aparsh

Hello,
There is a 2002 SL55 AMG in my area with 71k miles for $26k.
http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/cto/4427360578.html

It has some mods (ECU tune, exhaust, pulley, wheels/tires), but the owner has no dyno numbers available. He said the ECU tune was done over the internet by Eurocharged, done by Jerry out of Houston location. I'm new to this whole scene so hopefully that rings a bell to some SL55 veterans. These mods were installed by the current owner, which is good because that means the extra wear was not placed on the engine for a terribly long period of time, although i do not know yet how many miles it had when he bought it stock.

Moving forward, he says that the title is a grey market title on carfax because it was titled in Germany and owned there and then brought over. He is the 3rd owner of the car.

I have to say, i love the color, i love that it has some mods (i dont like the wheels), but at the same time, it has a lot of red flags with multiple owners, 71k miles, and this grey market imported title.

Also Kelly blue book does not list SL55 AMG for 2002, the owner says that this is a mistake because it was available in 2002 for a short period before transitioning to 2003. Can anyone confirm that? I'd hope this was not a standard SL with SL55 body/engine/etc added to make it look AMG.

With everything above, and checking kelly blue book for a 2003 sl55 it seems that if this was in good condition and a 2003 it would be worth about $23k. The mods are worth Zero in my opinion. With the grey market title i feel like $18-20k should be the real price.

Thanks for the advice in advance.

-Alex

okbarnett

dont get envolved with it. there were no sl55 here till 03, 02 was a euro car. who knows what differences it had internally. there would be no parts or service info here, you would be dependent on hunting in europe for everything you needed. MB would want to upcharge you for everything they do with it. All indy shops would upcharge you for anything they do.
If you cant find a US 03 to buy, wait till you can afford it and save alot of time and money

sgaar

I believe that that SL55 became available here in mid '02 for MY03. You easily get an '03 for the kind of money this seller is asking.

Benz-O-Rama

In my opinion, stick with 05 and up. 2005 got the refreshed electronics and with current pricing, seems to be the best bang for be buck.

There's enough of these on the market to steer clear of a grey market car.

vtvette

I owned a grey market 7 series BMW years ago. Getting parts was indeed a nightmare. Seemed many things were close but not the same. I would not go through it again.

wroberts929

I have a 2004 sl55 I will be selling if your interested please message me and I can call or email you the details

cal1

You asked about the tune. Yes, Jerry at Eurocharged (EC) is well known and respected as a tuner. It sounds like the car in question has what many refer to as a shelf tune. It is a tune set up for a similar set of modes that they can remotely load to the ECU.

aparsh

Thank you for the reply. From someone that has never owned a MB vehicle before i'm a pretty big noob on that, but have since noticed that Eurocharged seems to be one of the most popular tuners in the MB industry.

dRockSL55

Wow, that is a really, really nice color on an SL. The vin data card comes back as "Topaz Blue" /946, however this does not look anything like topaz blue to me - so the vehicle may have been repainted (perhaps why the rear badges are a little out of place / set too close to center besides the sl63 brake light)
I also noticed in one of the rear pictures, with the reflection of the power/telephone wires above there appears to be a substantial amount of "orange peel" to the paint finish so the paint job might not have been the best quality. It certainly doesn't appear to be lacking gloss, though! Make sure you check all the jambs and cowling to see if they are a different color.

After you check out the car in person thoroughly, if you really like it I would price it similarly to a vehicle with a salvage/rebuilt title because of the grey title history - which will always ding its value. If the seller is not willing to get into this price range, I would definitely pass.

Will you be doing your own work on this car or all dealer service? As mentioned above there is a possibility of service issues with the dealer because it was an EU car, however if you do your own work you should be able to just use 03 model parts when needed. Though it is an EU spec car, being a left hand drive from an EU based manufacturer I don't think there will be much issue with MECHANICAL parts - nearly everything is probably the same as US spec 03s. Problem may arise when e.g. a module has to be replaced and the car will require a non-US or North America variant coding to program to EU vehicle. Not an issue for a developer star sds system but I'm not sure if the normal SDS software at US dealers will have the coding for other regions as well.

Good luck, it certainly is a sharp looking 55

sgaar

This is the datacard for the car. It sure doesn't look blue. As the previous poster said, the AMG badges looks like they are too far from the edges of the trunk.

cal1

Here is my two cents on performance company's. Renntech (RT) is still the gold standard for MB performance mods. All of their stuff had been well tested and is bullet proof. When you see the prices they charge, you will think they should be gold plated. If I was a rich bastad, I would buy my favorite AMG and send it straight to RT in Florida for some nice mods, but I am not. I actually have some RT stuff (pulley, pump & HE), all great stuff.

Kleemann is also a great performance company. Many guys on the boards have Kleemann stuff and speak highly of it. They almost all deal with Cory @ Kleemann. I have spoken with him myself and believe him to be both very knowledgeable and professional.

EC seems to be the up and comer. They have some excellent products and are very customer oriented. They do remote tunes constantly. They are very price competitive. They also seem a bit more willing to push the envelope than RT and Kleemann, but will work with each customer's particular desire to go aggressive on tunes. I currently have an EC dyno tune and chose to trade some HP and TQ for safety.

There are other like OE tuning, but I don't know much about them.

So when you pull the trigger on the right SL and decide you want some mods, ask the gang here. You will get some good answers. The W211 guys seem to be the biggest mod nuts so lurking over there is always a good way to learn stuff too.


By the way, beautiful dog in the avatar. We have a "for dog lovers only" thread over in Off Topic. You should post up some photos. Here is the link.
https://mbworld.org/forums/off-topic...vers-only.html

RoundTheBenz

Sagar, where did you get that datacard from? Is there somewhere I can order one from? Thanks.

sgaar

Subscribe to the Electronic Parts Catalog (EPC) here http://epc.startekinfo.com/epc/. They will ask for a CC but it is free. You get access for one year.

Once you get the app fired up, you put in the VIN for the car and you can get the datacard. It is in the 'View' drop down menu.

RoundTheBenz

Cheers Sgaar!