rosssr

Hi. new on the forum, but a long time benz owner.
have been offered, and am seriously considering an SL65, and have been reading up on them here, and elsewhere.
they seem like great cars, BUT some of the horro stories on here give me pause....
am i just reading about the problems because nobody reports when everything is great? or are these cars grenades waiting to explode?

the car in question was maintained by a dealer until last november when it was sold at auction to a used car dealer near me. so seems all the recalls and appropriate maintenance were done. but what could be lurking?

should i take the plunge or walk away?

kbob999

Need more info - mileage, what maintenance has been performed, price, condition, options, etc.
These all factor into what the value is.

rosssr

yes. its a 2006 sl65 with 81k miles. all dealer maint until last november. condition appears very good. they are suggesting i do a ppi, which i can do with my normal merc mechanic. but even he is advising me against buying it.
i have looked at extended warranties, and so far all have declined.
the price i will be able to achieve is 28.5k which includes new tires.

kbob999

Good info to further the conversation. With this age and mileage there will be items needing attention.
Are you a DIY guy? Then expect to spend $2-3K getting everything fresh.

What would that be spent on? ABC system flush, new ABC accumulators, possibly a strut or 2, maybe a high pressure hose, trans filter and fluid, differential fluid, power steering fluid, brake flush, front control arm bushings, motor mounts, trans mount, possibly brakes and rotors, and whatever else the PPI finds.
If an indy takes this on, expect the price to double.

This car needs attention and maintenance, so while the car may drive fine as it is, it needs this kind of attention to make it reliable for the next 50K miles.

Let us know how it goes.

Ghostty

I can't say much about maintenance on V12TT, but it does surprise me the low price from a dealer! Did the prices go down again on these cars? I haven't seen any 65 model under 30, even with 100k miles on board from any dealer. Even the 600 models still run for 30k, moreover a 65 model. So, imho, a ppi is mandatory upon purchase to know what you're dealing with.

BlownV8

I saw a sub 20k mile SL65 go for $32k two years ago in South Florida. The mechanic is advising against it because he knows how expensive they are to own.

Ghostty

True that, BlownV8, East coast has lower prices than west coast on these cars... honestly can't really understand why..... but, oh, well..... Agree on the maintenance part, and still - that cheap? I guess it's matter of luck how cheap you can get one

rosssr

ok. please give me your opinion of this carfax

https://www.carfax.com/VehicleHistor...&partner=ATD_W

the car was maintained by MB dealers its entire life. the odd thing to me is that it required very little work across all those years and miles. is this because this is just a blessed wednesday car, or are all the systems waiting to blow up once i take possession?

rosssr

it seems like the worst thing is the loss of ABC. what happens when the ABC fails? is it still drivable?

BlownV8

You can but you do more damage to the car if you do. If the car drops.all the way down, I would not drive.

Change out the ABC to a coilover system if you have issues. ABC is great when it works but things can go south in a hurry around 80k miles. That's when I had issues with my last ABC equipped car. It got real expensive really quickly.

dblankenbaker

That does look odd to me. I recently saw the CarFax for a ~80K mile SL65 which showed the PS pump and motor mounts had both been replaced twice... at roughly 40K and 80K miles. Plus a bunch of other repairs through the years. It even specified that the motor mounts was an 'engine out service'. The car had always been maintained by a Benz dealer.

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest maybe the frequency that things break is related to how hard a car is driven(?). Maybe the SL you are looking at has been babied all its life?

In any event, at 10+ years old and 80+K miles, the usual suspects are just about timed out for age as well as mileage in best conditions. I am in agreement w/kbob999 that unless they can produce a book of receipts showing all those things were replaced recently, you need to plan on spending that money w/in the next year. Add all that maintenance to the $28.5K and then decide if you still think it's a good deal...

Good luck!!

rosssr

i went to look at the car again, and noticed that the passenger side of the car seems to be slightly lower than the driver side. maybe 1 cm, and it is the same back and front. is this some weird compensation for the car before a driver gets in?and if not, is this resolved with some kind adjustment? or is this a sign that the ABC is already starting to fail?

rosssr

any opinions on this?

Ghostty

No, it's not a compensation for the driver's weight. Besides that, it's really hard to say if something is wrong. Two corners drop same height? Very unlikely.

There is a possibility that for some reason the height sensors of the car were recalibrated, but it was done on an uneven surface, and as a result you see the difference between right and left side. As well, very unlikely.

Can it just be a visual impression?

it is not rare for the car to drop if it sat long time without being driven. Besides that - no other clue from me.

Regards


P.S.

if it's just the height sensors - yes, they can be changed/recalibrated to even out the car