Comments on: Mercedes SL550 Review

By: merc411

merc411 — Thu, 10 May 2007 02:00:36 +0000

The 2007 edition of SL550 not only has more horse power but more gears and torque too. When you look in to the inside of the car you will see a much more improved and more luxurious car than before.

By: Lesley Wimbush

Lesley Wimbush — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 03:31:55 +0000

Mmm… woofly… is that the same as having a “talking cam?” (courtesy of grassroots motorsports forum).

The B Class. It’s ugly.

There’s a black SLR parked in the underground garage of Mercedes in Toronto where I pick up my press cars. It looks like an evil dragon. It makes my knees weak.

By: Penaloza

Penaloza — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 03:10:56 +0000

My father still has his 190sl. A 1959 I believe. Wonderful car to cruise in as a 16yr old kid. It’s a little pokey, with only a four cynlinder and it sure doesn’t feel light at all.

By: David Holzman

David Holzman — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 02:23:58 +0000

>>Fact of the matter is that the SL has always been among the densest cars you can buy. Not large, but heavy.

Yeah, if any denser, they’d become black holes

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 21:57:19 +0000

IIRC, and I am almost that old, when the 300SL (the great Gullwing) came out the SL was supposed to stand for super light. My Grandfather drove a 190 SL for a while, back then.

By: David Holzman

David Holzman — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 20:47:21 +0000

TexasAg03:
Iâ€™m sure you know that car owners who inflict double-dubs on their whips happily sacrifice ride and handling on the altar of, gulp, style. R.F.
I agree with your use of the word â€œinflictâ€ here. I would like to see someone (TTAC, perhaps?) research the effects that larger wheels and tires have on handling and braking. When unsprung weight increases, with no suspension or brake upgrades, bad things can happen. Most people donâ€™t understand these things, and I wonder to what extent the safety of the car is compromised.

I second this!!! I recently spent a lot of time trying to find info on this. I needed new tires for my Accord, and I was thinking of getting bigger wheels. (A bunch of people convinced me not to.)

Regarding the SL550, when I look at those headlights, I think of peanut farmers in Georgia in their overalls. And I, too would like to know why it weighs so much (forgive me if someone has already answered that question–I’m taking a brief break from work). Put these cars on diets!

By: dolo54

dolo54 — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 20:39:04 +0000

oops – i was told sl stood for ’sport luxury’ which makes a lot more sense than ’sport light’… my bad. oh yeah the one my friend has has a gas mileage meter which is usually in the low 30s. i don’t know how accurate that is, if it’s anything like the prius mileage meter, it’s not at all, but still it seems to do pretty good for that big a car and engine.

By: mbslk350

mbslk350 — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 19:53:33 +0000

I drove the SL500 and the just-released SLK350 a couple of years ago. I bought the SLK350. To me, the SLK350 is 80% of an SL at 50% of the price. The SLK doesn’t have ABC (who cares?), it doesn’t have the SBC brakes (a definite plus!), it’s faster than an SL500 (not sure about the 550 though), and it has active heated headrests that allow top-down motoring down to 30 degrees F (no joke). So, the SLK offers some nice stuff that the SL doesn’t have, it lacks stuff I cound not care less about, and it left about $45K in my pocket compared to the SL. Not to mention that it gets nearly 30 mpg on the road and low 20’s around town, which is a nice bonus.

By: Jonny Lieberman

Jonny Lieberman — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 19:27:52 +0000

I really hope they stick the 6MT in the M6 Convertible…

Can you imagine?

By: sykerocker

sykerocker — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 19:08:38 +0000

Woofliest = making a â€œwoofleâ€ sound. Not quite a burble, but in the same ballpark.

Coolâ€¦new word.

No it’s not. I first haerd it used by Joanna Lumley in The New Avengers. And she made it sound sexy as hell.

Syke
Deranged Few M/C

By: Michael Karesh

Michael Karesh — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 19:05:49 +0000

The 650 is no different. Coupe handles much better–no doubt because it weighs so much less. Still don’t care for it.

By: Jonny Lieberman

Jonny Lieberman — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 18:47:58 +0000

For a modern two-seater, it is rather large.

But, I meant that a two-ton two-door is by definition fraggin’ huge.

I’ve driven a 645i convertible, not the new 650i, and it was novacaine.

Dull, dull, dull — for what it should be.

I wouldn’t kick it out of bed, etc.

By: Michael Karesh

Michael Karesh — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 18:36:38 +0000

Is it frickin or freakin? Gotta get these things straight.

Anyway, Steve S was clearly referring to the size of the car, not the weight. I don’t know about you, but when I hear “huge” I think size, not weight.

Fact of the matter is that the SL has always been among the densest cars you can buy. Not large, but heavy.

BMW doesn’t build light cars. But even though the 650 is a foot longer than the SL, and weighs about 400 pounds more than its coupe counterpart, the SL weighs about the same.

By: TexasAg03

TexasAg03 — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 17:40:44 +0000

Woofliest = making a â€œwoofleâ€ sound. Not quite a burble, but in the same ballpark.

Cool…new word.

By: Jonny Lieberman

Jonny Lieberman — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 17:25:42 +0000

Karesh,

I meant that 4200 pounds makes it frickin huge.

Man… this place is becoming the Fussy Truth About Anal Semantics dot Com

By: imageWIS

imageWIS — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 17:18:48 +0000

The side vents on the SLR are very retro-inspired. The original SLR had massive side vents (as did the original 300SL for that matter), thus MB followed the pattern. The CLS is to me the best looking Benz currently made, with the SL and SLK coming in 2nd and the C-Class coming in third. I remove the SLR from being counted on the sheer fact that itâ€™s in a different league than the rest of the MB range, after all itâ€™s a â€˜Mercedes-McLarenâ€™.

Today, Mercedes on average look better than their BMW counterparts, whereas 7 years ago it was the other way around. As look as Audi keeps on coming on at full steam, I think both will continue to lose market share in the US.

Jon.

By: Michael Karesh

Michael Karesh — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 16:58:33 +0000

Jonny,

Check the specs. The SL is 178.5 inches long on a 100.8-inch wheelbase. A Civic sedan in 176.7 inches long on a 106.3-inch wheelbase.

Not freakin huge.

I had limited exposure in a 2004 SL500 recently. I wasn’t in an area where I could push it terribly hard. But in 5/10 driving it felt much more agile than I expected it to.

Want a high-end convertible that handles like it weighs over two tons? Buy a 650Ci. It weighs about the same as the Benz, but is considerably larger, and feels larger still.

On the styling issue, I feel that Mercedes was turning out some nicely styled if somewhat understated designs in the early 2000s. But now they’re getting overwrought. I don’t care for the RX-8 fenders on the new S-Class. The new CL is an eyesore. The R has a fish face and a hint of bangle butt. And the SLR’s hood has a huge phallus on it, not to mention the similarly overdone side vents.

By: Terry Parkhurst

Terry Parkhurst — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 16:55:07 +0000

Admittedly 4202 pounds is a lot of weight for a machine whose letters after the numbers equate to “sports light.” But there’s plenty of stuff here which will save your life – even when at rest.
In late 1999, there was an incident that shows how weird things get out in the so-called real world. A guy in Bellevue WA was in his “sports light” – a 1991 model as I recall – when the flatbed truck, carrying metal dumpsters, lost its load; he was just next to it.
The driver thought the driver of the Merc was “flatter than a tortilla” (as Karen Black’s character described a poor cat, dead-in-the-road, in the great movie “Five Easy Pieces”). But (as a certain auto mag says), but wait there’s more.
It turned out that as soon as the dumpster hit the Benz drop-top, or maybe because the driver had tried an evasive manuever, the Merc’s controls for the pop-up roll bars, thought the car was going over; and so, the roll bars popped up. That kept the dumpster from crushing the guy and allowed the local fire department’s medics to free the driver.
Now admittedly, most of the boy racers who insist that everything coming from the three-pointed start must be AMG-spec will just yawn and say, “So what’s your point old dude?”
The point is Morris Garages got it right in the Fifties with their slogan: Safety Fast.

By: Jonny Lieberman

Jonny Lieberman — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 16:39:34 +0000

Steve_S,

The SL is also freakin huge

By: Steve_S

Steve_S — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 16:27:11 +0000

I missed the weight, sheesh doesn’t a Charger weigh about that much and its freakin huge?

By: Jay Shoemaker

Jay Shoemaker — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 16:08:27 +0000

I have owned five of these models including the SL55 and SL600 and they are completedly misnamed as “sport” and “light” since they are neither. They drive and handle like large sedans and use anti-gravity trickery, AKA active body control to confuse you into thinking differently. The electronic brakes, universally disdained and ultimately banished from the E and CLS class, soldier on in the SL, eliminating all brake feel. Mercedes has decontented the SL since its introduction in 2003 in order to hold the MSRP fairly level and now it is cursed with the worst sounding stereo in the model line. Mercedes idea of improving the interior for 2007 was to add a piece of leather over the instrument binnacle which previously had been plastic. Have you seen the temperature dials lately- right out of a 1970’s Chrysler.

Did you at least receive your honorary AARP card after your test ride?

By: Robert Farago

Robert Farago — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:53:15 +0000

Woofliest = making a “woofle” sound. Not quite a burble, but in the same ballpark.

By: gearhead455

gearhead455 — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:39:45 +0000

Well if you want to make an irrelevant comparison this vehicle is 150 Lbs heavier than a Ford Crown Victoria. But does a CV have any cool doodads? No…

I understand fully why this car weighs so much and I do not think it’s a big deal. Nobody should be surprised… But I was surprised that it was somewhat blown off when so many other vehicles are intensely scrutinized.

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:37:01 +0000

I still do not understand what stunting has to do with dental hygine.

Nor do I understand why a 3400 lbs Accord, which is a pretty big sedan (I own two) that seats five, justifies a 4200 lbs, two seater.

By: dolo54

dolo54 — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:12:34 +0000

A good friend owns a sl350. Once stopped at a stop light some ‘lady’ asked to sit in my lap, so yeah, it does stunt if that’s what you’re about. But the ’sl’ stands for sport luxury with a heavy emphasis on luxury. Why does it weigh so much? Well it’s a two-seater, but it’s bigger than most 4-seaters. It’s a gigantic beast but really fun to drive. I’m sure the 500 is even more fun. But saying it’s good fast but better slow about sums it up. It’s a real treat to just cruise around with the top down enjoying the weather.