bobafett

My LX470 also has an air suspension which allows you to lower/raise the car.

Question: are the lowering/raising of the car limited by speed - ie, do you have to be under x mph in order to change the height settings?

--Dan

davidegai

i believe you can do it at almost any speed. With my regular 2003 SL, which is going to be replaced by an SL 55 tomorrow, I have done it at 160 KPH with no problem. Sometimes i raise the car to leave the garage and just forget to lower it!

GMW

Actually, this raise/lowering system on the SL is similar to the CL's ABC (active body control) except for the tuning of the suspension based on the weight of the supermodel on your passenger seat and the gold bullion in the trunk!

I only know it in km/h but it applies to MB vehicles built for the entire world that have ABC.

It will raise to Stage 2 (the highest) and will maintain that height untill you hit 60km/h, where it will assume that the rough patch or speed bump is now long gone and it will lower itself slowly down to stage 0 (standard height). Unless of course you like driving over speed bumps at over 60km/h in which case you have bought the wrong car and I worry about your profession.

When you accelerate past 140 km/h it will lower further down (below stage 0 (no red lights on)) but there is no button on the console that lets YOU do this manually. The reason for this lowering is for improved (decreased) wind resistance therefore better control at speed and more speed!

On U.S. spec cars the standard (low if you want to call it that) height is actually slightly higher than on European spec cars due to the design of U.S. roads. So when you are entering fuel stations, shopping malls or which ever, your front bumper doesn't hit the ground! I saw this on internal docs for the CL-class and I elieve it applies to the SL as well. Heck even the U.S. spec C32 AMG has a higher clearance the Euro spec one. Even the previous U.S. spec SL (129) had a higher front than the Euro spec one.

Another thing If you had raised the car and left it raised it will lower itself once you get to the speeds as mentioned above but once you slow down below 60km/h it will raise itself back to the stage you had last selected (stage I or II).

I have tested almost all of this on my mom's CL500 and also followed and seen it in action. It looks cool in action. What doesn't look too good is driving slowly around town with the car on stage II because it looks to high and out of proportion.

I'm interested in seeing which car gets higher on stage II, the CL500 or the forthcoming SL55.

Hope this clears it up for those with questions on ABC height functions.

GMW

A-Train

Do you have more pics of the aluminum interior? Please post. Some that aren't so close-up would be great, too. Thank you.
- A-Train

NightSea

Today I visited MB's exclusive dealer here with expectation
to replace Nokia to Motoroller .

But failed.

According to them, they don't have any for R230 SL series.
I heard R230's phone lines are different from others(Really?)

Very disappointed!

davidegai

I like everything about my SL 55 except the cheap looking light plastic lining of the roof. I heard from some members they got alcantara, but i did not know that it was available

blueSL

I agree the standard roof lining looks cheap. Having the alcantara roof lining is quite expensive - 1400 euros, but in Germany, it's a no cost option if you have the exclusive nappa leather option. Not sure about other countries.

There again, alcantara needs to be treated with care and it will be interesting to see what the instrument cowls look like in a few years.

It's something an auto-trim ship could probably do quite easily.

davidegai

You are right, but then again who has the time to look at the car's roof while driving?