Cruzer 8

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Well after the first year of use and over 22K miles.
Has had no problems except new tires on the back at 20K which is normal.
Glad we got the 07 v 06 the new v-8 performs great and the ABC, brakes and steering updates make it a totally different beast the seat upgrade is an excellent soft with good support, but you can bring in the side bolsters and put the sport mode on and it becomes a very toss-able machine it has surprised many a lighter sport type vehicles on the twisty turnies and the 7 speed box helps here allowing you to keep the engine in the torque range required for this type of driving it will still up-shift if you hit the limiter but holds the gears for deceleration if you keep the 2500 to 4500 rpm range it is better at this than the 7 speed in the SLK350 that we had as it would up-shift as it hit the limit where this one actually gives you a little stutter type warning and you can back off or brake and hold the gear. This Cruzer has held its own with many " Exotics " as we have ran it with a Euro-Group on a number of occasions.
In the normal mode it becomes a comfortable GT and we have driven 800 miles at a stretch and averaging 75 mph it gets 28-29 mpg.
Now the things that we don't think are up to standard for this type of vehicle ; the nav system is to old, the cup holders obscure the nav screen and cups tend to stick and are not easy to get out and they also block a portion of the control buttons. The hands free phone system needs to be updated and it and voice activation should become standard it should not have to have $$$ dealer installed options to make it work. The location of the CD changer is bad (not a draw back for us because we don't use it or the radio because we talk when driving and both enjoy the silent times) the audio system is not great and it should have a fade control between the front and back speakers. When the phone is out of the cradle the blue tooth on the vehicle should shut down as we have had the phone battery go dead because it still holds the connection up to 30 feet away which drains the batteries. There are not enough aux dc plug in points the glove box is cooled ( which is good for us ) but it does not have any aux electrical outlets.
Overall it is an excellent vehicle and our complaints seem to be common to the SL, SLK models and some of them my be addressed by MB over time.
Sorry for the long post but it may help others who are thing of buying one of these cars.
PS: I believe that this is a Tues or Wed car

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SL 550 Mars Red

Tslick

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Glad to hear your enjoying the SL. All the negatives you point out would not affect me (don't need them).