Cptdenny

Last week I purchased a 2009 SL600 with less than 3,400 miles on the clock, in mint condition.

USAA quoted a warranty price of about $2,400 for 24 months or 24K miles.

I figured I'd be putting on less than 6K miles a yr and may trade it in in less than 2 yrs due to all these comments am reading about the SL being a money pit.

So would a warranty be prudent for such a low mileage car driven as mentioned above, here in South Florida?

BlownV8

That's a steal but I would go with the 4 year 48k mile plan they sell. The price is double that if you have over 50k miles.

Yes, get the warranty! Mine has already paid out around $3k in less than a year. I have an additional laundry list of items that should be covered that will probably run another $2k plus.

PaulE550

If you're going to get rid of the car in less than two years and you're only going to drive under 6K a year, I would suggest you save yourself a few dollars and forget about buying a warranty. It doesn't sound like you're going to be driving the car that much in the limited time you're planning on owning it. You didn't say anything about wanted to mod, tune or race the car on weekends. So I'm guessing you're not planning on doing anything like that. Probably you're just planning a few long trips a year and riding around the local area right? If so and the car is indeed in the mint condition you say, you're unlikely to spend anywhere near that amount in normal vehicle maintenance.

On the other hand, if buying a warranty will help you sleep at night even though you're not going to be driving the car all that much, then whatever makes you feel better. Just my thought on the subject.

Cptdenny

It's tempting to do the $2450 Renntech ECU upgrade mod, but I don't know if I'm opening another can of worms concerning more mechanical issues.

I do have a cash reserve for car repairs but I'm always looking for the most bang for the buck, if a warranty is the better bet. I would hate to spend $3K on a warranty only to find out the issue isn't covered.

I don't plan on any weekend drag racing, but my ego does feed on globs of horse power, if 510 HP ever becomes mundane. Then again there's always the Tesla route.

sloanbj

$2400 is less than 10% of what it will cost you to own the car for two years (depreciation, taxes, insurance, etc), so from that perspective it is cheap piece of mind considering the age of the car. It will be ten years old in two years and the potential for colossal repairs on high end MB of that age is significant, even with low miles and some would argue the low miles make it more likely.

SteveE400

I'd go for a warranty. Don't forget that there are a lot of things that can go wrong on a complex vehicle like an MB, and some of those failures are more related to time than mileage. Your car is still 7 years old, and at that point, you could run into a time-driven failure. The warranty is, to me, cheap insurance.


Nice find, BTW!

BlownV8

Yes, get the warranty and the Renntech tune. I picked up over 125 RWHP on my old CL600. It made the car an animal and much more fun to drive.

kbdixon

I will say yes as well my 36month/36k mile warranty has paid for a PSE pump(at dealer) and the accumulation dampener on the abc pump(at my Indy)Well worth the cost as these repairs were about 2/3rds of my warranty purchase. i didn't enter blindly into my purchase and I am glad I took on the warranty. My 550 had a retail of $119500 new yours probably was 50% more (the most expensive non amg model by far)buy the warranty and make sure they will cover your planned Renntech upgrade. Then drive the crap out of it.