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New Owner, Old MB ('96 SL500 Convertible) from Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Hello. My father-in-law gave me his red 1996 SL500 convertible last week. His wife was asking for years to get rid of it, as they have a difficult time driving it, getting in and out of it, and maintaining it. It has 105k miles on it and most systems are in good working order.
So far I've driven it for about a week and a half, and I love it already. I got addicted to it within a couple days.
Ironically, I didn't want it because I had an immature, lingering childhood assumption that Mercedes Benzes were old people cars or cars for snooty people. I'm not sure why I thought that, since I'm usually pretty good at avoiding assumptions or making judgements. And I like elderly people (very close to being one).
Nevertheless, I at first declined the offer of the car. My wife convinced me that they really wanted to give it to me, so I quickly came around (to be polite). After a few days of driving it I then questioned her and my in-laws from a differentt perspective: "Are you sure you want to do this? It's an amazing car. Why would you want to get rid of it? Please, take it back soon if you have any doubts because I'm going to quickly get attached."
This only solidified their resolve to give me the car, since it became clear immediately that I loved it. That made them happy.
Now that I've come to appreciate and accept their generosity, I'm thrilled to call that car mine. It's beautiful, drives like nothing I've ever owned (small trucks, compact sedans, mini-vans). Now I look forward to running errands as I drop the top and cruise the highways.
The timing couldn't be better, as the fall weather has been spectacular here (Atlanta) for the last couple weeks.
The car does have some issues, however, and I already set to work on those issues.
The first was a good cleaning and detailing. Check.
The second issue was the SRS light (air bags) that constantly remains on. The air bags were supposed to be serviced (or probably replaced) in 2006, but that hasn't been done, so a very bright red light on the dash stays on all the time. I put an American flag sticker on the plastic shield that covers the guages, and now the flag lights up pretty. I don't know what I'll do long term to solve the problem. It's not a priority.
The plastic front end is cracked on the underside, but I was able to put it back together reasonably well and found paint for touch up. Seems that the last owner backed out of driveways too quickly, scraping and detaching the front end a couple times (just the very lower part). I'll keep working on that to make it look nice. That'll be easy.
The leather is in good condition. It has a backseat with seatbelts. My kids (teen daughters) barely fit, but it works in a pinch. I'm not comfortable having them back there, however. Not safe. So I try to limit that. Thankfully we have a four-door Honda Civic and a Toyota Sienna (minvan).
The air, heat, and vents work properly.
All the lights work properly as well.
The paint is a second coat that was applied a few years ago. The color match is good, but the quality is questionable. You can see traces of paint in places it shouldn't be. But that's okay. It still looks good when shined up.
I need to get the tires checked and balanced properly. It has three Pirellis and a Uniroyal. I'm not sure what's up with that, but for now it will have to do until I decide on a new set of tires in the distant future. Most of the driving will be casual and on country roads going the speed limit (I don't speed. Not my thing). So the tires aren't a big priority (except the balancing. That needs to be done ASAP). Allignment is good, but it does start to shake at about 70mph on the interstate. I'm pretty sure it's an off-balance tire and improper rotation (plus the one odd tire in the bunch).
THE problem I have to work on and get right (and soon) is the hydraulic system for the retractable soft top. It is leaking fluid out the drain on the left, rear underside of the car (just behind the left rear wheel). I have it isolated to that section of the car, but will have to dig deeper to see if it's a line or one of the cylinders. The pump itself appears to be new (the pump is under the spare tire).
I'm hoping that if it's a line I can seal it (I have a special kind of plumber's rubber wrap that actually works really well for this type of application). If it's a cylinder then I have a bit of a problem on my hands and will have to replace it. I'm not interested in spending a lot of money.
I'll post more about the leak in a different section. I'm hoping that I can either fix it myself, or find a way to make it a manual process that is simple (if that's possible).
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