Mr. Xristo

Nice!!

mookie

Great photo, even though the car is a convert this is one option I would want for sure

NightSea

Mine is hard top.
Anybody knows if the hard top can be replaced with
Pano roof ? I think that basically the mechanical parts
are the same.

55-BEAR

Chris,

Are you going to order this option for your new SL55? Do you think it would be OK on a black car in this S. Florida hot weather?

P.S. I haven't installed the beautiful AMG hood emblems you sent to me, but plan to soon.

Bear

Richard

Im just having my UK dealer quote for this, essentially there seem to be 3 peices

Glass roof surround (top panel) - metal, needs spraying to car colour
Glass roof <edit>(may come as part of above)
Interior roof trim.
<edit> Interior blind

Im slightly more complicated because my interior roof trim is designo alcantara (standard on US SL55, optional and expensive everywhere else)

The parts only appeared on the parts catalog this month, and they are waiting for MB UK to work out pricing for them.


Ive seen one on a black car , and it looked excellent - in fact i think it looks much better on a dark car then on the light (silver) car in the photo ...

SL Boy

I havent specified pano roof only because when my 55 arrives I intend to drive it with the roof down most of the year so it just seems unnecessary. Been doing this with my SLK for the past five years - you can drive in the rain over 30 mph and not get wet.

One morning last winter I was driving into London with roof down - temperature minus 2 Centigrade - heater full on so really warm inside the car. Capital Radio traffic announcement said "There's some crazy guy driving an open top Mercedes on the M4".

Mind you on the two SL 500's I have driven top down I noticed slightly more wind disturbance than on the SLK. So may need to wear a yachting jacket. LOL: o :o :o

Mr. Xristo

Hey Bear.. nice to hear from you! Thank you for the compliments on the emblem...

To answer your question regarding the pano-roof, yes, I have ordered it as an option on my SL55.

I do not think it will make things "hotter" for one of two reasons. First, the glass in the pano-roof is obviously treated (i.e., coated, and or tinted) (see photo 2), and two, there is a "shade", that you may use that covers the roof from the inside (see photo 3). This is similiar to vehicles with glass sunroof's that enable you to "open the shade" to let in the light.

Photo 1:


Photo 2:


Photo 3:


Photo 4:

pocholin

That is so cool! thanks for the pics!

Mr. Xristo

Fuh-git about it..

pocholin

OK forgotten

Mr. Xristo

lol...

mookie

Hey SL55 nice pics. What is the emblem u are talking about, can u show a pic when u get a chance. It always amazing to find out that people do not order cars like this with most of the options . Are they just crazy, when u spent 115 on a car what the difference to spend 121 instead. Your pano roof is a perfect example, look great and im sure u use it. Thanks again

Mr. Xristo

Thank you.. I agree as well.. What is an extra $1800 when you are shellin out $130?

POKTCHG

LOL...

55-BEAR

Chris,

Thanx for the picts. of the pano roof. I think I'll order it for my car too!

Bear

blueSL

I agree that most options are worth having, it would be a mistake to buy a car without keyless go or parktronic and find that, actually they would have been nice to have.

There are though valid reasons to reject some of them. I like the panoramic roof but, like Richard, think it looks better with a blue or black car than a silver one which is what I have.

Others?

TV Tuner - I can see a use for it if you are stuck in traffic as part of your daily commute but I don't commute and cannot see when I would ever use it.
Distronic - Don't like the plastic dome
Fire Extinguisher - I'm not waiting around to put out an engine fire, thanks.
Heated Steering Wheel - other than drying my sweaty palms after taking a corner too fast, can't really see the point.

There's also another inexpensive option in Europe - roof rack preparation which puts nasty looking fixtures at the top of the A pillars. I didn't want it for that reason alone and in any case, I'm not going to use the SL to carry lumber back from Home Depot (or equivalent).

Now that I have the car, I'm not that impressed with the comfort seats but the voice activated phone is good, now that I and the sexy girl in the machine (stern matron, more like) are communicating. And, down the road, we'll see whether exclusive leather was worth having. The multi-spokes are great to look at, but a pain to clean, so I would probably go for the 5 spokes another time.

davidegai

I must have been missing something, blueSL, when did you get your car? Congratulations!!!

blueSL

Got it last Monday, it's just wonderful. Went back to the 129 SL600 for the first time today, it seems so old and also my 355 which still has slightly sharper handling and a tighter, crisper turn in, but the steering wheel writhes around in your hands and it's so noisy and hard riding. Oh, and it would fall to bits if I drove it every day.

There's no question, the SL55 beats the other two by a mile, a superbly balanced mix of performance, ride, handling and comfort. A stunning achievement, I cannot believe how good it is.

Did have a bit of a scare with the ESP going down and "electric consumers offline" message. I think I might have flattened the second battery showing off the roof too much. All's well now.

mookie

Congrats blueSL , looks like you are the proud owner of a super car , possible one of the all time great ones. What is your favorite part about the car?

blueSL

Actually, it's not the "headline" horsepower or torque figures. There is so much of both that you know in any driving situation, you're going to have enough. Even the limited top speed is not a problem because you are severely risking your licence if you go over 100 in the UK and even when I go to Germany, 130 - 140 is plenty. Must be (am) getting old (47)!

The key benefit the performance brings is the ability to get past slower moving traffic swiftly and with an increased margin of safety and enjoy the road at the speed you want to do, taking the road, driving conditions and speed limit into account. If that make's me sound like a goody-two-shoes, it shouldn't. I stick rigorously to the posted limits in towns but on the open road, I use my own judgment as to what speed is appropriate and take feedback from my GPS camera locators in the car (Morpheous and Road Angel) into account while keeping a very watchful eye for anyone in uniform who might spoil my day.

So getting back to your question, the thing I like most is the handling. Providing you have enough tyre grip (and it hasn't rained since I had the car so no experience in the wet yet), the car does an outstanding job of disguising its weight. It has pretty much the same agility of a car weighing over 500kg less and it doesn't have any of the ponderous stance around corners which my SL600 has. That car is heavy and feels it. The SL55 is heavy and doesn't. The fact that you have the weight on board means you get all the structural rigidity, safety, comfort and convenience you could need in a package which performs like a stripped out Sunday-special.

So, the ABC for me is the killer function.

What else do I like? The roof is an engineering marvel, the seats are the most comfortable I have ever sat in and the driving position is superb. Also very happy with my color choice, given I already have a blue SL and wanted a change; otherwise, one of the blues would have been good for me at least. And the build quality is right back there where it should be pretty much everywhere.

There's not much I don't like. The shift lever and centre console are too far back, you need to be a contortionist to open it. Not fussed about the massaging and air cooled seats, but the adjustable lumbar support contributes to the seat comfort. Not yet used to the menus on the "operating system", I find myself flicking around trying to find what I want instead of going instinctively to where I want to be, not helped by my car not behaving as in the manual.

Perhaps the thing I like least is that the finishing of the rear edge of the bonnet (hood) is slightly untidy. Not visible from outside the car, but it is from inside while driving where you can see the back edge and into the area just underneath it. Aside from the fact that I have a mis-aligned hinge, it's the one and only thing which grates.

Not that bad a report card then.

Richard

Where do you mount your morpheous ? I now have the morpheus radar detector add on, which is a hidden radar-detector (permanenly mounted behind a bumper or grill) with a new cradle, and I have the GPS re-radiating antenna aswell (hide the antenna somwhere under a bumper or in a grill, and it has a small cable that is stuck to the top of the cradle). So. I want to mount it all in a more permanent place that can be seen by the driver. I was wondering about the ash tray ..

Do you find road angel has a different/better/worse database than Morpheous ?

Cheers
R

blueSL

I've only just got the Road Angel, so too early to tell. I've had the Morpheous for over a year and have been very happy with it, it's saved my bacon on a number of occasions.

Mounting is a problem in the SL - I don't want to use sticky pads on the leather on the dash, so currently, I've got it mounted on the windscreen with "suckers", bit of a bodge and like you, looking for a more permanent solution. I am not a great fan of wires trailing everywhere.

Richard

Sounds like you need the gps reradiating antenna like i just bought. As I say, Im going to investagate the ash tray, or it will get stuck to the area below the light switch under the dash, and all wired in permanently.

London Lad

I've had road angel for a couple of months now. I find the major advantage over Morphous is the fact that it knows which way you are going and so only warns you of traps on your side of the road. I like its looks a little better as well.
I too would like to build it in and I was thinking of taking the display out (it plugs in) and mounting it and the buttons remotely.

The only problem would be updating it. I have a radio network at home and I was thinking of using a laptop and a hidden socket in the car for the serial lead. ??

Graham.

Still without SL55

morebhp

I, like most of you tend to use the Morpheous in more than one car, and like the rest of you did not want to stick the mounts to the dash of any of them.

I have found a quick and cheap way of doing this (which is probably not the prettiest) is a simple elastic band (tie a knot and push this gently into one of the dash blower grill gills. Then simply plug the unit into the lighter socket and slap on the band to stop the unit swaggering around the dash.

Has worked a treat on many cars and easily removed when it is time to sell the car on.

Haven't pushed it into the Merc dash yet. Probaly a job for the weekend. Did elastic band mount it onto the cup holder for a return jorney to Bristol this week.

Actually passed a Silver SL55 near the Merc Dealer in Bristol last night - was this a UK lister?

SL Boy

Some advice please on Radar Detectors - seems I might need one when my SL55 arrives.

Do these only detect the presence of fixed Gatso and Specs cameras? Seems to me the bigger danger in the UK is from police handheld mobile lasers. Can they detect these reliably too.

Are Road Angel and Morpheous reckoned to be the most effective. Evo has advertisements for several other makes. I figure cost is not the issue here!!

Any help really appreciated. Thanks Paul