WBear

I got my SLK350 re-delivered from ED a couple weeks ago. At the time I noticed some major scratches on the bottom of the bumper. They were obviously caused by the transporter ramp. The dealer offered to replace the bumper (won't cost them a penny since MBUSA is paying). Now I'm worried about the quality of replacement bumper. Do replacement bumpers come pre-painted from factory? Or do they come with only primer? I'd hate to have a bumper that's painted in some bodyshop.

doccyber

They all come with primer and the bodyshop paints them your car's color. Being a new car and all, you would not notice the difference. Demand another car if you are not happy with this one, specailly if you have not taken delivery yet. Also if you still do not have the car, there is still time to get something else. This is one very cheap and low quality car, not worth the price.

vraa

Doc don't be so negative!

Wbear, if you haven't taken delivery, demand a new car. The new Benzo's come with ceramic clear coat that has to be baked on from factory IIRC. The body shop your dealer uses can't match it.

However, if it were me, I'd just forget about it, and get an aftermarket bumper from a reputable tuner to spice up the looks of the car

doccyber

Doc don't be so negative!

I can be negative if I want to be. The stupid bumper costs 1700 Dollars to replace, because I hit a piece of tire tread that ripped right through it. If this was a better built car, it would have survived it like any other car I have driven so far. And honsetly don't tell me you do not notice the constant rattling from the trunk, related to the folding mechanism of the roof. This is supposed to be "normal" according to dealer and MBUSA. Also have you not noticed how easily the interior scuffs as soon as you touch it. In my book these things are taking all the fun out of this car.

vraa

Sometimes ya gotta get used to it.
Or get hard with the dealer! Dads SL rattled like crazy, constant bickering with the dealer and playing hardball got stuff fixed.

And on the bumper ripping off, that's not really fault of the car, it is a sports car. ****, I'd have problems if a tire hit my X5!

As for the interior scuffing, that happens on my X5 as well. That's something I haven't found a fix for

doccyber

My point is that I have hit tires on the freeway in my BMW, I had a 328 and 330 for 6 years with sport package, and nothing happened and the X5's interior does not scuff anywhere close to this car. The SLK has completely different interior material than any other MBs out there. Go see for yourself.
I am trying to make the people who are considering getting this car aware of the problems with this car. Sorry to get offtopic on this one.

vraa

I do know for myself, I have access to a R171 daily

You're not off topic, you're perfectly on topic. This is a R171 forum right?

WBear

Well, this being an ED car, I already put 2000 miles on it in Europe. The dealer is perfectly willing to do whatever I want. I think I'll just have them sand the scratches and blend the paint. Should not be visible since the scratches are on the bottom of the bumper. I'm also getting a clear bra so that should help with chipping.

Shinigami

It's an MB, what did you expect. It's not supposed to be the cheapest car marque in the world, and they charge a premium for OEM pieces. They've always done it, and they'll always do it.

Lots of things can cause you to have experienced more 'damage' to your bumper when running over a tire:
a) the speed at which you were driving. Faster you go, the harder the impact.
b) age of tire. Older tire, the harder it will be having been baked in the sun.
c) other tire debris. Maybe the tire had a piece of rim inside, or other stuff that caused it to 'rip' the bumper.
d) size of tire and the position that you hit it with. Larger tires and/or certain parts of it can cause more damage.
e) tire consistency. They tend to add metal rings into tires of certain marque to increasy solidity. A tire like this when making contact with your bumper could very easily mess up your bumper.
f) where exactly did you hit it. Was this a head-on collision with a tire, and was it just a scrape with the other cars you've had/have.
g) Due to new safety laws, MB, as well as other car makers, have had to make their bumpers out of a more supple material which should 'hurt less' a pedestrian in case you collide with one. This may be another reason why your bumper got damaged more then with the other cars you've driven. Sometimes you have to give up something in the name of safety.

I hope you understand what I'm getting at. But there's quite a bit more to this then just hitting a tire. We don't have the full picture, and you haven't provided us with any pictures/proof or adequate information concerning the 'tires' you've hit with your different cars. Mind you, I'm not saying you're a lier, and it may very well have been that in all cases you hit a similar tire (or piece of tire shred), but there's nothing more we can do to help you concerning the fact that you tore your bumper up (which of course is unfortunate, and I understand how much it must svck to have to pay for a new one. I don't wish that on anyone).

Guess what. I still don't have any rattling coming from the trunk. almost 8 years of ownership with approximately 8000miles on the meter.

Your dealer is a swindler. Don't accept a reply like this as this is most definitely NOT normal. There are 3 reasons why your car could rattle:
1) Seat belt buckle is not seated ON the seat, but rather between the seat and the door, where it vibrates against the side of the seat that is not covered by leather.
2) There is a problem with the lock mechanism on some cars that were delivered. A piece was installed upside down and this causes rattling when you drive. This can be fixed.
3) The roof may indeed be broken and rattles. The roof mechanism has multiple points where screws are used to seat it in place where it functions correctly. One, or several of these screws may be loose and needs to be fastened correctly. You may additionally have seated the safety net incorrectly which results in a rattling noise...

Actually, it's not the interior scuffing as such, but the rubbery granular material is removing dead skin cells from your hands/fine cloth filaments from your clothes, and leaving this as debris on top. This can be easily cleaned with a moist micro fiber towel. Although inconvenient, it reduces glare, a common problem with other roadsters that use shiny plastic or smooth leather (alcantara won't do this, but alcantara is more expensive). You can get an extra alcantara lining for the interior of the SLK, but it will cost you more. It does make it look 'less cheap' if you want to use those words.

U2fast4me

Respect ppl opinion. I have E500 and I think it's a POS.
ANyways, RIck. wanna come to 1 of our meet in Houston. We all have Infiniti FX.

bloflin

Ricky, not completely true. Across the US a number of the Benz dealers have installed the new equipment to handle the new painting & clearcoat. Austin's Benz is one of these.

BTW, most people don't realize the percentage of new cars that have had paint repair before they pick them up (this is not just MB). If they are overseas built, then repairs usually happen at the port (i.e. VPC), but also are repaired at the dealers. I'm not talking about hail damage, which they disclose, I'm talking small scratchs and dings in shipping/transport.

vraa

Oh I respect his opinion! I think it's fantastic for him to come and share his experiences, without different opinions this board would suck!

I'd love to get a meet sometime. However, I'm going to Hawaii in a few days for a business trip, when I get back, I know lots of guys that would love to meet up.

bloflin: I was totally unaware that they finally got some guys to take care of the ceramic clearcoat! This is a surprise. Do you have a list or a place where I can obtain the list of all the dealers that can take care of the new body work?

I hope it doesn't become something like 'only 7 Audi dealers can work on the new body' or that kinda thing!

bloflin

Ricky, before I posted I was trying to find where I saw that. I can't put my hands on it, might have been an email. But, yes it was something like announcing they are one of the X (and I can't remember X) MB dealers in the US with some sort of top end collison repair designation. Including the new equipment to handle the '05 and '06 new stuff (like the clear coat).

Maverick

Although this probably should be in a different thread, I'll ask it here anyway. I have a small rattle, that only occurs on the drivers side. Sounds like it is coming behind my left ear, right behind the roll bar.

It ONLY occurs when the top is down, but only SOMETIMES when the top is down. If it is not occurring with the top down, then it will not occur as long as I keep the top down. If it is occurring, then it will not go away until I put the top up. If I do put the top up, and then back down again I can usually get it to go away; and as I said, once it is gone, it is gone at least until the next time I put the top back up or down again.

Thus it seems to be related to some variability in the particular putting the top down event. I would say it occurs about half the times I put the top down. So if I put the top back up and down again, I have about a 50% chance of making it go away.

Has anyone experienced anything like this. Could it be either #2 or #3 above? (Does not seem likely given its intermittent nature, linked to the top going down.)

What is the "safety net" referred to above? Do you mean the black mesh wind screen that goes between the roll bars?

Shinigami

The safety net is not really a net. What I meant with it (used to be a net in the older SLK) is the hard plastic cover that you need to move into the specific position in the trunk when you want to make it possible to open the roof. The two sides of this cover should be well fastened to each side of the trunk space latches so that it doesn't vibrate (although, truth be told, if it was not correctly seated in place, the roof would not open).