Consider yourself lucky. One of my clients' exwives took an ax and a chainsaw to his SL600. She put the ax through one fender, hood, windshield, trunklid and both side windows. The chainsaw also went through the hood, hit the left rear of the convertible top and went through the driver's door. I think the damage was around $27k. The car was only about a year old.

Nick

 

Hell has no fury like a woman scorned
Meaning

Literal meaning.

Origin

William Congreve, in The mourning bride, 1697:

As you'll answer it, take heed
This Slave commit no Violence upon
Himself. I've been deceiv'd. The Publick Safety
Requires he should be more confin'd; and none,
No not the Princes self, permitted to
Confer with him. I'll quit you to the King.
Vile and ingrate! too late thou shalt repent
The base Injustice thou hast done my Love:
Yes, thou shalt know, spite of thy past Distress,
And all those Ills which thou so long hast mourn'd;
Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd,
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.


With regard to the keying, I too would be beserk. In this economy, people see an expensive car and feel justified to mar it. They probably got a big kick out of it.

 

Almost back from the shop. May get it back this week. Latest progress from the body shop...

 

Oh man, I had to take in my SL for "Schedule A" maintenance and it turns out that I have an ABC pump leak. It wasn't enough to drip onto the ground but it's definitely built up a little fluid on the metal plate below the pump. While it's in the shop already, I told them to go ahead and replace it (yay warranty!) -- better to do it now and not worry about it later. Anyway, in the meantime I have a Mitsubishi Galant rental. As soon as I drove about 300 yards from the dealership I was already heartbroken. Any time away from my baby is tough, as I'm sure it is for you mikeinsf. I was wondering what you're driving in the meantime and whether it's barely filling that gap. Also to say that seeing it with the panels off is like visiting a friend in the hospital with exposed stitches. Painful to look at but you know it'll all be ok.

Rook

 

Very glad to hear that's a warranty job. I'm hoping all of mine start leaking in about 14 months! For that matter, i hope the top motor gives out and the COMAND unit goes at the same time.

I could complain all day about the ****box I'm driving but I doubt many people would want to listen. I'm in a Mazda 626 with the smallest engine they make. Its engine and tranny are an utter joke compared to what I'm used to. It makes me realize just how spoiled I am, and complaining to my friends makes THEM realize just how spoiled I am... so I'm glad you'll listen. I share your pain. You have no idea how many times I've stepped on the gas pedal of this thing, waited for something to happen and screamed (in a closed car) "I HATE THIS F***ING CAR!". The Mazda even has a tiptronic tranny, which makes me chuckle just a bit.

Patience is indeed a virtue. I've been supplanting my desire to drive my car by buying things for it like Lorinser wheels & tires & Reus audio upgrades. When I get it back I'll actually be able to install them! That's how I'm coping. I better get it back soon or I'm going to go broke.

 

Oh and I cope by finding pix of other cars that mine will look like after I get the new wheels installed--minus the tacky Lorinser stickers of course. Can't wait.

 

Nice wheels but unless I'm imagining things, the wheels are mounted the wrong way on the passenger side (right side, from the front) of the car. They are supposed to be directional wheels and it looks like they just mounted two driver side pairs to both sides.

If they make the wheels right, I might have to look into some of those in future. Not that dark of course -- something nice to go along with the Iridium Silver.

Rook

 

Oh you mean the Mazda 6. Yea, those 4 door sedans with the 4-bangers in them just torture the soul. Soooo uninspiring. I think the minimum livable HP in a 4-door should be about 200 and up. Though I do have to say that 1st gear in the Galant is not bad. Now trying to pass someone, just forget about doing that.
By the time I got home yesterday, I was able to list off about half a dozen things that I almost take for granted when I drive the SL.
1. The V8 engine and 7-speed transmission. That's pretty obvious to those who don't want to rev the nuts off of an engine to get anywhere. (Some do, but not me. I prefer my major torque to start from 1000-1500rpm, thank you.)
2. Climate control. The A/C in the damn Galant was either too cold or not cold enough. Bleh.
3. Sound insulation. I could hear Geo Metros idling beside be. Not good.
4. 15-way adjustable seats. The cheap-a$$ seat in this thing has only 2 adjustment doodads. And no lumbar support. The only comfortable way I found to sit was "low riding" in the seat. I feel so classy.
5. Auto-dimming rear-view and side-view mirrors. You just don't know until you don't have them. Dear God they are useful.
6. Hydrophobic windows and windshield. Rain-X is good, but designing water-repellent windows right in the first place is Mercedes' gift to the world.
7. General design cues. The interior of the SL is so nice that you don't even realize it until you set foot in a cheapmobile. The Galant is all right angles and vast, flat expanses of plastic you could do long division on.

Rook

 

FTW!!!

 

Did they ever fix the brakes on that thing? Whenever I got a rental Galant it always felt like somebody replaced the disks and pads with gravel....

 

You gotta love SF. Looks like the work of an angry, jealous liberal!

Sorry Mike, but it looks like they are doing a great job. Make sure that you put in a claim for diminished value.

 

Uh-oh, here we go again....

This is my first car at this level -- I've never heard of such a thing. How does it work? It's not as simple as saying "Because of the damage, I've lost $x in value, pay up," is it?

 

good luck. I hope it turns out well.

Dont start showing your *** in this nice and quiet post

 

The brakes were not bad at all. A little too grabby though and they didn't seem to stop the car as quickly as one would expect. An ok car if you can pick one up for less than $10K nearly new.

I finally got my SL back on Friday afternoon. My baby is back home, temporarily at least. I have to bring it back for the ABC pump work as we're waiting for the part to come in.

Rook

 

Indeed. Some people can't just leave well enough alone.

Anyway, I pick up my car from the paint shop at end-of-business today. The new Lorinsers arrive at my office today via Fedex also. Getting those mounted in the morning. After weeks of waiting I'm finally allowing myself to get excited.

 

Sweet! Looking forward to some pics!

 

Picked up the car at the shop yesterday afternoon. Drove it right to the wheel shop to have them mount the Lorinsers also. It looks beeooteeful. I'm so happy it's home. I see why black is such a popular color. It's hard to maintain, but when it looks good it looks amazing. It was raining too hard last night to take any pictures. I'll try to get out the camera and tripod tonight to snap some good ones.

One slight downer. When I picked up the car, the first words out of the rep's mouth were
"You know your top doesn't work, right?"
To which I replied "No, in fact I know the top works just fine."
He proceeded to try to convince me that they had not caused the fault in the top despite the fact I had the top up and down the day I dropped it off with no problems. Must have happened in that 5 minutes after I raised the top, before he took possession of my keys, eh? Well I decided it wasn't worth trying to push the point since it's 100% under warranty anyway. It makes no functional difference to me whether MB shoulders it or the shop does, as long as it's not me. Pick your battles. If he tried pulling that sh*t and it cost me a dime, he'd have had a hell of a fight on his hands though. I can't stand that shady stuff. You f**k something up, you take responsibility for it. In this case there was nothing to be gained by souring my relationship with them.

Time to drop the car off for someone else to work on. :|
I can't help but laugh, this car is way more maintenance than any significant other I've ever had, whether it's the car's fault or not.

 

Sweet! Glad to hear it.

Don't worry -- the relationship is already soured by them trying to put one over on you.

LOL -- isn't that the same with S.O.'s? It doesn't matter whose fault it is -- you end up paying either way! But yeah, let's face it -- these cars really are significant others. Our human S.O.'s need to be really patient to put up with our other (vehicular) lovers.

 

Exactly. Couldn't be more true.

Just made my appointment with MBSF to drop it off in the morning to get the top working again. My boss and I just laugh about it all at this point. I made the analogy that I feel like a divorced father where the wife took the kid. I still pay all the bills and occasionally get visitation rights.

 

Just think of it this way, the more things that get replaced under warranty, the less you have to worry about in the future...right? maybe a little?

I just dropped my car off to get the differential fluid in my car changed out and got a loaner 3 series. It feels so small :")

 

By the way Mike. Make sure you get a loaner from MBSF. I used to get them to sevice my SL. My SA was really good and would get me a loaner each time I was there but the repairs normally take >2-3 days.

 

I tried to get a loaner from them and they told me to take a hike. This is why I don't like going to the dealers in the cities. Other dealers act like they want your business. BMWSF was the same way with me.

 

Hmmm I tried their shuttle drop off service once but hated it. Russell (I think thats his name), usually made sure I had a loaner waiting for me when I got there. Drop car off in the morning and picked up the loaner. In and out in 15 mins. One time I had an ML loaner for a week.

BMWSF required that I make an appointment 2 weeks in advance so they could have a loaner ready for me.

I wonder what their criteria is for giving out loaners. I never bought any of my cars from them.

 

Absolutely. That's why I'm getting the ABC pump replaced now instead of waiting for the inevitable error message to pop up.

Your warranty should pay for a rental car for up to six days. That's what my EasyCare GOLD warranty gives me. I don't pay for the rental unless I want the extra insurance. Good luck with all of that.

Rook

 

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