A nice late R129 is a far better car than any R230, they really can cost a fortune to keep going, hence some of the apparently cheap prices.
Forum mythology I would suggest.
My view based on the below experience is that the R230 is arguably the best value most fit for purpose Grand Tourer coupe/roadster that money can buy.
A diary of SL500 WDB2304752F062185
I had, for many years, been an admirer of the Mercedes Benz SLs and in years past I had owned two W123s and two W126s so I have owned two of the marques very best models. In 2001 I had become aware of the introduction of the R230 with the folding hard top similar in concept to that of the R170. I did some reading and determined that it was time for me to become an SL owner which proved to be something of a waiting game. I did not want to pay a premium and I did not want an ‘’import’’ so 31 October 2001 I penned my formal order for an SL500, the only variant on offer at the time, with MB Oxford. I was advised of a three years waiting list.
I maintained close contact with MB Oxford and by May of 2003 I was asked to finalize the specification of my car because it was expected to be built in September of that year, which was about a year sooner than originally advised.
I chose Brilliant Silver coachwork, Alpaca Grey interior with Black Ash wood. Extras chosen were Comfort seats, Dynamic seats, Parktronic and Bose Sound.
Not an extra but I also chose ‘’Factory Collect’’ which I recommend to anyone fortunate enough to be buying a new Mercedes Benz.
September eventually came and MrsB and I were transported to the Park Hotel (a worthwhile £50.00 upgrade for the two of us) in Bremen 17 September 2003.
18 September 2003
We were collected by taxi after breakfast and taken to the MB Bremen facility where we were treated to a film about how the cars were built followed by a guided tour of the production line which excluded the paint shop as is always the case on production line tours. Health and safety in conjunction with the need for laboratory type conditions I think. The most noticeable thing about the SL line was the lack of people compared with the BMW mini line, Jaguar XF line and not surprisingly the Morgan production ‘’line’’. The only people working on the SL line were the occasional quality controller and the operatives putting in the wiring looms which were tasks too awkward for robots. This was a fascinating insight into how the car I was about to collect is put together…….everything is JIT.
The hand over hall is a huge ‘’cathedral’’ of a place capable of absorbing very many cars and the whole process is pure theatre. We were afforded luncheon which was on the first floor allowing us to look down over those before us being ‘’handed’’ their new cars (not all collections were SLs but a seemingly full range of models, many made elsewhere, presumably ordered by locals) whilst we waited for our car to be driven into the ‘’cathedral’’ and our names called. I was shown how everything worked and glazed over with information overload, I was given the keys and invited to drive out of the ‘’cathedral’’ into industrial Bremen; which I did with considerable caution.
23 September 2003
I took the car to MB Oxford for its formal PDI, to have a lifetime Tracker fitted and have the car registered with UK plates; the car on collection comes with temporary
German plates. We had spent the intervening time holidaying in Holland, Belgium and France.
01 March 2005 (11115 miles)
A new off side front fog lamp supplied and fitted by MB Oxford in addition to some work on easing out a minor dent on the bonnet by Ultimate Dents. £274.37
This followed an interaction with a deer the consequences of which could have been much worse.
06 May 2005 (13657 miles)
‘A’ service, MB Oxford £267.92
16 May 2006 (20600 miles)
New brake pads all round, MB Oxford £355.39
15 September 2006 (26425 miles)
‘B’ service and MOT, MB Oxford £674.24
25 September 2007 (32943 miles)
MOT, MB Oxford £50.35
08 July 2008 (39041 miles)
‘A’ service including recommended time and mileage related items, MB Oxford £1620.03…..ouch
23 September 2008 (40322 miles)
MOT, MB Oxford £53.10
15 September 2009 (49345 miles)
MOT, MB Oxford £54.00
October 2009
The car started to sound like a can of nails which was clearly the result of the catalytic converters having ‘’broken up’’ in the middle silencers which I discovered, after doing some research, was a known failing. After only six years and 50k miles I felt very strongly that not only should this not have happened but that MB should rectify the situation either foc or with a substantial financial contribution.
MB Oxford did not want to support my case to the point of wanting to charge me £120 to confirm my diagnosis (2mins. in the car park would have done it) and repeatedly reminding me that the car was out of warranty…..thanks but no thanks. After a fruitless exchange of correspondence with MB customer ‘’services’’ I was left with MB’s solution of a replacement exhaust system supplied and fitted at my expense in the sum of about £1850, or finding an alternative, which was leaving me somewhat disillusioned with the MB commitment to accepting responsibility for the manufacturing failings of their product.
20 November 2009
I had the middle silencers c/w catalytic converters removed and replaced with stainless steel pipes by Longlife in the sum of £185.00.
The car sounds better than ever and standard MOT emissions testing equipment is not sufficiently sensitive to record that the ‘’mid box’’ catalytic converters have been removed.
12 January 2010 (51968 miles)
Replacement of the starting and main batteries, Star Motor Services £306.68
22 January 2010 (52039 miles)
Replace under trays, front apron and aerial following an unscheduled ‘’off piste’’ excursion to the verge after encountering ‘’black ice’’. Star Motor Services £1246.44
01 March 2010
MB Oxford take the car to Liam Kenny, their approved body work specialists, to ‘’deal with’’ the corrosion around the wheel arches. I am very dispirited about the need for this work and disillusioned to learn that corrosion repair work is only ever done under the 30yrs. warranty after the instigation of litigation proceedings (allegedly). The 30yrs. corrosion warranty is not honoured willingly it would seem. Corrosion repair work is done under the ‘’banner’’ of goodwill when MB’s self imposed criteria are met including an 8yrs. maximum age limit on the car.
It took an extensive exchange of correspondence to extract a three years, as opposed to two years, warranty for the corrosion repair work, which was done at MB’s expense, even though, had my Contract been direct with Liam Kenny I would have
automatically got a ‘’lifetime’’ warranty from Liam Kenny (I did not explore what ‘’lifetime’’ means).
05 March 2010 (52886 miles)
MB Oxford collected the car from Liam Kenny and carried out a ‘B’ service £1004.98……ouch again.
25 August 2010 (58337 miles)
SRS fault fixed, fault code reset and MOT, Ian Horne Motor Repairs £111.38
22 September 2010
Another SRS fault fixed, Ian Horne Motor Repairs £44.06
18 November 2010 (60647 miles)
Supply and fit new ABC pump, Star Motor Services £1241.86
04 January 2011 (61744 miles)
Replace front brake pads, Star Motor Services £119.12
08 September 2011 (68872 miles)
MOT, Star Motor Services £56.70
13 December 2011 (71448 miles)
Service, ‘A’ or ‘B’ whatever needs doing, Star Motor Services £322.22
21 July 2012 (77877 miles)
I clumsily dropped my TomTom on to the screen of the Comand Unit which determined the beginning of the end for a Comand Unit so yesteryear that I was preferring to use a TomTom for satellite navigation (and the fixed camera data base).
17 August 2012 (78800 miles)
The Comand Unit was replaced with an Alpine INA-W910R which is a neat compact integrated unit which is system expandable. Fundamentally it is a radio and music centre iphone integrated with an upgradeable Europe wide satellite navigation system and fixed camera data base. Supplied and fitted by Oxford Car Audio £1771.99
29 August 2012 (79187 miles)
MOT, Star Motor Services £56.70
06 February 2013 (83213 miles)
Replace front and rear brake pads, Star Motor Services £199.51
09 March 2013 (84224 miles)
Summer wheels refurbished, Lepsons £360.00
03 April 2013 (84896 miles)
Service and replacement of boot struts, Star Motor Services £191.70 (£154.16+£37.54)
27 August 2013 (89474 miles)
MOT, Star Motor Services £96.48
28 September 2013 (91636 miles)
Brake calipers painted blue, hubs silver and brake fluid changed, Krystal Kleen Detail £250.00
19 December 2013 (93670 miles)
Replace gear box mount, replace missing o/s/r caliper mounting bolt and tighten all other caliper mounting bolts, Star Motor Services £76.80
17 April 2014 (97200 miles)
Rust repairs to rear wings, prime and paint. Repair and paint cill covers and rear bumper (omitted) whilst off the car. Repair and paint off side front bumper moulding.
Multi-Tech £730.00
14 May 2014 (98686 miles)
Service including the replacement of the N/S/F track rod end, Star Motor Services £911.75
23 May 2014 (98850 miles)
Exterior paintwork enhancement detail followed by a Liquid Elements ‘’Shield’’ ceramic coating (5 coats), Krystal Kleen Detail £730.00
27 August 2014 (102252 miles)
Fix broken brake pad sensor plug and rectify poor connections to the seat belt tensioners in the seat backs (SRS light again); MOT. Star Motor Services £136.08
07 January 2015 (106051)
Replace faulty crank shaft sensor; Star Motor Services £147.06
DIY
I do not often do DIY….. but….. I did re-seal the ‘’boot’’ seals below the rear window and at the bottom of the C pillars using black CT1. I did this in the spring/summer of 2011 as a necessary preventative measure because these seals are known to fail on the earlier R230s. I also fitted Mini gutter trim using black CT1 to the wheel arches to delay the inevitable recurrence of corrosion.
Tyres and Wheels
Summer tyres to the rear have averaged 17000 miles and to the front 22650 miles giving an average life for summer tyres of about 19400 miles. The last time I bought summer tyres was 09 March 2013 supplied and fitted in the sum of £187.00 each (on the car 13 April 2013).
I bought a used set of wheels in the summer of 2010 (original Homans all as the wheels supplied with the car) for £250 which came with an average of about 11500 miles of usable rubber on each wheel. Arguably I bought more than £250 worth of rubber and got free wheels. I had these wheels refurbished in March 2013 and they are now the SL’s ‘’summer’’ wheels.
The car’s original wheels, now the SL’s ‘’winter’’ wheels, are being used with winter tyres which were purchased 25 November 2011 in the sum of £240.00 each; supplied and fitted.
Tyres have cost about 3.9 ppm in ‘’today’s money’’.
Despite the campaign by MB to promote the sale and use of winter tyres MB Oxford could not get me winter tyres for the winter 2011/12 and assured me that winter tyres in my required size, 255/45R17 98V, were not manufactured…….for goodness sakes.
Total Running Costs to 31 March 2014 (96644 miles)
In today’s buying power of the GBP I calculate that each and every mile (including RFL, insurance and fuel at an average of 20.59mpg) that I have driven the car, all leisure and pleasure, it has cost me £1.29 of which £0.82 is attributable to depreciation. I calculate the respective figures for the 12 months to 31 March 2013 to be £0.61 and £0.15 respectively.
In order to maximise the dilution of the cost of the depreciation I need to keep the car indefinitely….. which was always my intention.
At the present rate of usage the car will have done 400,000 miles by the time I am 100yrs. of age so it is now a straight competition between me and my car as to which one of us first reaches the point of being beyond economic repair.
In terms of what it delivers this car is cheap to run (cheap being a relative term when considering the cost of running a motor car)……it is beautiful, it is a roadster, it is a coupe, it is fun to drive, it is comfortable, it is a Grand Tourer second none and the M113 engine is expected to be indestructible……what is not to love about it.
General
Anecdotal evidence suggests that after sales service by MB and their main dealer network is not as supportive as I believe a buyer of a new car should reasonably expect. The apparent indifference of MB Oxford led me to look elsewhere and find Star Motor Services at Caversham with whom I am very comfortable……they are almost a one hour drive from me but well worth the inconvenience.
Last updated 01 April 2015
Mic
Is it not a real R230?
