SL500

Great to drive but so many expensive problems

I bought my SL500 after owning an SL350 for 2 years. The 350 was "underpowered" for the weight of the car, the 500 was significantly better and really good to drive.
However, just like the 350 the 500 had a chronic boot leak due to the inherent poor design of the boot seals below the rear window. The 350 was repaired twice under warranty and the 500 THREE times, the last time was not under warranty and Mercedes refused to make any contribution towards the repair.
Mercedes refuse to acknowledge that their design is a problem and, as my local dealer confirmed, prefer to pay for repairs under warranty before "disowning" the problem.
BEWARE - THE NEW SHAPE SL's STILL HAVE THE SAME DESIGN FAULT.
Over the 3 years I owned the 500 (20,000 to 53,000 miles) the catalytic converter failed and the front suspension strut failed twice. I aslo completely lost power on the motorway when the driveshaft sensor failed and automatically put the car into netral.
All in all, not good for such an expensive car and I have now sold it and bought a Mini Cooper convertible!!

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