Owners thoughts on SLK350 please?

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someone will jump in. sport usually means sport package like body side and front moldings. sometimes different brakes and suspension.

please post your intro thread when u can

Your 1st thread should be your introduction so we can welcome you properly so post an introduction in the ‘New members introduce yourself here’ section, if you haven’t already. http://www.slkworld.com/new-members-introduce-yourself-here/

you can check the veh datacard section and see what others might have listed

when you find a car for yourself, post the vin to get the options

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I have the SLK 350 R172 (2012) with the AMG body package, and sport package. I also have a C300, and previously have had Mini Cooper.
The ride and handling of the SLK350 is excellent, and the adjustable sport suspension varies the car from a taut ride, to a very smooth ride, not floaty, but allows more vertical movement than I would have thought with a sport suspension. Quite frankly, it rides and handles much better than the C class it seems to be based on, and the C Class is a pretty decent machine (2010MY 4matic). I have 42,000 km on the car, no rattles, no squeaks, and not winter driven.

The three mode transmission acts quite differently, depending on the mode. The normal (E) mode is great in normal driving, putting it in the (S) mode engages 1st gear and seems to speed up the shifts. The (M) mode requires driver input, and makes the car quite engaging for an auto box.

Disengage the traction control, at least as much of the traction system as MB allows, with the car in manual mode will certainly light up the rear tires quite easily. Although more power is always better, the 350 has plenty of useable power to hustle it along, but the deep bass soundtrack of the AMG V8 would make the car a pleasure. The 350 has a decent soundtrack on its own, more the traditional sound associated with 300SL's of the past.

During a 400 mile (1 way) drive this summer, the car proved quite comfortable, quiet on the highway even with the top down, and quite able to take on some quicker and more interesting secondary roads. All the while, it returned 7.2 l/100 km on average over 800+ miles of highway and town driving (more highway).

The audio system, HK, is good, but could really use a subwoofer as standard kit - but the minute the top is down, you loose so much of the reflections modern sound systems need to sound good.

It is December in Canada, and this isn't a normal year, it was 15 degrees here today (about 16 degrees higher than normal). I had the car out for a run today, top down on Christmas eve... guess I can't technically say it isn't winter driven anymore .

It will get washed tomorrow, and the cover will go back on as it should be -6 degrees by Monday. I love winter, come on spring...

UK brochure can be found here;

AMG Sport consists of AMG body kit, leather seats, dropped suspension, different dials in the dash and 18" wheels.

http://www.walteranderson.com/pdfs/slk-class.pdf

And at the risk of upsetting the fine people who own/drive 350's they are a bit of a no-man's land in the UK. Especially used. To want a 350 from new you had to want a bit more performance than you got from a 250 (petrol or diesel) but not care that much about fuel economy. On the other hand you were worried enough about purchase price and running costs that you didn't go for the SLK55.

So, in the UK there are very, very, few 350's which makes them a bit of a rarity and they are usually quite expensive compared to either an equivalent 55 or 250 (certainly compared to a CDi 250).

If you can live with the fuel economy drop, then the SLK55 is a MUCH faster car for very similar money because the engine size puts off a lot of buyers and the CDi250 is a lot cheaper and MUCH more fuel efficient for an almost negligible loss of real world performance.

The only difference between SLKs is the engine really. All the automatics use the same gearbox (except the 55) and the specs and options are identical across all the models so you can (or could) go as mad as you like speccing up an SLK200 or spend the money on the engine in the 55.

You won't be unhappy with a 350, I'm certain, but you really could be in a 55 for the same money, and that's a LOT of car.

Thanks to everybody who has taken the time to reply, it's definitely given me confidence that an slk is the way forward, as opposed to a c350 coupe which was my initial thought.

wja96 said:

And at the risk of upsetting the fine people who own/drive 350's they are a bit of a no-man's land in the UK. Especially used. To want a 350 from new you had to want a bit more performance than you got from a 250 (petrol or diesel) but not care that much about fuel economy. On the other hand you were worried enough about purchase price and running costs that you didn't go for the SLK55.

So, in the UK there are very, very, few 350's which makes them a bit of a rarity and they are usually quite expensive compared to either an equivalent 55 or 250 (certainly compared to a CDi 250).

If you can live with the fuel economy drop, then the SLK55 is a MUCH faster car for very similar money because the engine size puts off a lot of buyers and the CDi250 is a lot cheaper and MUCH more fuel efficient for an almost negligible loss of real world performance.

The only difference between SLKs is the engine really. All the automatics use the same gearbox (except the 55) and the specs and options are identical across all the models so you can (or could) go as mad as you like speccing up an SLK200 or spend the money on the engine in the 55.

You won't be unhappy with a 350, I'm certain, but you really could be in a 55 for the same money, and that's a LOT of car.

Click to expand...

Just wanted to pick up on this... I think you are absolutely spot on with all your comments. I hadn't noticed how "cheap" the cdi250 was either as I hadn't looked at them (not that I'm considering one).

The only thing I disagree with is the price difference between the 350 and 55 amg. The 55 is definitely a fair bit more money. I would like to buy from Mercedes and the cheapest one they have is £30,000 (with sensible miles), but I can get a 350 from £20,000-£25,000, so there is certainly a price differential there.

I would much prefer a 55.... Ive just turned 25 so insurance is a fair bit cheaper now which is good.