Rudeney

...Hello SL550!

I've been thinking about trading up for a while, and today I did. I found a good deal on a MY2011 SL550 that I liked and traded-in the CLK for it. Of course I'll stay active on the W209 forum, but I guess now I need to make nice with the guys on the R230 forum!

Te color combination is almost the same as my CLK, but where it was Cadet Blue (a bluish-gray), this one is just gray, though it can have a bluish-tint in the right light:

floridawriter

What a beauty!!

Rudeney

Thanks! I keep going out in the garage to "check on it".

tw2

Congratulations, I know you had been thinking about it for a while.

Yidney

Nice. How many miles?

ambit

So long and thanks for all the PDF's!

RNajarian

Great looking car!! Happy Motoring

Thanks for all your help over the years.

xsever

Congrats Rudeney!

I knew you were going to snipe one hell of a car! Please do post more pics so we see it from all angles and interior shots and tell us more about your experience with it and some SL vs CLK comparisons and stuff especially since both have the same engine.

I thank you as well for all your help and tips. Much appreciated!

Gary C

Wow, thats a beauty! Good luck with it!

Rudeney

Thanks, guys. And no worries - I'm not abandoning the W209 forum. Somebody has to keep you hooligans in line! :p

The car has 43K miles. It is in very good condition with just a few very minor paint dings, as one would expect with a 5 year old car. It came from California, so no worries about rust. The interior is almost perfect. I took my SDS with me and ran a full battery of diagnostics and all came back good. Both park light bulbs are out (they use those "xenon-match" blue tinted bulbs and they don't last). Boy are those things hard to get to! Oh, and it needs a new battery - it still has the original.

I did make a few compromises. I was really looking for a MY2012, since the last year of any MBZ model seems to be its best, but a low-mileage 2011 was also a consideration. The miles on this one were in the sweet spot (plenty of life left for me, but enough for the original owner to have the bugs worked out) so it made the cut. This one lacks the glass sunroof, which would be nice to have but not a must. Also, I would have preferred the black bird's eye wood to the "red" maple, but I can live with it. Really, my only musts were a black (or dark) interior, and no "cop magnet" paint colors. The "P1" and "sport" packages were also requirements, but I have not seen an SL without those.

I had to go out of town to find one. These are rare cars to begin with, but with my limited search range, it was nearly impossible to find one here. My local dealer had a CPO that lasted two days. Carmax had one, but it was a bit rough. I found a CPO "Night Edition" with matte black paint in Jackson, MS, but it sold before I could get over there to look at it. I am not sure I'd want that anyhow.

I found two in Nashville, TN and drive up there last week. One was absolutely amazing! 2012, 10K miles, an MB corporate executive demo that wasn't titled to the original owner until Nov. 2013 so it still has 16 months of factory warranty. Problem is, it was about $10K out of my price range and the dealer is no-haggle. I looked at another one up there that was pretty much identical to the one I bought, but it had some "issues".

My next trip was to Atlanta, and I had found three to look at. This was the first stop and it was "the one". BTW, if you are looking for a pre-owned car, I HIGHLY recommend Malone's in Marietta, GA. Dave Malone is a straight shooter - no haggle, no pressure and some really nice cars he picks himself. He's a bit low on trade-in values, but what dealer isn't? Anyhow, I'll probably give it a good wax job today and install my SmartTop module I pulled out of the CLK. Oh, and I also removed the mCar Bluetooth unit from the CLK (which I don't need on the SL - its updated COMAND has BT and MP3 built-in) and I took out the "fishcake" quad projector headlights. I'm going to list both for sale so watch for that.

Here are more photos (I haven't had time to take my own, these are ripped from the dealer's website):

http://benzbits.com/SL550/index.htm

Fatz

Congrats on what appears a very nice ride!!!!!!

My 1st reaction was to check my piggy bank to see if I could afford one of these so I could retain the tremendous help and advice you've provided..... Piggy is not fat enough yet....

Thanks and all the best to ya..

BigMike62

Congrats on the SL. Good to know about Malones, I've driven by there thousands of times (I live in Roswell) on my way to work (previous job).

Does this SL have ABC suspension?

My nephew is in town and is a star certified MB technician. Actually down here with his family interviewing at RBM Motors. He said he's "totaled" SL's when the ABC goes bad.

BigMike62

Please send me a PM about the mCar Bluetooth. Thanks.

gaazmon

Congrats! These are one of my favorite vehicles the 09-12 SL's

mis3

BigMike: What do you mean? Is ABC repair that expensive?

Rudeney: Congrats. I always like the SL.

2MERKS

LIke that color code, and topless!

tw2

Mis ABC can be quite expensive for a full overhaul. if the fluid is regularly changed there shouldn't be any issues with seals perishing and failing. Beware the early cars with high mileage.

abqhudson

Very, very nice car!

But, my wife would veto it in a minute - no back seat for a her drink cooler, purse, munchies, and cosmetics. She insists on a trunk inside the car.

We would all appreciate a driving report when you get the time.

Enjoy.

tctc

Sweeeeet! Congrats on the new ride. I may follow you. Keep us posted on your experiences with it. Hmm guess i'll have to visit the other forum.

Rudeney

Thanks! Yes it is! I've dreamed of owning an SL since I was in high school and one of the teachers drove an old "pagoda" SL. Back then, that was just a "neat old car" and not a "crazy-expensive collector's item" like it is now.

Well, there is a surprising amount of storage in the cabin, especially compared to the CLK. The center console is cavernous and the "package shelf" behind the seats is almost enough to be a seat for a small child, so in other words, plenty of room for a purse, small drink cooler, cosmetic bag, etc.

Well, since you asked...

I know that the SL is an technological tour de force, but really, I had always just considered it a two-seat, retractable hard-top version of the CLK. Boy was I wrong! Even though I had driven them before when I worked for the marque, I had forgotten how totally wonderful these cars are.

This car has the same engine (5.5l M272 V8) and transmission (722.9 7GTRONIC) as my CLK550 did. I was expecting it to feel similar, but it's totally different. First of all, there is much more "engine feel" in the SL. It feels and sounds deeper, bigger and more (pleasantly) rumbly. Where the CLK had a somewhat higher-pitched, almost "exotic car" sounding exhaust, the SL sounds more muscular. Not obnoxious Mustang GT, but definitely a V8. You get just enough of the right kind of engine vibration through the seats. I am sure the dual exhaust system on the SL is a big help here.

The driving position is totally different. I always felt like I had a relaxed seating position, like a lounge chair, in the CLK. The SL make you feel truly locked-in, and in a good way. The hood is high and its "power bumps" are in your view. The hood is long. You sit at least a foot further back than in the CLK's front seat. With the top closed, it is harder to see out of. There is really no view out over your shoulder, You can look left out the side window, but swiveling your head further back does not good as there's a fat C pillar there.

It drives nothing like the CLK. ABC (Active Body Control) is the most wonderful thing ever invented. Well, unless you have to work on it, and I fully expect to have to do that. I'll do a fluid flush, but it seems that there's little chance of making it to 100K miles without replacing at least one $1,000 part. The car drive like a brick. And I mean that it feels as heavy as a brick stuck to the road. The steering is much more communicative than the CLKs. The ABC suspension is amazing. Just when I think I have reached the car's limits on a curve, it just takes more. And with the feeling of complete luxury. It's just the strangest thing in the world to zip around a sharp hairpin curve or highway interchange loop at 80mph and not feel like the car is leaning.

The updated COMAND unit is nice with built-in BlueTooth handsfree (no streaming) an iPod interface (displays both on the COMAND screen and the cluster MFD) plus SD card and a built-in 4GB hard drive. The Linguitronic voice control works very well, really making up for the lack of a touch screen. While the CLK is one of the best cabriolets in terms of feeling solid, the SL blows it away. There is ZERO cowl shake. There is really no feeling at all that you are in a convertible where the front and rear axles are only connected via the floor.

Now for the "bad". Or maybe I should say (not as good as the CLK). First the doors are longer and heavier. So looking for a wider parking spot away from the Suburbans and F350s becomes more important. Visibility is not as good, so knowing how to set the side view mirrors to eliminate blind spots becomes critical. There is much more road noise than in the CLK. Maybe it's the tires (19" Contis) but some might consider it unbecoming of a MBZ. The sound system is crap. Now, I've said many times, I'm not really an audiophile, but the radio totally lacks any bass. I think there is no subwoofer so it just sounds like a cheap car stereo. Maybe I'll look into something to fix that. Finally, as much as I like the retractable hard top and it cuts about 7 seconds off the open/close time of the CLK, it's not as "graceful". There's a lot more clunking and slamming. When to top on my CLK operated, all you heard was the faint whine of the pump. On the SL, there's a lot of noise and the final closes sound like a kid slamming a trunk.

Yeah, so here I am, complaining about my dream car! Ha! I'm just loving it. Hell, I can't wait to go to work tomorrow just because I get to drive there!

Rudeney

Yes, all R230's have ABC. I am fully prepared to pay the consequences. From everything I have read (and I read A LOT!) the ABC system is good for about 100K miles. After that, seals begin to fail, accumulators leak, and other parts just wear out. Premature failure is usually due to physical damage or debris in the fluid. Some years ago, the pumps and valve used to fail, but they have improved them over the years (hence my desire to look for a very late model year). The good news is that in the 10 year run of the R230, lots of guys on the forum have figured it all out.

Will do! Give me a few days - I need to get everything together. Right now, I have boxes of "stuff" from the CLK sitting in the garage to be sorted ou.

mis3

Is this ABC similar to the Airmatic in the C Class? It adjust the higher or lower on suspension settings.

BigMike62

Sounds like exactly what my nephew said. Debris in the fluid, higher mile cars get the leaks and pumps going out. Thus the reason the repairs bills can cost more than the car is worth. But you won't have to pay labor for any of that and can probably find better and less expensive parts than the dealer.

The car is a beauty, enjoy!!!!

On a side note, I drove my Jeep to work today and told he can drive my CLK to his interview at the dealer so his wife and kids have their car to drive. He has an 06 ML350 that the dealer gave someone $3k for on a trade because is had a bad balance shaft. It's going to be nice having an inside track at the dealer if they move here.

Yidney

A couple questions. That antenna on the left rear quarter - is that just for radio or what? Does it extend at all or stay like that? Is there a reason MB did that since most antennas are internal these days?

What is the luggage capacity with the top down? I've seen some pics with what looked like two normal size roller bags beneath that partition thing, but I've never seen a shot with top actually down. And if there really is that much room under there, does the car have no spare?

DanielFD

Congrats on the car! ABC is amazing, drove a SL500 once and was driven in an SL500 with a F3 driver.. The SL really really holds it ground well!