Even newer 09 SL pictures, from OurSL.com

http://www.oursl.com/NewsLetter/NL0712/SL550.htm

Pictures from the website...(attached below, all rights belong to Hans G. Lehmann)

The link above shows the variations of the current gen SL... until the latest 2009 version...

Enjoy,
~shahedc
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old photo shops....probably pretty accurate but still not real life pics.

I hope they are not accurate is right. I'll take the 07 and prior R230 any day over that. Its truly fugly in comparison. Seems different than the front end under the tarp in the recent shots.

When will the change on the R230 be as significant as the R129 to R230 change?

Hopefully, not for 2-3 more years. I just got my R230. It costs a lot of $$ to retool a factory to produce a significantly different car. The R230 has only been around for 5 years, the R129 body style ran from 1990 to 2002, that's 12 years of the samy body. So, mabe the R230 will last until 2015.

That is a very ugly makeover. Perhaps if they do it, the values of our 230s should firm up!

I was thinking of selling and getting a SL55 but with all the restyles they are doing every 2 years it is pointless......these cars are depreciation waiting to happen no matter what year or what model (SL55, SL600, etc.) they are.

Benz is really screwing owners and their car values by changing engines around and then the next year body styles around.....CLS owners get the 55 and the next year it is a 63. SL owners are getting the 63 supposedly and then they are changing the body style 1-2 years later....or they get a SL550 and the body style is being updated this year...CL owners get the 65 and then the body style changes this last year.

I agree 100% mjr24.......but its with alot of other cars too......you buy a new car and then acouple of months later they either change it or come out with a different car and your like ****! I should of bought that one.....thats why I like my G55 they never change the thing only a few little minor things here and there........

They took the sexy out and replaced it with more of a mechanical look.

But no matter how you look at it, no car is a "good investment" unless it's a classic from 50+ years ago. I don't think any of us buy these cars for an investment - we buy them because we want them and they make us happy. Whether the model changes quickly or not, the car is still a classic and a pleasure to drive.

No...we don't buy as an investment. However, we also don't pay $75k-100k to have some stupid little thing changed 2 years later because Benz wants to give people motivation to buy a new model because the old model has stopped selling and depreciated so badly due to Benz's quality.

The CL was a good example....the car didn't change really from 2000 to 2006....they changed the tails, that is about it. The G500 is another good buy.

real rear-side SL63 pix from mercedes

http://www.mercedes-benz.de/content/..._amg.0001.html

i think it looks great

Manufacturers accross the board are giving their models "facelifts" sooner and sooner to keep up with needed sales. Unless guys like us simply boycott (e.g. don't get sucked into buying the latest model), we cannot complain. It is what it is.

I agree that the new model does look like **** compared to my 2005 SL500

Damn that spoiler makes the rear look butt ugly

Wow! I think it looks great, too! I especially like the spoiler! Can't wait to see the official photos of the front. I hope it looks as good as the back!

Remember way back when Detroit used to do a complete face lift each year. Some were good, some great, others not so good.
Once you get to walk around or see a 360 view it is hard to tell.

Thank God the SL is not made in Detroit. IMO the new SL is butt ugly and looks rather plain. The front end looks like all the other Mercs. Hopefully the picts we are looking at are the real McCoy, this will increase the value of the 2003 to 2008 SL. Who would buy that plane jane car?

really? old photoshops? I wasn't aware of that, since I didn't think that OurSL.com would provide fake pics and try to pass them off as real ones...

Do you have a URL that proves that these are fake? They do look real to me (maybe I am getting old?)...

~Shahed
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They are claimed to be photo shops by a few experts on the biggest spy photo forum; I guess you never know though.

Well, if there are "experts" discussing it on the "biggest spy photo" forum, could you please provide a URL?

If those are Photoshop's, then they are very convincing indeed...

BTW, check out the pictures on LLN:
http://www.leftlanenews.com/mercedes...ss-future.html

The obvious Photoshopped pic looks very fake. But all the "cloaked" pictures look like they could have the CLS-style headlights from the OurSL.com website.

Thanks,
~shahedc
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Dude..Im pretty sure these are chops...look at this thread I started about them back in Nov.

https://mbworld.org/forums/sl-class-r230/220155-newest-2009-sl-photo-shops-lehmann.html

ok thanks.. the picture of the front left headlight doesn't look so seamless on second glance, so I hope that you're right.

Hope to see the actual pictures when they are available!

~shahedc
.

Hey all,
it seems like even newer pics still point to the same design... are they ALL fake? The cutaway picture looks pretty real, and at least some of the other pictures look real..

http://www.leftlanenews.com/mercedes...ss-future.html

what say you?

~shahedc
.

ok, here's my prediction:

The 'fake', 'photoshop' pics of the new SL will be at least 95% correct. maybe there will be something slightly different, but any actual difference, if any, will be negligible.

we will all b**** and moan that our SLs look better and that anyone that would be crazy enough to spend over sticker on the semi-new SL is an idiot.

we'll continue to say that it is just a $110k Seabring and MB is making a huge mistake, losing their edge, being run into the ground, etc.

then after a month or two, we'll see some on the road. we'll see some that have been lowered. some that have nice new rims. we'll start posting about all of the new features that we've been wishing were on our SLs. we'll get a few owners of the new one on this forum and give them a hard time and tell them that their SL is inferior to ours and that we wouldn't have wasted the time nor money with that half-*** upgrade.

but inside we'll all know that it's never fun to have a dated SL. it's not a good feeling that the majority of people would have a hard time, if they could at all, telling my '03 500 apart from an '08 600 that is worth 4 times as much. we don't buy these cars to get from A to B. we buy them because of the way they make us feel. and when you've got yesterday's SL, you don't feel QUITE as cool as you did yesterday when it was today's.

then in about 6 months we'll start justifying that we should just do a 24-36 month lease on the newer SL so that we are out of it in time for the complete redesign. or we'll threaten to dump MB all together and move over to something more exotic. something that really warrants the jump in dollar amount until we realize that those cars change styles too, take an even bigger hit, have higher service costs, etc.

the 2000 S class looked like a huge risk... but i got it and loved it.

the new '08 S took a month or two to grow on me, now i think it looks great and might pick one up.

The new CL was funky when it hit the streets, but i've seen a few lowered with rims and now think it is one of the hottest cars i've ever seen.

i think the new SL looks fine and will only look better once we see them in person and realize that they are coming whether we like it or not.

my much further out, Nostradamus like, prediction is that the 2011/2012 completely new SL will be sportier and compete with the R8, Lambo type cars in looks. it will be just as hot as we all thought the current SL was when it first came out. it will be the hottest car under $150k, at least to us, and we'll all be lining up to get one.

so with all of that being said, i would like to be the first one to welcome all of the future owners of the new SL. Congratulations on your purchase! please post pictures of your new baby, let us know the options you got, tell us how long it took to get it, and all of that stuff we ask everyone that gets a new one.

Damn, nice to know how I should feel