Advice appreciated - SLK pick up on Saturday!

[Ophelia]

Hi all

I am a new user to this site and, hopefully, a first time SLK owner on Saturday. I have put a deposit down and go to pick it up then. It's a 230K, silver with black leather, 2000 W reg. £17,995 from Chigwell Cars. All seems fine and obviously, I won't part with the cash until I've checked it. Am taking the b/f who is a self-confessed petrol head with to check for me but would appreciate it if anyone has any advice regarding things to look for particularly on these?

 

[gary350]

Most important is the roof, it needs to go up & down without hesitating, 2 other points are stone chips at the front (paint is a little naff) and the tyres, the car is very wicked on front wear particulary if it has been driven hard.
I have not had a problem with internal trim but lots have check door trim, glove box and the drivers seat backrest righthand side where drivers have pushed it when exiting the car (the padding may be pushed back).

You have made a good choice the car is great and Im sure will not drop much more in the price, its going to be a classic.

Enjoy your car

Gary

 

[pammy]

hi Ophelia - welcome another female group member - there's not many of us!!

Also check the wera on the rear tyres!! If you had a prev owner who likes to spin the rear wheels - which can be easy to do, they could be a bit thin!!

Also check that the boot opens easily when the roof's down and when it's been put back up - it can stick!

Check it's service history to make sure all makes sense. Look how many prev owners it's had - too many suggests there may be a problem that's being passed around.

Check the wind stop is there - they can go missing, but are essential for top down driving. Ensure you get the radio code and all the manulas - they take forever to come from the dealer if they're not there.

If your bf knows what he's doing you should be OK;-)

Oh and book your grin

 

[Ophelia]

Thank-you!

Many thanks for your responses. I will take note! Oh boy, the dealer's going to love me!!

 

[Shude]

Many thanks for your responses. I will take note! Oh boy, the dealer's going to love me!!

Don't forget we want to see pics of the car!

 

[MainMan]

The most important thing when buying a secondhand car IMO is to check that it hasn't been crashed - they never work properly again after shunts even if they're "properly" repaired. Unfortunately this is difficult to check on a Merc. The shut lines are all over the place anyway. While most prestige manufacturers are aiming for 3mm Mercedes are lucky if they make 6. The bootlid never fits properly which is almost forgivable considering the complexity of the hinges. So check the paint for different colours and overspray.

 

[vision]

slk

Had 230 slk for two years. Good car although a bit soft. Left standing for six months and needed memory box replaced. £600.00 plus. Paid from MB dealer £24,500 and strugled to get £14,000. New one due soon as well. Hold the price and a future classic, I dont think so.

 

[gary350]

Had 230 slk for two years. Good car although a bit soft. Left standing for six months and needed memory box replaced. £600.00 plus. Paid from MB dealer £24,500 and strugled to get £14,000. New one due soon as well. Hold the price and a future classic, I dont think so.

I have never seen an SLK advertised for less that 15500 and that was a left hooker with 97K on it, suppose its where you live, vision did yours have a roof on it, my stealer is talking about 15000 to 16000 for mine and its nearly 6 years old although few miles on it (17K).

 

[Will]

SLK's can now be had for less than that - left hookers and high milers are now below 12K - have a look in the trader. http://atsearch.autotrader.co.uk/WW...urce=0&photo=1&sort=3&ukcarsearch_full=SEARCH
Wait until this winter and I'll bet you could pick one up at auction for under 10 grand!

Remember, with ridiculous finance offers on new cars, and so many used cars on offer, it is a very strong buyer's market - name your price!

Cheers,

Will

 

[gary350]

Hi Will, Im hoping the SLK wiill be like the BMW Z1 it seemed to hit a certain level then stayed there in fact started to increase. I still think the slk shape is gob smacking it perhaps is not perfect but what car is, when I bought mine I wanted a quietish convertible quality car with a hard top, there where not many options back in 1998, I did not like the boxster back end (now they hold their price), the other car I looked at as an option was a spec,d up BMW 528i for the same price, I can now pick up a same year as mine for under 6K.

Vision, can you name a car other than the boxster that is holding its price better than the SLK.

 

[Will]

Hi Will, Im hoping the SLK wiill be like the BMW Z1 it seemed to hit a certain level then stayed there in fact started to increase. I still think the slk shape is gob smacking it perhaps is not perfect but what car is, when I bought mine I wanted a quietish convertible quality car with a hard top, there where not many options back in 1998, I did not like the boxster back end (now they hold their price), the other car I looked at as an option was a spec,d up BMW 528i for the same price, I can now pick up a same year as mine for under 6K.

Vision, can you name a car other than the boxster that is holding its price better than the SLK.

Agreed, it is naturally starting to slow down slightly in depreciation terms, but I just don't believe that these cars are anywhere near classics yet! They are nice cars, but I am not sure if they will have the same crowd following of more traditional mercs such as R129 SL's and W124 Cabriolets, from back in the days before the daimler-chrysler merger (1998?). When I said about picking one up for under 10 grand, I did mean at auction etc in the winter months. When you look in general places such as autotrader etc, and see traders flogging them for 12K or less, you know they must have bought them/traded them in for not far off 10K, and this is in spring/summer(only a couple of days till june). I would say that it seems to be a fairly good buy right now, but there is still room for movement in the prices still! As you pointed out, they are still very good value compare with typical depreciation monsters (ie, larger luxury cars!) and lets face it, if you buy one, for say, £13K, it isn't going to loose an awful lot!

 

[vision]

Garry, My SLK was R reg, full MB service history, not a mark on it,54,000 miles oh mind you it was yellow. Yes it did have a roof on it and as I have said it was perfect. I live in Sandbanks, Poole , Dorset if that makes a diference. My local MB dealer ofered me £12,000 for it and as I say I strugled to get £14,000. As I paid £ 25,000 for it two years previous I would say that was bad depreciation. I was not saying it a bad car purely saying the depriciation is not as good as I have read in the car magazines. I know about depriciation I have an S class!! There are plenty of SLKs for sale in Dorset for under £15,000. There is one in the local paper on an S reg for £12,500.Remember you dont receive what you advertise. As I have said it is still a great car.

 

[pammy]

My SLK was R reg, full MB service history, not a mark on it,54,000 miles oh mind you it was yellow. My local MB dealer ofered me £12,000 for it and as I say I strugled to get £14,000. As I paid £ 25,000 for it two years previous I would say that was bad depreciation. .

to be honest Vision - I think you paid over the odds for your car in the first place. £25k for a 5 year old yellow SLK 230 so your depreciation hit was even greater than it should have been.

 

[JOM]

I just paid £20K for a 2000 SLK320, with 16,000 on the clock. Was looking for black with black leather so that narrowed down my choices.

With the state of the economy at present lots of people buying new cars or at least more expensive new second hand cars. This is hitting the residual value of second hand cars.

I have just bought the car and it is wrong to be worrying about what it is going to be worth when I come to sell it.

Got the MP3 player fitted over the weekend and hope to fit the bluetooth next weekend.

Pictures to follow....

James

 

[MainMan]

18 months ago (after being nearly stuck in 2" of snow) I took my 2001 SLK320 to a few dealers and asked how much for cash - it was then 2 years old with 12k miles and completely immaculate and is not an import and was still under guarantee. The best offer was £17k. It's silver with black leather. The list price (which admittedly I didn't pay) was about £35k, so that's about 50% in two years. Obviously I could have got a bit more privately, but that was about the going rate for non P/X at a dealer. It's still better deprecaition than most cars.

BTW, I don't think Boxster depreciation is quite as low as it appears. The list price of the 2.7 may be £31.5k, but by the time you've got a radio and all the other stuff you need it's more like £38k. The depreciation's still pretty low though.

 

[Will]

Losing £18,000 in two years and 12K miles doesn't sound very good to me! That works out at least £1.50 per mile, excluding petrol/tax/insurance/servicing/tyres etc.
Just imagine, a ten mile journey would probably cost about twenty quid!
You could probably nearly afford a chauffeur for that sort of cost
But, it does show one thing; Whoever bought your SLK would have got a very good car for the money.
I suppose there are lots of other cars out there that loose more, but it must be gut-wrenching to be hit that hard in only 12K miles!

 

[pwhite8314]

As long as they're giving you a decent warranty, and the milage is at or below average, the price seems about right for a forecourt for this time of year. Most things have been mentioned, but obviously it's also worth checking when the next service is due via the ASSYST indicator, as the service book won't always help. Problem is, I can't remember how in an SLK, even though I've had 2 of 'em...anyone??

Also, if it doesn't have BOSE, then check that nobody's done a half-****d job of upgrading the speakers (I only say that because I did a half-****d job on upgrading my last SLK!).

Other than that, just the usual things you'd check for on any used-purchase, tyres, alloys, dings, air-con working etc etc. I never had anything go wrong on either of SLKs over about 4 years and 80k miles, so they're pretty reliable (in my experience!).