BJL

I have the first spot for an SL 55 at my dealer(precision cars of atlantic city) and still not a clue about when I will get my car.

They sell about 80+ cars a month and are a big SL dealer.

Does anyone have any clue when you think Mercedes will start to bring in the SL 55? September? October? November?

I am curious to everyone's thoughts when they expect this car will arrive.

Johan

Hey,

Prestige Motors of Paramus NJ expects their first SL55 to arrive in August. Your dealer seems of a similar or slightly smaller size than Prestige, so I would guess you'd see your car around September. Thats given of course that Prestige was accurate with there expectation.
What color, options did you order your car with?

Johan in NJ

BJL

I have not optioned the car yet.

GMW

The Right Hand Drive production for the SL55 AMG is officially supposed to start in September 2002. Though most likely they start rolling off the production line in August 2002 so that they can start deliveries in September. We have a SL55 scheduled for completion of production in september (hopefully this doesn't change!). All I know is that this is one car that redefines being in High-Demand!

The large amount of power available at that price is one of the main reasons propelling sales of the SL55 AMG. This car is great value for money compared to what else is available on the motor vehicle market that can do what it does. In the past the AMG SL versions were powerful but not as powerful as this. Plus the early magazine reports brought all this to everyone's attention.




____________________________________________

SL55 '03 on order (Tanzanite Blue/Graphite & 5-spoke AMG alloys)

Richard

Actually, it started June 2002 - which is when the dealers were told it would start (some months ago).

I know this as my car is a June decade 2 (ie start to build in 2nd 10 days of June). Its ETA in the UK is mid July (and it has the designo alcantara roof lining, which delays production a bit apparently).

I placed my deposit with my dealer in about March 1997. The dealers (recently) submitted all their SL55 requests with info about when the deposits were taken etc to MB UK , and MB UK built a list of when production slots would be made available to the dealers based on when deposits were taken/orders were placed.

I know this purely because my dealer was on-top of MB hastling them, as they knew I was one of the first in the country to place a deposit and to ask for an AMG car.

I think I was slightly lucky in the fact that the lady at my dealer called up the appropriate lady at MB Uk "at the right/lucky time", (about 8th april from memory) because she was told that they would allocate me a SL55 build slot if I could spec it within 2 days (ie the June decade 2 spec freeze was about to happen). Note my phrasing of "allocate me" - that is the phrasing that MB UK used.

Before my dealer spec'ed the car (in front of me, on the MB extranet), the allocated vehicle was silver/dark-grey and had a smattering of options.

I beleive therefore that they were building all cars to that "default" silver/dark-grey spec until they got their act together and told the dealers who had what production slots for which customers.


R

BJL

Mark, just out of curiousity, what number were you on your dealer's list for the SL 55?

Richard

Mark, which insurance company are you using ? (and where do you live)

My initial research (I have a 1997 (MY1998) SL500 with all the current 1-slot MB sat nav, CD, Nokia phone stuff in it) shows R129 SL resale values are dropping faster then i'd like ... and of course, you'll be selling yours just as summer ended ...

Im praying on a hot July, so when I put mine in the paper in early July it shifts easily !!

Cheers
R

Lonman

Richard, what do you want for yours?

Richard

I want to keep it - waited 5 years :-) - Its at the dealer, but they are having some trouble with it - basic cause is the star diagnosis doenst recognise the version of the cluster (because its the first of the RHD AMG 200mph speedos presumably) - apparently new star software should arrive very shortly ....

Ive not driven it yet (its not yet registered) - have been a passenger in on a road test - seems good :-)

R

blueSL

You haven't thought about asking them to send it back to Bremen to be fixed?

Richard

Im close to insisting it goes to AMG in Stutgart - but that will take 3 weeks and Im hoping the MB UK top technical man will diagnose it on Friday ! If the July release of Star diagnosis doenst allow them to correctly extract the fault information, then I will get very upset quickly !

blueSL

Hey Richard, what's the latest, have they fixed your car's problem yet?

Richard

The new star diagnosis talks to everything properly (as predicted) - the main man from MB UK came down on Friday and identified that "if they disconnect the engine controller completely, all faults go away".

(they had tried disconnecting engine controller from the CAN engine network before, but not the whole engine controller)

So a new engine controller arrives from Germany tommorow ..

Im leaving either "happiness" or "angryness" to Wednesday ...

R

GMW

As agonizing as it may seem this car is worth the wait. A collegue of mine just came back from Germany and got to drive the SL55 around and is now talking non-stop about it! He has complete praise for the car. From the sound of the engine, which he described as 'an orchestra unto itself' to the G-forces that pinned him to his seat.
He mentioned how sometimes he wanted to drive just to listen to the whole range of sound from those quad exhausts and other times he just wanted an adrenalin rush from the acceleration, though those two actually went hand in hand. He is a true car nut as am I.
I hope to see our SL55 in about 2 months but in the meantime I just saw a CLK240 with the AMG kit and 18inch rims, Very Very Nice!!! It has wett my apetite for the 'real' thing now!

blueSL

So was there nothing about the car which was less than perfect?

Mercedes must be laughing all the way to the bank with this car....good for them.

GMW

Though I guess it is all based on your requirements and expectations, because if you want POWER and luxury with a good dose of sportiness then this should very well be perfection.

After some of his initial excitement dies down I'll try to find out if there was anything he didn't like. It might take some while though. He was as excited as a kid who just came back from a candy store. He also got to drive the new E-class and the Maybach. He is a senior service mechanic at an MB dealership in case you are wondering and this was some service course that just finished in Germany.

blueSL

Richard

Have not seen any updates from you in a while. What's the status of your car, did it go back to the plant to be sorted out?

Richard

It was fixed last Friday - but I decided not to have it until Sept 1, because on Sept 1 our number plates change.

We have a strange system introduced on 1st Sept 2001 - our plates look like this

AB NN DEF

A is the area (letter)
B is the sub-area (letter) - a range is allocated to each registration office.

D,E,F are random letters

NN tell you when it was registered. The registration periods start on Mar 1 and Sept 1, and are as follows

51 = Sept 1, 2001
02 = March 2002
52 = Sept 1, 2002
03 = March 2003
etc etc

Anyway, what was wrong ... A build error. Apparently on the SL55 a load of controllers are powered up from a signal from the engine management system.

On the SL500/350 they are powered from the left signal-aquisition-module.

- They select this by installing 2 fuses and a relay in a certain position. The fuses are not installed, and relay goes in a different position on the SL55.

So, these controllers were powering up, but other systems were not - so there were comms errors until they powered up, and all was fine ....

AMG diagnosed this working with MB UK (car was returned to MB UK)

Expensive build error...... But, Im pleased because they found the mistake, rather than a problem that "just dissappeared" ... (and the tech guys in the dealer checked the circuit diagrams out to find out if that would cause the symptoms, and it does)

Cheers
R

blueSL

That's good to hear. It must have cost MB thousands, but I guess the parts they swapped out can go back into stock, but it does beg the question how it ever got out of the plant.

If I read the licence plate format right, at some point in the future, you could have "SL 55 AMG". That would be neat!

Anyways, from 1 September, we'll look forwards to seeing some picture posted. Dust down that digital camera!

Richard

I dont think they will go back in the pool, they are all items that are coded absolutely to the vehicle.

Yup, September 2005. The licencing authority sell of [auction] the nice plates that make words etc etc

I just went and bought myself a sony dsc p9. Im likely to have the car before that date, just not allowed to drive it on the road - so there will be some photos ...

jco-amg

Nice to hear the good news Richard...can't wait to see your car and get a full report...Good Luck!

GMW

Hi Richard,

That's great that they sorted out your car AND found out what caused it! Well I can't wait till you post some pics though I have now changed back to Silver (to much dust over here and I didn't want to spend to much time cleaning it, I'd rather be driving). Should be out next month.

_______________________
SL55 Brilliant Silver/Anthracite

blueSL

You were able to change your color that close to delivery? I thought these things were frozen three months before build?

GMW

Well, it depends on the dealer and area. Generally, Mercedes closes production on cars built in Germany around 30-45 days before completion of production. Vehicles such as the ML are closed in about 45-60 days before completion of production as a number of parts have to be produced in Germany and shipped to the U.S.. RHD c-classes built in South Africa are around 60 days because parts have to also be shipped in.

So it really falls to the dealer to decide when they want to set the cut off dates for the customer as Mercedes doesn't like changes that close to production and will accept it from time to time as long as the dealer doesn't make it a habit to change at the last minute all the time. This is why the dealer builds in a buffer zone in the cut off time.

As I work in my father's dealership we can cut it close for our personal cars.

blueSL

I noticed from the latest German price list that the alcantara roof lining is now a no-cost option if you have exclusive nappa leather and I'd previously not considered the roof lining because it was over $1000 and you have to call a halt somewhere (at least I do!).

If I had more time, I might have gone with it but the last thing I want to do is to put at risk my build slot of mid-September.

Something else...

I feel sorry for the folks in Dresden who are under metres of water, but I hope there are no SL parts made in the area. Otherwise all this Just-in-Time delivery stuff may work against us.