got a question here. our SLK55 was backed into at a gas station a few weeks ago (my wife was waiting to get gas, and a ford exploder backed into her, boy did she use some colorful words!). The incident broke the bumper cover and mangled up the lower grill. we just got the car back from the body shop and the new lower grill is plastic. I'm wondering if this this a production change, or if they're cheaping out on us. The one that was on the car when we bought it (in may) was metal. ours is a 2005.
so the question is: what material is your lower grill made out of? what model year is your SLK 55? are you the original owner?
The center lower grill on my 2008 SLK 55 (date of manufacture July 2007, I am the orig. owner) is made of metal. The grille with the fog lamps is plastic.
Did you specify to the body shop that only OEM replacement parts are to be used in the repar/replacement? There are other non-OEM manufacturers out there that manufacture replacement body panels, etc.
If they do it properly with OEM parts and the right MY then it should be like 4 like, somethings gone wrong somewhere or MB refuse to order the older part for some reason.
ok, it looks like i jumped the gun on this one. looked at my new one a 'lot' closer last night, and it is metal, it just looks like the plastic/powder coat on it is a lot higher quality than on the original. thanks for all the input. turns out the closer inspection was a good thing: i found a couple of thin spots in the paint, and 1 spot where they burned right through it while buffing it out. back it goes. but at least we don't have to fight about parts!.
yeah, the plastic star is a bit cheesy, i'll admit. but no, i was asking about the black mesh grill, below the 'body line' of the bumper, down between the two fog lights.
a week after she got it back, a robin commited birdicide on that exact grill
and left a 'pushed in' area. was very easy to gently pull back into shape with a pair of needle-nose pliers.
but I think that's the '****-comes-in-threes' for our front bumper: original accident, burned-through buffing at the body shop, and then the depressed robin. we're done now, i want to enjoy driving the thing for while!
black dog, i was wondering how much you paid for the mesh grill....the one i had on my S55 had actually fallen off while i was driving....the dealer was asking about $400 for it...i actually got it through the salesman we buy our cars from with his discount it came out to about $180...gotta love the profit margin a tiny piece of metal...
hmmm, i'm away from home at the moment, but my memory of the paperwork makes me want to say about $350. pretty typical for AMG parts, as near as i can tell!
blackdog
duvall, wa
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