Mercedes-Benz SL-Class (2002 – 2008) Review
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Mercedes-Benz SL-Class (2002 – 2008) At A Glance
Looks good and make you look rich. 2006 models with increased power vastly better cars. 388hp 500SL plenty fast enough and makes a nice noise.
2002-2005 cars still a bit vague to drive and prone to expensive faults. 5 stars is for hugely improved 2006 model SL500. 3 stars otherwise. Best to steer clear of 2002-2005 SLs.
Forget Ferrari, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Lamborghini and Porsche. The most desirable car you can buy is the new Mercedes 500SL. Wherever you happen to be, no other car impresses most of the people most of the time. It's the one car the world over that says you've arrived before you even start your journey.
So what's it like to drive? Fantastic, obviously. A five-litre V8. Three hundred and six brake horsepower. A silky but overrideable five-speed automatic transmission. And probably more technology than a Space Shuttle.
ABC, SBC, ABS, BAS, ESP, ASR. You have to abbreviate to get them all on the page. Just to be boring for a moment, SBC or Sensonic Brake Control is a world first. The brake pedal is not mechanically connected to the brake servo. Instead it merely feeds messages to a control box which sends electronic signals to the microprocessor which organises the braking. It feels exactly like conventional braking, until you do something stupid, at which point the SBC and all the other control systems save your life. Mercedes, these days, build almost uncrashable cars.
To further guarantee your survival you can order DCC or Distronic Cruise Control. This involves fitting a radar scanner behind the three-pointed star on the radiator grille and stops your car ever getting within its effective braking distance from the car in front. People used to drive Mercs using the three-pointed star on the bonnet to home in on the car in front. Now the three-pointed star homes you out.
Reviews for Mercedes-Benz SL-Class (2002 – 2008)'s top 3 rivals
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Mercedes-Benz SL-Class (2002 – 2008) handling and engines
At first, the car feels disappointingly wooffley and slurred, as if you're driving on the torque converter rather than in any particular gear. So you start choosing them for yourself by knocking the lever left to go down or right to go up. Once you've got ‘D' on the rev counter screen you're back to fully automatic mode. But if you've picked ‘3', and you stop, then start again, the box goes through the gears but won't go any higher than ‘3'. It's so obedient, you can even bang it down at quite high revs if you want some engine braking downhill.
Whack down the box and boot it and, despite a mere three hundred and six brake horsepower, the acceleration up to 120 or so isn't that far off a Jaguar XKR. In other words, there's plenty. But if you've got the top down you'll probably find yourself cruising at much more sedate speeds. The car kind of lulls you into it. And that's fine, because it confirms the machine's dual - even triple - purpose nature. It's a top-down boulevard cruiser. It's a top-up town car. Or it's an out-and-out sports car capable of extremely quick cross-country times. How you use it is up to you, but unless you want to haul goods or the family, it negates the need for any other day-to-day car.
The trouble is, they're only bringing in 1,425 RHD SL500s and SL55 AMGs this year. So premium price dealers like Tom Hartley have been offering £15,000 overs to anyone with a new SL, then reselling them to plutocratic punters offering £20,000 over. That makes the list prices of £67,790 for the 500SL and £89,040 for the 476bhp SL 55 AMG no more than starting points. And though standard specs are extremely high, you could also spend a fair bit accessorising your SL. A cheaper 245bhp SL350 arrives next year, together with a 462bhp SL600 V12.
Do you want one? Of course you do. But think carefully, because this car says you have at least £1,000,000 in loose change to play around with. If you drive a new SL you will be noticed, and you'll be a magnet to fortune hunters.
Mercedes-Benz SL-Class (2002 – 2008) interior
Apart from the sheer beauty of the car, and this is the most beautiful Mercedes since the 1957 300SL roadster, you're going to knock them dead with the roof. Peugeot invented the electric folding hard-top in the 1930s. Ford of America had a go with the boat-like Fairlane Skyliner of 1958. Even Honda had one in the early 1990s CRX, and Peugeot is back again with the 206CC. But Mercedes perfected the folding hard-top with the SLK four years ago. And now, of course, they've gone one better.
The new SL roof is in three pieces. So when it electrically folds into the boot, it only takes up the space at the top. You can open the boot, then press another button to lift the folded hard top and you still have 206 litres of boot space. Not only that, there's a sliding inner cover so that if you load the boot while the top's still up you can make sure you have left exactly enough space for the roof to fold into. It's all controlled by just one handy switch on the console. No clunky clamps to break your fingernails on, and the entire operation takes just 16 seconds. You think they've thought of everything, and they probably have.
Behind the wheel, it takes a while to get comfortable because there are so many separate electrical adjustments you can make. (As an option, you can specify seats which automatically massage the base of your spine every few minutes.) You adjust the steering wheel up, down, in and out electrically. Worried that people on the pavement might actually think you've got money, you look for the automatic anti-hijack locking, but you don't have to because it's automatic. Then you unhook the American-style parking brake and you're off.
Model History
February 2002
Price announced: SL500: £67,790.
March 2002
In response to the official launch of the Lexus SC430, Daimler-Chrysler pulled the wraps off its stunning new R230 SL. This, too, has folding aluminium hard top, like that of the SLK, Peugeot 206CC and Lexus SC430.
Engines were a 306bhp V8 for the SL500, in the UK from April 2002, followed later in 2002 by the SL55 AMG. The most status you can buy in a car. (For the ultimate version see SL 55 AMG.)
March 2003
SL350 available in the UK. Has 3,724cc V6 developing 245bhp at 5,750rpm and 350Nm torque at 3,000 - 4,500rpm hooked up to six speed Sequentronic semi-automatic with steering wheel pushbutton changes.
Gets to 60mph in 6.9 seconds; goes on to limited top speed of 155mph and standard versions will cost £56,340. Combined mpg: 24.6; CO2 276g/km. Awesome 500hp twin-turbo 6 litre V12 to arrive spring 2004 with same 500bhp, 600lb ft torque twin turbo V12 as CL600, priced at around £90k.
May 2006
SL range revised and vastly improved for 2006 with new engines and transmissions and improved handling and trim. Newly developed 5.5 litre SL500 has output of 285 kW/388 hp and 530 Nm of torque. 0 to 60 in 5.2 seconds, 23.2 mpg combined. SL 350 offers 200 kW/272 hp and 27.4 mpg. 0-60 mph in 6.3 seconds.
SL 600 has 5.5 litre V12 biturbo engine offering 380 kW/517 hp and 830 Nm torque 0 to 60mph in just 4.3 seconds.
V6 and V8s have 7G-TRONIC seven-speed automatic transmission as standard. 7G-TRONIC Sport (available as an optional extra) allows shifting to be performed up to 30 percent faster in manual "M" mode; furthermore and features steering-wheel shift paddles..
What to watch out for
Check the operation of the roof.
Check the history of the car very carefully. If you are spending upwards of £30,000 you don't want to buy an SL with a chequered past.
On early SL350s and 500s the baffles in the fuel tank are prone to breaking loose and rattling, and it's a £1,500 - £2,000 job to replace the tank because it involves dismantling part of the folding roof mechanism.
Big bills for ECU problems, locking vacuum pump and transmission problems.
Warning sign indicating "electrics off line" and "battery", which disappears after a few miles means more than this. The electronic brakes could fail. Mercedes 24hour hot line, excellent service with a real mechanic can fix (needs a new alternator). BUT DON'T IGNORE THE WARNING.
Older cars develop a leak in the poorly designed seal at the rear of the roof that costs £2,500 to replace. If unrepaired, boots can fill up with water.
Auxiliary battery may not keep its charge for more than 2-3 days and thus i have no use of remote opening /roof down / heated seats / seat adjustments etc , all of which i understand are controlled by this power source , until the car has been running & charging the battery for 10 minutes + . This defeats the object of roof down in hot weather & heated seats in the cold.
21-03-2011:'Least Reliable European badged 3 - 7 year old car' in 2011 Warranty Direct Reliability Survey, with a 47% incident rate and a £742.10 average cost of repair www.reliabilityindex.co.uk
27-08-2011:Problem of premature wear of timing chain sprocket for balancer shaft of M272 and M273 V6 petrol engines. Mercedes Star bulletin about this. Big job. Can cost £4,000.
01-02-2012:Moisture gets into the central locking vacuum pump affectiong its operation.
08-02-2012:Issues with the seals of the folding hard-top, replacement of which is a two day £1,800 job. Corrosion has been found in the window frames while this was carried out.
13-10-2012:Faults with a (now) 33,000 mile 2003 SL500 over the years: September 2007 15,000 miles airbag line fault, cost £630. January 2010 22,500 miles active body control unit fault £612. October 2010 26,000 miles catalytic converter replaced £950. October 2011 revealed the off side track rod end needs replacing £250. September 2012 33,000 miles: On return from a recent journey to Italy a new noise has emerged which is diagnosed as the power steering/ABC pump. The only solution being to replace it at a cost of nearly £2000.
17-11-2012:Corrosion reported along the rear scuttle and in the leading edges of the flanges of both rear wheel arches of a 2003 R230. Mercedes dealer said not covered by 30 year Mobilo warranty.
28-12-2012:Mercedes SL 2002-2009 rated 3rd most likely car built 1997-2009 to suffer expensive problems according to Warranty Direct December 2012 Reliability Index, with an index of 555 (compared with a rating of 6 for the best)
09-05-2013:Mysterious electrical fault on 2005/55 SL350 purchased 2nd hand from an independent dealer deemed unrepairable by Mercedes dealer.
05-06-2013:Report of boot seal failure on 34k mile 2006/56 car, costing £500 to replace, but leading to swamped electrics of ancilliaries pump in the boot compartment that cost £1,000 to replace.
04-08-2014:SBC pump failed on 49,600 mile 2007 Mercedes SL350 and, despite some independent dealer involvement, Mercedes-Benz agreed to replace it free of charge.
21-01-2015:Hydraulic central locking pump on SL55AMG failed for a second time within 8 months and 725 miles due to water ingress to load area. Question is, why didn't the dealer fix the leak when he replaced the pump?
29-03-2015:Roof seals of 2007 Mercedes SL350 failed causing condensation inside the car and electrical damage. MB dealer has replaced them twice but they still fail and water continues to get into the car.
20-07-2015:Another report of failed C pillar seal, on a 2006 SL350. Quoted as "Both lower/outer c-pillar seals detached, requires new. Cost £2,349.60." Apparently the seal was modified for the 2008 facelift. MB dealer told reader to "wait and see if you get water in the boot before doing it." Now he does have water in the boot. Local garage unwilling to undertake the work because of its complexity.
09-04-2016:Report of problems with ABC braking system of 54k miles 2003 Mercedes Benz SL500. 'ABC visit workshop' (soft) warning light came on. Mercedes dealer replaced strut (£1,300). On collection car could not be driven from forecourt: red ABC warning. Dealer replaced tandem pump (£1,377). Four days later, soft warning appeared again. Later the same day f/os suspension collapsed: connecting rod broken. Repaired FOC. Car serviced/MoTs. Then needed to be returned because of clunking noise from steering on lock-to-lock when car stationary. Diagonal struts re-aligned (discounted cost £120).
30-05-2018:Extensive corrosion found in area of the starter battery of a 2003 Mercedes-Benz SL600 when the battery was removed. It had been replaced in 2013 but the expansion pipe to channel acid away from the battery area had not been refitted, and the battery tray and inner wing had suffered extensive corrosion quoted at £7,000 to repair. (So this is an area worth checking if buying a used R230 SL.)
