Thanks. That was a good link for information. I went to benzworld based on earlier recommendations but had not found the right forum until your link.

 

If you live in the boonies and would rather take your car to a shop? I would recommend what ever your local dealers are.
Think of it as getting a reliable daily driver and being able to keep your 928.

I don't believe there is any shame in driving a focus or a camery if it is reliable, cheep, and helps you keep your 928 for the time you want to go for a blast or take your little woman to a fancy hotel for the weekend.
It is also north american to support our own.
thats my tundra across the street, built in the USA. I drive the **** out of it maybe even harder then the porsche. It has 97,000 on it and i put gas and oil in it, thats it, with NO Problems. I will have to do brake pads soon.

 

Hmmmm ... Then there must never have been any problems. Daimler owned Chrysler, iirc.

 

......age related fog? Right you are! You know Crossfires are now considered Mercedes.... Last year, they even had a spot at the Euro event at the BMW plant in Greer. WTF!

 

both mine were 2005 models and I never had only one issue which had I not had a warranty would have been a $3k fix. It was failure of one of the rear shocks....

I would never own a car like this w/o a warranty. Buy the warranty at a MB dealer. The cost of the major repair I had was more than I ultimately paid for the warranty.

 

Buy a newer MB under warranty and you won't be working on it, the MB dealership will.

 

The PO of my car (Dentist) has one and the tranny was replaced under warranty. The dealership bill to MB of Canada (I suppose) was for $36K. It showed Nil for him (under warranty). This was 4 months ago. So you will always need some kind of warranty such as Lubrico etc.

 

Early to mid 2000 MB's were having problems with crappy Valeo (italian) radiators. The transmission cooler internal to the radiator would bust and cause coolant to enter the ATF. After some time of this, say bye bye to your transmission. Preventative maintenance dictates replacing the radiator with a Behr unit before this issue occurs.

Oh, and at that time MB also was on the "lifetime" ATF fill bandwagon. Those AMG speedshift R transmissions are very very expensive...

Dan
'91 928GT S/C 475hp/460lb.ft

 

Based on some of the comments in this thread I will look at '08 SL55. Aside from the purchase price the insurance rates are probably equally different. I would love to include the SL63 in my list but since they came out in '09(?) they are probably outside my price range.

Whatever. The bottom line is it's a joy to consider these cars and to dream of owning one.

Dreams are central to life and I relish mine.

Thanks to all of you for your input. When something happens ya'll will be the first to know.

 

It is really not the year the SL65 was produced. They will all most likely suffer the same fate. It's age and time. For the longest time, owners were saying to stay away from the 2000, then 2001, then 2002, then 2003, and so forth and so on as time went by.

The problem with the 2000+ SL and/CL's is that they ride on the ABC suspension. It is a hydraulic based suspension. The steering pump is also the ABC pump and when it fails it is very expensive at around $3,000 to get it replaced. Why does it fail so often? The hoses are rubber and exposed to high underhood heat. They eventually fail and either blow out or leak down. When the fluid runs out, the ABC pump runs dry and fails. During the failure, the ABC pump contaminates the system with tiny metal shards. The particles travel through the system and clog hydraulic valves and struts.

Replacing the hoses at the Mercedes dealer is very expensive. You are better taking them to a hydraulic shop and have them all updated with a higher quality hose that will handle more psi. Replacing the hoses before they fail should add considerably to the cars reliability.

The other very expensive items on the twin-turbo V12's are the coil packs. You can almost set your watch by their failure rate at around 75,000 miles and some fail sooner than that. Each side is around $1,800 and have to be replaced a side at a time. Yep, one goes bad and you have to replace all on that cylinder bank.

There are other issues but are nothing compared to the cost to fix the ABC suspension and components and the coil packs. The V12tt's are amazing engines. I loved mine but needed something more pratical.

 

My parents have a 2005 SL55, which isn't used as a daily driver, but has had no problems over the years. I'm a member of Benzworld.org, and it's a great forum for someone looking to buy a Merc. There seem to be quite a few SL65 owners there who could tell you their ownership experience.
FWIW, I have a 1999 SL500 and it's been a fantastic car.

 

I also like the SL65...gorgeous and silly powerful....not as sporty as the 928, but more of a pure touring car..... They also use an updated version of the automatic in our cars....electronically controlled with an overdrive....and the ability to handle 796ftlbs!!!!

 

I believe the limit is closer to 1000 lb-ft. The Renntech stage 3 tuned 65 is making over 900 lb-ft of torque.