SL55/63/65/R230 AMG: Recently purchased 2003 SL55
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SL55
Recently purchased 2003 SL55
Hello All!
Love this thread and it has given me great information. This is my first post with a few questions for the group that I thought my be helpful to other new owners as well. I have a 2003 SL 55 with ~46K miles on it. I purchased the car CPO from an out of state dealer (what a horrible dealership and miserable experience), and brought the car in for an inspection and a few repairs at my local dealer after I put about 500 miles on it. I have purchased vehicles from this local dealer before (my wife is currently in an E350), and they seem to be pretty good. Now my questions:
I also had a bunch of other things that should have been caught by the certification process but were not, but other than a letter to Mercedes Benz, I don't think there is much I can do, and I don't think they will be especially interested.
Thankfully my local dealer says that other than these few annoyances that the selling dealer should have caught and corrected (or course he said that these would have been fixed if I purchased at his dealership....), the car is in wonderful shape. They did an inspection, and thoroughly checked out the ABC, IC pump and the top and and all were in excellent condition. Car doesn't rattle or creak, new tires, and drives like a dream, so all-and-all I'm thrilled with it!
Thanks for reading my lengthy post!!
Love this thread and it has given me great information. This is my first post with a few questions for the group that I thought my be helpful to other new owners as well. I have a 2003 SL 55 with ~46K miles on it. I purchased the car CPO from an out of state dealer (what a horrible dealership and miserable experience), and brought the car in for an inspection and a few repairs at my local dealer after I put about 500 miles on it. I have purchased vehicles from this local dealer before (my wife is currently in an E350), and they seem to be pretty good. Now my questions:
- The dealer told me the rear battery tests borderline, so I should get a new one. I ignorantly did a web search and found one, but now I see the web-site I looked at could be wrong and the battery is proprietary. Anyone have experience changing these themselves, or should I just have the dealer do it for around $270? Also, I wonder if the selling dealer should have replaced a borderline original-part battery as part of the certified-pre-owned inspection repairs? (Again...these guys really really stink, so I'm probably in dreamland)
- My trunk struts seem to be on their last legs. Seems like a reasonable cost to replace via the dealer, less than $200, but I am wondering why they are not covered under warranty? From searching the forums here it seems some folks get them warrantied, and others do not. Is there a difference between the latest MB warranty program and the Chrysler one? Or does it vary by country or location?
- I needed a new supercharge belt, it was squeaking a bit, and the dealer said it was starting to get some dry cracks and should be replaced. It was relatively inexpensive, but again, I still wonder if the selling dealer should have replaced it. What are other folks experiences with replaced-before-purchase wear-and-tear items on their CPO purchases?
- My gas nozzle receptacle seems loose (and I've read posts here stating its a common problem), but the dealer claims that he checked a few other cars on the lot and called "corporate" and that this amount of give is normal. By the time I got to this item on my list, I was so weary I just let it go for then. Anyone have any thoughts or experience with the gas receptacle?
- I believe the radio/command has the original firmware. It will cost me an hour or two labor to update it, does anyone have any recommendations as to if it is worth it?
I also had a bunch of other things that should have been caught by the certification process but were not, but other than a letter to Mercedes Benz, I don't think there is much I can do, and I don't think they will be especially interested.
Thankfully my local dealer says that other than these few annoyances that the selling dealer should have caught and corrected (or course he said that these would have been fixed if I purchased at his dealership....), the car is in wonderful shape. They did an inspection, and thoroughly checked out the ABC, IC pump and the top and and all were in excellent condition. Car doesn't rattle or creak, new tires, and drives like a dream, so all-and-all I'm thrilled with it!
Thanks for reading my lengthy post!!
