Teufel

Let's face it guys. Mercedes has a big problem in the reliability department. Don't take my word for it, do your own research! Look at the "J.D. Power and Associates Vehicle Dependability Study" for example. MB is well below the "Industry Average". For those people in the UK, just check out what "Top Gear" has been saying in their annual vehicle reliability programs. And it is just ludicrous to say that the whole world has something against MB and AMG! Further more stop making excuses like SLK55 has “teething” problems because it is a "high performance car" or because "it is a first year production car" or because "someone got a lemon" or because it "has been built too such a high level" or because "the engine is very powerful" or because "it is not a SL"!

I know it is very difficult to say anything bad about things we love; like our cars. But the truth is MB has to improve their vehicles reliability and build quality. Isn't that the main reason we all bought the SLK55 and not the Z06?

Right now my car is at the service department! They are changing the motor for one of the side mirrors, finding out what is wrong with the power steering, figuring out why there is no sound coming out of the two rear centre speaker, trying to fix the roof noise and major rattling (distortion?) noises coming from one of the subs…….

lisamcgu

Again, I feel sorry for anyone who gets a lemon wether it be Teufel with his MB or someone with a toyota corrolla.

Just read the posts here of everyone else who owns an SLK55 and see that, pretty much, we all LOVE our cars and don't have any major or unrepairable minor problems. Having a MB allows you to get the kind of attn and svc to get the minor things replaced better than if you were at toyota I guarantee.

When I went for my stereo speaker, I got a free late model MB to drive for the day as they graciously fixed my car. If you have to have a new car, and want to be able to complain about even the smallest thing and have it fixed immediately, you want to buy from MB where they will entertain and cater to you and your complaints without question.

Teufel

I did not get a lemon. I got a MB!

Most people on this forum are die-hard MB fans; specially the ones with AMGs! They don't want to say anything bad about MB/AMG. They have a lot of pride in owning a MB/AMG vehicle. I totally understand them. Again, facts are facts! Do your own research: MB has major reliability issues! Or look at any other study or article you want! By the way, Toyota was sixth on the J.D. study.

Again, no one buys a car based on reliability. There are many other factors and that is why I bought the SLK55. I love my car and I will deal with whatever problem there is!

Also, the service here in Vancouver is very bad. All my friends who own MBs are complaining and are frustrated! I remember the service was very good when I lived in Germany (15 years ago).

Late Model Courtesy car! I am lucky if they give a car at all! Most of the time I have to take a taxi to my office and wait there until my car is ready!

"Entertain and carter to you and your complaints without question"??? I am constantly fighting with them!

What you are describing is actually the kind of service I get from Acura Dealership. My MDX has been pretty much trouble free but when I do go there they are very courteous and get the job done the first time!

sjcrash

Lisamcgu is right. While I had my share of car problems with my '55, such as the squealing breaks and faulty rubber window seal, MB took care of me. Both front rotors, break pads, and rubber seal were replaced and I got to drive a E500 while the car was in the shop.

Teufel... I'm sorry to hear that your '55 is plagued with issues and you have to endure all of this with a dealership that does not seem to care about you as a customer. Forcing you to take a taxi while they are fixing your car due to manufacture problems is just not right. However, based on your past posts of issues with MB, it might just be time for you to throw in the towels and enjoy yor Acura.

Yes MB does seems to have a higher volume of quality issues these days. This is clearly a very visible problem both in consumer reviews and MB's financial statements. Fixes like the ones we encounter cost money and eat into their profit margin. If MB want to continue their success they will need to get back to their roots and address the recent crop of quality problems.

That being said, I just took a drive to Napa from Berkeley this weekend and enjoyed every moment of it. The speed, power, and handling of this vehicle is just amazing. I would buy this car all over again, problems and all.

OPEC

Hey everybody - your high performance brakes are going to squeal. Don't take the car in to have the brakes replaced. It's just brake dust. This can easily be remedied with a powerful spray of water from your garden hose. I'm suprised the dealer replaced the brakes when a 30 second remedy will take car of this.

Enjoy your cars.

AMG SLK55

Hmmm....actually many performance factory cars come with stronger "metallic" brake pads which do create more brake dust but they contain small fragments of a metallic nature which create the squeel many performance cars have. My Viper, Z06, & Cobra all had this exact same issue. I do agree...don't change the pads as it's an inherit part of a these type vehicles.

firstkill

heh move to california,

our dealer has free sodas/coffee + mixed coffe/bottle water
omlettes in hte morning on certain days, always random pastries, shoe shinners, and some other weird stuff
free dealer carwashs,
and work gets done even if u have a C class


fk

SLK55_AMG

that real sux dude!

Teufel

"The speed, power, and handling of this vehicle is just amazing. I would buy this car all over again, problems and all". Same here!
May be I should move to CA!

sjcrash

Hey... less taxes. But when I visited Vancouver I just fell in love with it. Let's trade :-). Oh and I'm keeping my car...

RJC

There should be no smoke at start up except if the car sat overnight and was started to move a very, very small distance, say out of the garage to wash and then immediately turned off, upon restart the unburned gasoline from the extra rich warmup cycle will be ignited with the new mixture at start and cause smoke(generally white), this has happened to me on 500's and 430's from time to time but only under these conditions. Blue smoke means burning oil and that's not good.

With respect to the brakes, the brakes on my CLK500 started a slow speed squeak at about 5000 miles, the dealer replaced the pads and rotors (fronts) and the squeak completely went away until about 11,000 miles, now its back again. The notion of ALL high performance brakes squealing is not true as the brakes on all the Porsche 930 turbo's, 993' and 996 I've owned over the years NEVER squeaked or did they on various other high performance cars I've owned. Get MB to make the change, and as others have indicated here that did, the noise is gone...it may come back like on my car but I hope it does not. As for SLK55 being hand made, the engine is hand assembled but not the majority of the car. The MB SOHC 3 valve twin spark engines cost MB 50% less to produce than the previuos DOHC 4 valve engines, they have rougher idle especially without load (in nuetral or park) and have much noisier valvetrains, they do have more low end useable torque and lower emissions though. The new breed of MB engines are back up to speed in the technology dept.The new 3.5 and the upcoming 4.5 and 6.3 etc are much improved.

I think the new SLK is an awesome car and the 55 is my favorite of the bunch. Congratulations to all.

lisamcgu

Oh yeah! I forgot about the free bottles of water and Starbucks coffee while waiting for the valet to bring up my car after the free carwash I keep missing the shoe shine guy though

aharte

You can usually remove brake squeel by USING the brakes. Higher performance cars often require you to beat on them occasionally to keep them running properly. Do a couple of hard stops from 80-20 mph or so, and the squeeks will probably go away.

jmejones

My biggest problem is I can't get to 1000 miles fast enough to break the damn thing in

05 SLK55AMG

Same here, 730 miles in 10 days.

HarryH

My problem is that I keep hitting the downshift button by accident. There should be a way to deactivate them. Otherwise I love this car. Have had it for ten days.

Teufel

Finally, some honesty!


"The notion of ALL high performance brakes squealing is not true as the brakes on all the Porsche 930 turbo's, 993' and 996 I've owned over the years NEVER squeaked or did they on various other high performance cars I've owned. Get MB to make the change, and as others have indicated here that did, the noise is gone...it may come back like on my car but I hope it does not. As for SLK55 being hand made, the engine is hand assembled but not the majority of the car. The MB SOHC 3 valve twin spark engines cost MB 50% less to produce than the previuos DOHC 4 valve engines, they have rougher idle especially without load (in nuetral or park) and have much noisier valvetrains, they do have more low end useable torque and lower emissions though. The new breed of MB engines are back up to speed in the technology dept.The new 3.5 and the upcoming 4.5 and 6.3 etc are much improved".

"I think the new SLK is an awesome car and the 55 is my favorite of the bunch. Congratulations to all".[/QUOTE]

rake55

Mine is pretty good so far. It's about 3 months old and has close to 1900 mi. The only thing is an irritating squeak that seems to be coming from the passenger seat. It's really bad. It has not been to the shop yet but my guess is that they may have to replace the seat.

Teufel

You lucky bustard! My SLK55 is going to be in the MB garage until Wednesday or longer! They tell me they have removed the door panel and some other? pieces and are waiting for parts to be shipped from Germany!

The problem is subwoofer distortion; not rattling noises. They have already changed the subwoofer but didn't help. I guess now they want to change the amp or the x-over or god knows what! And of course no courtesy car! NO

Oh, I forgot a minor detail SOME IMBECILE TOOL HAS DAMAGED MY BAUTIFUL BERRY DOOR PANEL IN THE PROCESS!

lisamcgu

I keep hitting the upshift button and was thrilled to find out I just needed to hold it down a second and the car would go back to Drive in Sport, but ah carumba, always having to check to make sure I'm in D when I hear the slightest reving noise is a pain,

Yes, if there is a way to deactivate the paddles, I would love to do this as well?

Mr GEL

So it's Friday again and i am still sitting with this irrrrritating clicking sound comming from the passenger area, near the back window.

They phone me at 3pm and say there is no more noise. It's fixed. I pull out of the workshop, and 5 seconds down the road i hear the same thing i've been hearing for the past week.

I'm gonna have to fix this myself i think. There is one catch. I have to be sitting in the passenger seat so i can find where this noise is comming from. Which means that i have to let someone else drive my car. Lucky them.

Teufel

I think I have the same problem but I think it is coming from inside the roof behind/above the passenger side. It sounds like some loose part is moving up and down over bumpy/uneven roads. I have another noise on the driver side window as well. But right now I have more serious problems to deal with than some minor noise problem. Distortion in the HK sound system and the sudden loss of power steering are the two major concerns of mine at the moment!

Mr GEL

Damn. That does'nt sound good. Good luck. I think we should phone the factory in Germany and shout, and swear as loud as we can at them. What the hell are these people smoking when they assemble out cars???

cubby2000

I had a noise on the passeger side and I found that it was the metal seatbelt buckle hitting the hard part on the side just opposite the upper part of the back of the seat. Just pull the buckle down and pull the seatbelt over the edge of the seat. I noticed this because if I had a Passenger, it never made a sound. Hope this helps.

CP1

Check engine light. Bad air pump diverter valve.