Gino Pinto

I’m looking to buy a 2003 Mercedes sl55 amg 40k Miles with 3 owners in Erie pa. I have been reading the forums and looking for about 3 months now. This car will be for my wife for a summer car. The lady who is selling it is asking 19k best offer and from the pictures the car looks mint. Is there any advice you guys can give me and insight. I will be going to look at it on Monday. There is no Mercedes dealer anywhere close to where she lives so for me to get the inspection will be very hard. I build and race cars and am very good with engines but I know there is certain issues. Thanks and hope you guys can help.

skylolow

ABC system as I'm sure you're aware of is the number one thing.

I'd find a good independent shop in area that is familiar with the ABC system and have them look over the whole car. They can see if there is any seepage coming from the ABC or engine starting to leak(15+ year old seals can begin to leak no matter how well the car is taking care of).

Also find out when the tires were last changed. These garage queens might have tires that look brand new but they been sitting on the car for 5 years and the tires are more or less hard as rock. She'll get on the gas and they'll spin even at speed.

Otherwise everything else is just more or less hit or miss. Engine and tranny have been very reliable in these cars. If the above issues check out you probably found a solid car that won't require thousands stuck into it immediately. Remember these are affordable cars today but new cost 100K+.

57staff

That's about what I paid for my '03 with similar miles. I've had no issues with my ABC - previous owner went through the whole system and rebuilt several of the components.

Only real issue with mine so far has been the battery control module. Mine was fried and replaced it with another used module off eBay.

Couple of things - look at the options as there are many you may want. Mine came with the heated and vented memory seats with a "pulse" feature, front and rear parking sensors (Parktronic), and radar cruise control (Distronic). There are a couple other options beyond these that are available - panoramic roof,and the P030 performance package to name the key two. Also, the navigation unit in the Command system is crap. Plus the '03 has a proprietary fiber optic system for the stereo that is impossible to upgrade. You will probably pay about $3,000 to have a stereo shop replace the head unit and amplifiers.

The good news is these are comfortable rocket ships that can cruise for hours at a high rate of speed. For me it's been the perfect GT car.

AFRJacket

I recently traded a 2005 SL55 with 43K miles, very well equipped (distronic, pulse/heat/vent seats, etc.). In real money I got about $18K. I think you can get the 03 for considerably less. Also, the 03s, 04s had some issues that were addressed by 05. I did a lot of research before deciding on the 05. I trading the SL55 for a SL63, pp, distronic, P01, magic roof, etc.

bobterry99

I can think of two problems that early production cars had: a faulty SRS connector under each seat and a loose fuel tank baffle. After 15 odd years likely these problems have already been addressed at some point or aren't going to materialize at all.

The only reason I can think of to choose an '05 or '06 car over older ones is to have the MOST audio bus instead of the D2B bus. This allows COMAND to be replaced while retaining the excellent stock amplifier and speakers.

AFRJacket

Yes, I almost switched out the stereo/nav system before deciding to trade. I was on the fence about keeping the paid for 55 vice loan for 63 ... don't regret it, but could've been hapy either way. There were advantages to both--55 was more comfortable on longer trips, more room, etc, but not the racecar that the 63 is. Definitely pros/cons of each. Sound in the 55 is far superior to the 63 HK I've got. Am looking to add an amp to rear speakers and a sub-woofer.