Out of the blue last week my salesman called from the local dealership to tell me that my new car had arrived and was going into PDI. This is the car I ordered last January I believe. It was raining (yes it does in Southern California upon occasion) and we figured that the car would really not be out of PDI, clean and ready until the following week meaning this week. So I made an appointment for Tuesday to go down and look at the car. Gorgeous. Incidentally they had an AMG SL55 on the showroom floor and there may have been some 63s somewhere although I'm not sure. The 55s are marked up with an ADM of $25,000 and the 63s are marked up with an ADM of $50,000.

The salesman, who works in the fleet and leasing department, said that as soon as they put that car out front ready for me to come and look at, a number of the other salesman saw it and approached him and said they each had other people who wanted a car like this and they would easily pay $50,000 over because the cars are so popular and in such limited supply. A number of the salesman had a little black book of regular customers of theirs who would happily give them an extra $50,000 if one came in the way they liked it. Like it or not - it is the way of the world. My salesman also said that they have about 30 cars that are special ordered like mine was in Germany waiting to get built and shipped. He had no idea how mine had slipped through. At any rate, their dealership before Covid regularly had 1,300 to 1,400 new cars in stock. Now they have about 700 or so.

We came to a deal and I returned the next day, this Wednesday to pick up the car and finalize the paperwork. So I drove the car home late Wednesday afternoon and it sat in the garage as I was busy with other things. The short drive home from the dealership was uneventful as I was just trying to keep the car moving along safely on the freeway while I acclimatized myself to a very different environment. At some point the next afternoon I opened the driver's side door and noticed this message on the dashboard.


Delightful. At the same time on the Mercedes remote app I was getting the following message




Need I say that this was disconcerting? The same fault somewhere in the system sends a message to the dashboard and another to the linked Mercedes phone application. So is the fault merely a gremlin?- or is it representing an actual critical state of the 12V starter battery? I called the salesman and he sent somebody out to pick up my car Thursday night. It sat at the dealership all day yesterday and because they are so backed up with service no one was able to look at it. But I did speak to the service advisor and he said they would really need a couple of days to thoroughly take everything apart and to examine every detail of the system. And certainly I know there are many other cars there scheduled with appointments ahead of me. This I understand. But I did ask him to stick it on the charger anyway I decided to pick the car up last night or it would've been sitting at the dealership Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then Monday and probably Tuesday of next week. So since the car started up and drove fine I decided the best thing was for me to keep it this weekend and then arrange a time this coming week when they have an open spot and can take it apart diagnostically. No I do not have a trickle charger and this car does not come with one. The last one I had from my GTS or my GTC, I forget which, I sold on eBay. I do have a regular full-size charger that can charge at many different amperages. Popping the hood reveals a place to attach a charger - I think for jumpstarting but it's only a remote link I believe to the actual 12 V battery which sits in the trunk.


I could attach my regular big boy battery charger to this battery but I fear doing something wrong and causing thousands of dollars of car computer damage. Smoke spewing forth while I realize I reversed the clamps, touched the negative not to a grounded body part but rather to my big toe or some other such idiocy. Although in the old days none of us ever thought twice about attaching a charger onto a car battery. And no, there is nothing in the owners manual about this other than showing the emergency port under the hood.

I at least drove the car up the hill and took a couple of quick not very good photos. But at least it is something. Oh and by the way as is always the case at least in California, when a car comes out at the dealership the tires are way overinflated. They inflate them to the numbers on the driver's side door jamb rather than the ones on the inside of the fuel door. The rear tires were inflated to 48 psi and the fronts to 45 psi. I changed them to 33 psi in the rear and 32 in the front.

 

Congratulations on your beautiful new SL!

I got an almost identical message with my new SL - I actually in addition got an e- mail that my starter battery was “ critical”. I put the trickle charger on overnight connecting it via the terminals under the hood.
the next day I went to my dealer to do a load test- the result of which was inconclusive but showed no obvious problems with either the battery or alternator. We are currently on vacations overseas and so I put it back on the trickle charger to avoid any potential issues. I do assume that these cars sat around fora long time and were not fully charged prior to delivery.

The other things I was cautioned about was not to leave the keys in the car even when parked in my garage because there is “ ongoing communication between the key and the car-“ using battery power - made no sense to me but - whatever - I complied.

 

BEAUTIFUL SL !! Definitely "default" to the drive 30+ minutes !!

 

This is what I would do. Car probably needs some driving/

 

Many congrats, I love that color but personally am waiting(again) until next year, but seeing that sure gets me going. What is the inside trim and dash color? Looks Grey, but can't quite see. Regardless, sure you will have many hours working it all out and trust after a few hiccups(small ones) it just gets better for you each day. Bet you are getting many stares, as in what's that?

 

Very good points for those that are hoping to receive their cars soon. As you stated, been sitting around for ages and the dealers have not been told or(as is normally the case) have no idea what is the sensible thing to do before they hand over the car, especially to someone who has paid excessively on top of MSRP. For that sort of money, I would want free service for life and similar loaners plus a vacation in the Seychelles for all the stress caused.

 

Same message…one of the initial photos from my salesman before the deal fell apart. The cars that recently arrived have been sitting for 4-6 months, so not surprising…


I’m sure it will be fine after some driving. The dealer “thoroughly taking everything apart” sounds like a recipe for disaster.

 

Would you not have thought, that before they pass on a car at 150K+ and knowing the situation you describe, that these dealers would have done everything in their power to make sure the new owners(who have been waiting for months) would receive it in absolute pristine condition or does this not speak poorly for the mechanics therein who either have not been brought up to speed by HO at MB or a combination of both?

So why haven't they tested this battery situation beforehand, regardless whether it's a simple glitch in the system, and I heard from a friend in the UK that he had exactly the same situation, but nobody at his dealership knew what to do? It did go away after one week of driving.

 

That's just the World we live in nowadays. Most don't take pride in their workmanship like in our generation. Too busy posting selfie's or pics of their lunch and checking likes on social media. Ridiculous.

 

Congrats again!
Colors and config reminds me of your prior roadster
Also, no worries about the critical starter battery message. While the dealer should have trickle-charged the battery completely, this is a message you will see more often if not driven regularly. We have a GLE that has only seen about 3000 miles a year and unless it's hooked up to the trickle charger, we get these messages every week. But they are notifications only. The car never experienced a loss of any services and started like clockwork whenever driven.

 

Beautiful new SL!

I can also attest that my S560 I will routinely get this message.

 

Congrats with one of first SLs!
Enjoy and tell us your experience when you put some miles in.

 

Well, no unfortunately. I drove 60 miles today and although there is nothing on the dash - on the app I see that the charge state is low on the starter battery. So sometime this coming week it will go back to the shop. Perhaps it is something as simple as a new starter battery. Perhaps it is a charging issue with the alternator not putting out sufficient charge - or perhaps the battery and charging system are both fine and it is a reporting gremlin. We shall see.

 

Congratulations! Beautiful car. Sorry you're having issues. I'm 3 weeks into my SL63, about 500 miles. No issues with the battery so far. But I did experience one glitch the first week in - the top would not close. I used the slider on the control panel and the hard button, and the warning kept telling me to keep my finger on the slider or button. I was, at least I thought so. I turned the car off and re-started it and the top worked fine. It was possibly operator error, possibly a glitch, but it has not happened again. Otherwise, no issues with the car. Some new owners have complained of road noise or wind noise with the top up at 60 mph but I have not experienced that. It's a beautiful car and I get tons of comments and compliments on it wherever I go.

 

Congrats she’s a beauty.

As for the 12V message, this is nothing of concern. Simply happens when cars sit too long whether it be in the showroom or at the port, which is why some dealers keep the hoods cracked open with cords to charge the batteries on the showroom floor. This can happen on anything from an A-Class to SL, or other brand of car. Simply driving the vehicle will do the job of charging her back up. Tires are a similar story, they are purposefully inflated due to changing temperatures that can occur depending on how long the car sits at a port(s).

 

You can also use the button if the slider doesn't work. One press brings up the top menu, and press and hold will put the top up/down without touching the screen.

 

It has already been well stated but the easiest fix is just to go drive the thing. Many of these SL's have been produced for quite some time, some approaching a year and haven't been driven. Yes, your dealership should have tested it and certainly set the correct tire pressure but the 12V warning is a common one. Every showroom car we have needs to be on a trickle charger if it doesn't sell within a week.

 

That was my assumption but after driving 60 miles yesterday, checking the app showed the battery going from "charged" to "low" - so why should an apparent discharge take place while sitting after a 60 mile drive? Doesn't make sense. Anyway, the simplest explanation is indeed yours - but one would expect that after a 60 mile drive the alternator would have filled it up pretty darn well and turned it back to a normal functioning battery. At any rate we shall see. It is also possible that there is a gremlin in the reporting process and it is sending bogus messages.

 

I confirm your observations - driving even for 80 miles did not stop the issue. Only once I put it overnight on a trickle charger did the “ critical battery” messages stop.

 

AND I found my never-used trickle charger from my GTC. Just last night. The car was scheduled to go in for service today for them to look through the causes of the various charging messages so I decided to take it in anyway to have a good record on file in case something happens down the line. It is too bad these cars don't have 12V charger access in the trunk. Even though the 12 V battery sits in the trunk there is no 12 V lighter socket in the SL63s like there was in my GTS and my GTC. Nevertheless there is a positive charging point under the hood with a distinct negative ground a few inches away. And the car can be trickle charged from there with the hood left slightly open.

I plan to freely play with the car this weekend and should get a nice comparison report ready for those interested.

 

Definitely interested - looking forward to your report - safe travels .

 

I've already been to my dealer a few times for this issue. I have found that after an overnight charge I get about a week when I use it once in a while but after that week I get 24 hours before it's low and another 24 hours before it goes critical. So basically you can't leave on a 2-day trip without having it on trickle charge. Also another word of caution, I had the battery die completely while it was getting Xpel Stealth wrapped and that was a bit of a nightmare. After a boost, all systems showed failures, from the rear steering to the adaptive suspension, and had lots of warnings to let it run but not move. After a few minutes, I shut it off and back on, a few systems came back but it took a good hour and 5 or 6 restarts to get most systems back. But the Parktronic never came back showing a system failure. It's in the shop now getting debugged but I'm assuming the clear PPF wrap isn't enough to block the radars. I'm trying to get a new battery thinking the severe depletion from the dealership reduced its performance but they have to test a failure to authorize a replacement, I may have to just pay for the battery replacement myself.

I did find that the one in the trunk wasn't the issue, I had to recharge the one under the hood.

Images missing badges, waiting for the wrap to settle. Went ahead and got the black versions (extended night package) while I was at it ;-)

 

Beautiful car. As for the battery loss, are you leaving the car unlocked when you’re done?

 

Stunning look ... well done.

 

I had it at the dealership all day yesterday. The service advisor called me and said that although they tested the battery and the battery seemed fine - as they were going through the system piece by piece by piece they would get to a certain place and the testing software would fail and reboot. And every time they got to a certain place in the thorough testing to find out about the various codes that were thrown and such, the testing kept failing at a certain point. The service advisor told me to come and pick up the car if I wanted as they had to send it, the report, off to Germany and they did not know when they would get a response. So since the car works fine I picked it up late yesterday afternoon. This afternoon the service advisor got in touch with me and told me they had a response from Germany and they had another avenue to explore. So I will bring it in next week and see what happens. It does appear that the gremlins in the car's operating system perhaps were triggered in someway by the battery but really there is some other problem elsewhere. Nevertheless it runs fine and I get no more errors in the application on my phone showing low battery or battery needs charging or anything like that. I will drive the car a fair amount this weekend and give a report.