We had 2 R171's at our event yesterday (9 r170's).

The Northern California SLK Enthusiasts group met again Sunday June 26th for our drive "To Miss Alice's and Onward to the Palo Alto Concours." A good time was had.

To view a Quicktime movie,of the 6/26/05 event pictures, complete with music:

https://home.comcast.net/~motzkoiv/0506SLK.mov

For movies of all the drives back through January (and more), you can access them at:

http://home.comcast.net/~motzko/Steves_SLK_Page.html

Quicktime viewer for the PC is available free at:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html

Quicktime viewer for the MAC is available free at:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/mac.html

Enjoy....Steve

 

Thanks again for sharing. Looks like you guys all had fun on a perfect day!

...Karl

 

Thanks for sharing and...it looked like a blast!

 

KarlS & grasshopper:
Thanks for the comments...the events are a blast and I look forward to them each month...the best part is that it is a mellow loose group with no dues, no commitments, just folks having a bit of fun with a common interest...maybe you two can start something in VA...

 

man i wish i could drive my slk in some nice weather instead of this sticky lame weather up at yale i know i say this all the time, but htf do ppl live on the east coast?

looks like you guys had a smashing good time!

 

Hi I have just noticed that you have actually sold and SL55 and bought a SLK 350. I hope you haven't explained this before but what was the reason for that? What are your thoughts having had the pleasure of driving and more importantly OWNING both drives? Would be interested to hear your thoughts. Thanks

 

heh, i never really explained the reasons before, but if you care to know... ill try to make it as short as possible

the reason for selling the sl55 was that being a college student with still a few more years to spend on the mainland, i couldnt stomach paying for a car i hardly ever used (and no way in hell im driving nice cars on the east coast - especially in the cambridge-area).

a big reason for that was because i over-extended my funds while buying up properties in hawaii. due to the housing boom, fixing up the properties before selling took a lot longer than expected and i was in a tight spot

i sold the sl55 to a guy in hawaii who also reads this forum (hope you're enjoying the car ) a year and a half ago or so. a few months after selling it i started hearing good things about the manual tranny in the slk350. i didnt really think of buying a car until around xmas. i walked into my dealership just to chat with my salesperson and there was a slk350 with almost the exact same options i would have wanted!!! turns out the dealership made a mistake and ordered a stick intead of automatic. bought it right on the spot. i havent driven too many manuals and wanted to fool around with the slk350 (which i figured wasnt too under or over powered) before (hopefully) upgrading to more exotic manuals. the slk is a car i can afford to abuse a bit and once the warranty runs out - do some upgrades on to fool around...

also, i wanted something i could drive to the beach with and not worry about getting keyed and what not. im sure the slk350 will eventually get keyed - but i figure it has less of a chance and i wouldnt be as sad as if it had happened to the SL. btw, off topic but, getting out of the water and turning on the seat warmers is the *****

well i sold most of my properties in hawaii earlier this year and made a sizeable profit (enough to buy a couple sl55s ) but decided to invest most of it into stocks and real estate in asia

i dont really need a nice car while going to college and somehow the jetta i have in boston collected over 50k miles in 1.5 yrs, and i dont know if i want to put a nice car through that much abuse. if anything ill just bring the e320 up instead of buying another mb here

right now, im just enjoying the slk as much as possible when im in hawaii

---------------------------

as for my thoughts, if i had to choose between slk350/55 or a sl55, i dont think you have to even ask - sl55 for me. the sound of the sl55 is something i still dream about quite often. although for the slk350, the manual really does live up to the hype. i love the stick in the slk, but still prefer m3's manual tranny over the slk's. but again, the manual tranny on the slk is a lot better than i expected!

to me the slk is a fun car while the sl is a more serious ***-kicking-when-necessary kinda car. i have to say the sl is too heavy for its own good, but its still a hell of a ride. the sl seems more practical than the slk because of the interior and trunk size (i go golfing a lot and i cant even fit my driver in the slk while i can fit two small golf bags in the sl... and once, i drove with a cello behind the seats. imagine doing that in a slk!). but the sl did guzzle up a lot of gas (8-13mpg city 19 if lucky on the highway as opposed to 18/26 of the slk). the slk "feels" a bit quicker than the sl but it's probably just my imagination. the slk also feels more agile than the sl.

surprisingly, i had really good experiences with the sl55 and the slk350 as they both had/have no major problems. my first car was a 98 c230 and that was a very unpleasant experience. i actually had a 03 sl500 before i got the sl55 and that car broke down the first day i got it! took the dealership over a month to figure out what was wrong and i just got my money back.

i figure since i wont go back home too often ill just keep using the money to make more money and buy a nice car once i finish school.

sorry for the long post... dunno if my descriptions really shed any light or not. was there anything in particular you wanted to know about either of the cars?

 

So basically what you are saying is for everyday use the SLK is the best?

I do around 35,000 miles a year and i bought an old SLK because it doesn't attract too much attention and i can leave it anywhere. I will probably be thinking of a new car in 2 years time and hopefully by then the diesel engines will have come out in the roadsters but i was in a quandry as to whether i should go for the SL or the SLK diesel. There will probably be about 20k difference in price. Before I was really gunning for an SL as they look beautiful cars but I am now thinking for everyday practical use doing 35k miles the SLK would seem to be the better car.

 

I know this is off topic, evanichka, but the east coast can rock... your problem isn't with the east coast, it's with the northern east coast. I'm about halfway down in NC, and we have beautiful weather. I haven't put the top up on the SLK all summer. When we get the occasional rain storm, I just drive the VW.

I'm tending bar over the summer on the beach until class resumes. Come on down... I'll buy you a drink and show you that the east coast doesn't really suck, once you get south of Va. Beach, anyway...

 

I agree with Wil. North Carolina is fantastic. I've met some of the nicest, most courteous people there. I drove a friend's manual trans V.W. and several times as I tried to pull away from a stop light it died. It was amazing how long it took for someone behind me to honk their horn and even then it was a short beep not a blast. Thank You N.C.