65 right now and it has been perfect so far. Right now it has about 40,000 miles, bought it with 30,000 miles on it. My last one needed front brake rotors and wouldn't start one time due to some electrical issue. I seem to recall the brakes being about $2400. So far I have been relieved at how reasonable everything has been. But all things are relative....

My 1988 Countach, needed new clutch, rear suspension springs and a few other minor things. That bill.....$29,000.
My 1991 Diablo, needed transmission rebuild, new clutch and flywheel. That bill.....$31,000.
Childhood dream cars that eventually turned into something I couldn't enjoy so I sold them.
Now my Bentley GT, I put 45,000 miles on it and it was flawless. Best all around car I have ever owned.
SL65 has the best engine of any car I have driven.