I have been reading this forum almost 2 months,
but this is the second time to write here.
The first one I wrote 5 minutes ago as a reply on
foreign market sourcing.

I bought SL 55 from German market ,
and last week I received it by air.
( I am in Korea where MB authorized dealer dicided not to
sell SL 55 )


Color ; 762(similar to 744, silver metallic , but different)
Leather; 281 ( graphite)
Floor mat U12 / Rear storing box U23 / Trunk net U44/
Distronic 219/ Parktronic 220/ Garage door remote controller 231/
Command 352 / Comfort seats 401 / Tire pressure gauge 475 /
Electric mirrors 500 / Bi-xenon 614 / Sound system 810/
CD-changer 819/ Anti-traction 882/ Keyless-go 889

The followings are installed also , but can not be used here.
Euro Nokia phone in arm rest box 854 / Tele aid 855 / Pal TV tuner 860/ Euro navi.

Of course I drove it .

1. But as I don't know German, I am looking for English manual.
Does any body know where I can get it?

2. Does any body know how to use manual transmission switches?
( The +,- on steering wheel are only marks. Actual swiches
are on steering wheel center body )



Regards

NightSea

 

Uproad picture function is not available.
So I attach a picture one by one as a reply.

Pls Understand.

Night Sea

 

one more

 

When the roof is closed,
the back side windows(small triangle form) goes down.
And the rubber seal cover will be shown clearly.

The quality of that rubber seal cover looks cheap and
not sofiscated.

I don't like it.

 

Sorry
I forgot to attach the picture of rubber part......
( You know I am just a novice here ....)

 

Head Light cleaning system...
When I tried , my friends around my car became wet!

 

Vario roof closing and opening is supposed to be smooth.

However each time to close the trunk cover after opening or
closing the roof , I should push the switch one more time.

Maybe I need to go workshop.......

 

Front view

 

Side view

 

Inside

 

door open

 

engine view

the red box at the corner is a battery designated for
engine start only.

 

back view

 

This is interesting. I think you're brave to buy this car for use in a country where there will be little or no specific product knowledge beyond the SL500, where all parts unique to your car will need to be specially shipped from Germany (with all the hassles and delays that entails) and I doubt you have much of a warranty.

Still, it shows that it is possible to buy a car at reasonable prices (see the site, there's about 10 SL55's), ship it over and use it. Maybe you won't have terrific warranty cover, but you will have local product knowledge in the US and spare parts.

I do not know what the issues are, I've never done it, but it looks to me like NightSea has got a grip of the situation and done something about it - great! To my mind, this is a better option than pay some scum bag of a dealer a premium.

You can view an English version of the manual on www.mercedes.de but I've never managed to download it. Doesn't the Manual W/S switch set manual/winter.summer mode as indicated in the cluster; in manual mode, you can shift manually using the buttons behind the wheel, W/S changes the gear it starts in for use in slippery conditions.

As for the your dislikes, I'm not sure I understand where this seal is, but the most important thing is that it stops water going into the trunk, it's hidden isn't it normally? As for the headleamp washers, if you don't want to spray your friends, either tell them to ride inside the car and not on the front bumper or else get them to wash the headlights by hand while they're there.

 

Thanks for sharing the pics, the color looks like a Diamond silver metallic. BTW did you have to pay any extra tax or fees when you imported the 55 to Korea?

 

Hi

The UK English manuals have the following part numbers - order them from your dealer

Car Manual
ORder no. 6515 3039 02, Part No. 230 584 80 81

COMAND manual
DaimlerChrysler 6515 6649 02, Blaupunkt 8 622 403 117, Parts No 230 584 24 82

SL Class in Brief Manual
Order no, 6515 3041 02, Part no. 230 584 14 78

Handy (phone) Manual
Bestell-Nr 6515 9624 76, Teile-Nr 210 584 58 98

I think the 230 584 xx xx number is the number your dealer needs, they used to need the 6515 number

If your car is built before July 1, the phone is a Nokia 6210 GSM900/1800 phone, if after. then its a NOkia 6310i, which is 900/1800/1900

- both of which should work fine where you are if you buy a GSM service

The TV tuner is PAL/SECAM - the latest tuners include NTSC, I dont know what TV standard you have there.

I guess that mapdisks for your area are not available for the COMAND system though :-)


Cheers
Richard

 

Thanks for kind replies. Here are my answers.

1.At Korea, there is only one exclusive distributor who sells and has workshops. At these workshops , you can fix MB cars which was imported directly from other country , with about 20 % more payment. As the warranty given at Germany is useless at here, I should take all risks . Brave ! ( I have useless multiful free maintenance coupons).

Some models like SL 55 the exclusive distributor has no plan to sell . But SL 500 is available. This means that at least the same parts of SL 55 and SL 500 can be fixed , if any problem happens.

Other parts unique to SL 55 will be some headache, if out of order or broken.

2. I don¡¯t know much about US warranty cover cost . At Korea, the selling price of SL 500 at the exclusive dealer is around US$ 154,166 . It has most of options. You need extra cost to rgister , about 12% of the selling price . So total cost you need to get it is about US$ 172,665. ( Some months ago when US dollar was still strong , it was US$187,054. ) Anyway warranty is included , though not generous.

If you imort it from Germany , you can save US$8,000~$16,000 with taking risk of any mechanical problem.

3. The tax is huge. When CIF is 100 , total tax (import tax, luxurious tax, education tax, and vat) before register is 34.244 % excluding the importer¡¯s margin. To register , 12% of 134.244 you need as registration tax , acquisition tax , and local government bond discount cost.

In my case of SL55, I paid 125,000 euro ( currently almost same with US$) for the car , US$ 5,000 for air freight and handling ,etc and the total cost to get it is around US$ 184,000 (Before the dollar weakening, it was almost US$200,000). FYI , at MB Germany , the basic price excluding vat is 107,100 euro , and the cost of similar options I have is 16,360 euro excluding vat.

4. Regarding the rubber pad , it is the same with SL500. When the roof is covered , it is hidden. Opened, it will be shown and stopping water going into trunk and small back window area (when you open the roof , the small back windows automatically go down). What I dislike is it is not one seamless rubber. Some rubbers are seamed and the seaming looks not elaborate. I am sure you will agree with me once you see it.

5. Regarding manual mode. Thanks for BlueSL for posting your opinion.
I have used(not driven) S class models more than 10 years. In Asia , usually the owner of S models has his/her chauffeur drive the car. Me, also until last year spring time. In fact I did not have the license until that time. Anyway last year I happened to drive my S 600 , and I decided to drive it myself( I used to drive motorcycles and ultra light airplanes, but no car¡¦ridiculous ?). My license is limited to automatic transmission cars. This is why I am ignorant.

To use manual mode , should I move the stick first to D + position , D- position , or I don¡¯t have to move it( ex; P position) ? With manual mode , what I can get more than automatic? What the manual + / - mean?

6. My car was built before July 1. Here we can not use European GSM phone(our system is CDMA), PAL tuner( ours is NTSC like US), navigation(we have domestic ones that is not operated at other machines ).

The reason why I selected the car with these useless options is simple. When I try to install CDMA phone, NTSC tuner, and domestic navigation, I don¡¯t have to worry about new wiring , especially optical wiring.

Anybody knows where I can buy NTSC tuner?


7. Richard, thanks a lot for information you gave. As the exclusive dealer here does not support any manual order, I will try to order from Germany or US.

8. Audio; I did not like Bose sound option of S class . My S 600 has new audio system installed at after market. It has RMS 150w each for 4 doors and 300w each for 2 infinite baffle subwoofers . Yes , I like powerful sound.
When I received SL55 with sound option, I had a plan to install new ones as I did for another MB cars.
But this time , no need. The sound option of SL 55? I really , really like it! Better than BMW 7 and Lexus¡¯s sound option !

9. Color . TezTa , I don¡¯t know the English name, but maybe you are right. This color is special order option at Germany.

Thanks again , every body.

Night Sea

 

hello nightsea,

we have a very nice online-user-manual about the SL-class on http://www.mercedes-benz.de/ its avalible in german and english.

you have to follow these links to get it:

- Pkw
- SL-Klasse
- Betriebsanleitung Interaktiv
now you can change the language to english


btw.
this SL55 next to me has the same colour, right? maybe the same car, from where in germany do you get it?!

 

Thanks for giving me how to find English manual at www.mercedes-benz.de . I found it and it will be great help!

But I think the parts specific to SL 55 are not explained there.

The color of your picture looks like same with mine.

I bought mine from a dealer at Frankfrut .
Is that the same place?

And please let me know how to use manual transmission
switches.


NightSea

 

Hello, modes selected by the button next to the gear stick are

Summer (normal, fully automatic)
Winter (fully automatic, good for slippery weather, car starts in 2nd gear, changes more slowly)
Manual (I beleive car doesnt change up automatically, you have to)

I beleive that in all modes, the + and - paddles on the steering wheel and shifting the gearstick right or left will change up or down.

This means in fully auto mode you can force the car to change down a gear or two, for instance when wanting to come down a steep hill, or preparing for a bit of fast driving :-)

Hope that helps

R

 

The tuner that is meant to have PAL/SECAM/NTSC compatabilty (not just PAL/NTSC) is A220 820 08 97 - which is now being fitted at the factory. The NTSC capability has been confirmed by someone in the USA who does this stuff for a living.

I think the "old" tuner is 15 97, that will definetly not work.

What are the last 6 digits of your chassis number, I will ask my dealer what tuner is fitted to your car - apparently they changed from a certain chassis number to the new tuner.

(My SL55 (which is still at Mercedes in a broken state) has the new tuner Im told) (I have not paid for or driven it yet!) - The new tuner has RCA jacks for the 2 auxiliary video/audio inputs. The old tuner has special connectors.

Cheers,

R

 

First of all, congrats on your new car. I'm in Korea right now, and I recently saw an SL55 AMG on the streets of ApKuJung. Just wondering if that was you or not. I recall the color being brilliant silver rather than diamond silver like yours. I was under the impression that HanSung Motors were importing the SL55s, but I guess not. I'm sorry to hear that there are some irritating problems with some parts of the car. Wonder if that's a common problem for the SL model range. Anyways, drive carefully, especially in the current road conditions and pouring rain. By the way, I would love to exchange information about the car and other things, since we are both in Korea at the moment. Well, congrats once again. It's an awsome car~!!

 

Richard, today I found out how to use manual mode.

The confusion started from my pre-knowledge of old S class's
w/s gear button. That button has only two modes.
Evenmore it is mechanical button showing itself which mode is
selected .

This time it has w/s/manual , 3 modes and it is digital button
whose mode can be seen only at the combi-instrument panel (
where speed meter ,rpm meter ,etc are located) .

When I drove my car , always I turned on cd player and
make cd playing situation shown on the combi-instrument panel ,
and paid attention to only cd status. Besides of cd status there are two English characters showing gear mode, but I didn't know what those two characters mean. (foolish.......).

Richard, thanks again for the tuner information. BTW, what happen to your car ?

------------------------------
Jinmin803,
Yes, too much rain we had yesterday.
I drove it yesterday 3 hours under the heavy rain,
and really enjoyed the driving itself and bose sound.

As I understand , only 2 SL55 including mine are here.

According to my experience , the quality of MB premium
models is reliable. I expect no big headache. Major problem
came from that I can't read German manuals.
If you would like to contact me, pls use nightsea@netsgo.com.

Thanks.

 

Richard,

If one adds the tuner to a US car, does it enable TV/video functionality?

Jeff

 

Nightsea, my car had a fault on from the factory which is causing MB some hastle to fix.

Jeffreyy, if you have a very recent COMAND, then the TV tuner can be added - you'll need aerials (not sure what US models come with the aerials in the rear window) and a wiring loom. Then dealer has to do some magic to activate it.

I suggest you contact nav-tv (search on the board) if you want it added
R