Opinions on 2005 SLK55 Wanted!!

But it's twice the ugly.

 

it is a fast car and a better deal than the sl55, but i agree that from the side profile, the car looks too short and stubby....from the front and the back it looks good, but not as good as the sl....the car is better compared to the boxster s, which i think looks better than the slk 55 and with mid engine and light weight, will be better handling and not that much slower

 

While I cannot stand the reviewers of the show, I did catch this car on the Car & Driver Magazine tele show. The numbers looked very good for this car, and given it's mid-40's starting range, upping to 60 for the AMG 55, it looked like a bargain. The interior is redesigned and the seats look wonderful. Personal experience? Notta. But check out the show if you come across it.

 

My friend has one. I have not driven his car, but I've been a passenger. His has under 1k mi, so he hasn't hammered the accelerator yet, but it's fast (to say the least). It shifts smoothly, and since it's a V8, there's no supercharger lag like the SLK32. The handling is very good, and it should be, since the car is so small and has a firm suspension. It is comfortable to me, and is very solid in construction. The top can be activated outside of the car with the key, and retracts in around 15 sec - a nice feature. I think it looks better in person than pics, as is the case with many cars. His is around 66k, and was on a wait list.

 

Superchargers should not have lag....

 

You're right, but there was a hesitation before the supercharger would kick in, followed by a jolt and the associated noise at around 3k rpm. The shifting was also rough, and that's why they went to the V8. Since I never drove his SLK32, I only know of this by what I felt, but it certainly wasn't smooth.

 

I drove the "regular" SLK and was pretty impressed. Still debating on whether to buy one. We're looking at new Boxster, Lotus Elise, used 996 too- lots of stuff in 40-65K price range- this is a third car, second sports car so we're not in a hurry.

I liked the top, the styling, the small size, the interior feel (fit and finish) and the price. I didn't (don't) like the automatic transmission and the paucity of gauges. The handling was nice, understeer prevailed but not objectionable; it could be improved by the AMG suspension IMO (the one I drove did not have it). Turning circle was typical MB terrific. Steering was a touch vague IMO but not bad.

I would not buy the V8 version without a manual transmission but that's just me.

There is no wait list here in the DC area- in fact the dealer readily agreed to discount and can deliver any model within a few months- if you didn't want the ones in stock- of which there were a number- AMG V8 and regular V6- even one used one.

 

AMG's twin screw supercharger doesn’t lag, but some supercharges do have lag. Basically there are three types (*warning- very rudimentary breakdown):

Roots- an air pump driven off the crank that pushes a fixed amount of air

Centrifugal - a turbo-like air compressor driven off the crank (rather than exhaust gas) that compresses more air the faster it spins because of internal gearing that steps up the spin speed

Twin screw - somewhere in the middle- it compresses the air, like the centrifugal, but still delivers a fixed amount like a roots (no internal gearing to increase spin speed)

AMG uses a twin-screw supercharger which delivers boost linearly as rpm increases. The twin screw delivers full boost at low rpm, like the Roots, but also delivers compressed air, like the centrifugal and the turbo. Centrifical superchargers on the other hand are the holy grail of lag. But they are usually mated to big domestic v8s with bags of low end torque, so it is less noticeable.

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Back to the original quesiton, here is an owner's comments of the SLK55 taken from the Honda S2000 site:

http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=260168

 

We have an SLK 350 and it's a wonderful car. We got the lighting package (bi-xenon, cornering lights), sports suspension, comfort package (power seats - memory). We ordered it in September and got it in December. It's also a six speed - we drove the automatic (7 speed), but our preference is for standard (we have only one automatic and that's because it's a duramax diesel with the allison transmission). The SLK 350 handles very nicely - hugs the road and turns "on a dime". The seats are very comfortable and the interior is nice. We didn't get the airscarf (used it in the dealer's demo - neat idea but we felt it was something we didn't need here in Texas - we just do the old fashioned convertible trick - turn the heat up when the top is down and it's chilly). The redesigned SLK 350 is either a car design you will like or will not like - it's impressive looking from the rear (squatty body with wide tires, impressive from the front with the F1 styling, the trunk holds the back window, roof assembly very compactly with even room underneath for other things. Stats are impressive on it and we should know more in a couple hundred miles (think we are something like 860+/-) - has a nice throaty sound to it without the expensive add on systems. Here's a couple photos of ours - color is Caspian Blue with ash leather interior.

Scott63 - go to benzworld - there's a thread for the R171

I also did a thread on this group a while back about the SLK 350.

Carol
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