I'm losing the battle to resist temptation

[C240Sport97]

Cant do grey interiors... far too plain and sort of battleship bland for my liking, but other than that, nice car.

black and grey is a great contrast .. I love light grey interiors in SLs

 

[stats007]

Grey isn'y even my 2nd choice but at the price I'd live with it!

Nick, have you made an offer on it?

 

[C43AMG]

I'm tempted myself!

When are you going to view it Andrew ? Good looking car.

 

[nickg]

Grey isn'y even my 2nd choice but at the price I'd live with it!

Nick, have you made an offer on it?

No no, don't let me stop anyone.
I am a few weeks away from any purchase so am not actively looking at any as yet. There are a few I've got my eye on dotted around the web at the moment.
Looking for a facelift 500 ideally with lower miles than this one, though I agree at that price it is a very tempting buy.

I do quite like the grey interior but actually am not too fussed on grey, black or "mushroom".

 

[nickg]

NickG - forget the 500, buy another SL60, you know you want to!

If you see any good ones for sale let me know!!

 

[500E]

Will do. I take it you've seen the red one for £15k?

No point buying those specialist seller £25k+ ones, wait out for a private listing from an enthusiast seller and you should be able to get a good deal.

 

[stats007]

The red one seems vastly overpriced given there's another £4k cheaper .

 

[500E]

£11k isnt bad for an SL60?

Is it pre-facelift? Link?

 

[stats007]

1997 - thought I'm haggling so you're not getting a link .

 

[nickg]

havent seen the red one - link?

 

[500E]

http://www.gumtree.com/london/23/37771623.html

Sorry more near £16k than £15k.

 

[nickg]

I had seen it - its not red!!!
horrible horrible colour and silly price for that mileage IMHO.

 

[nickg]

any thoughts on one of these as an alternative to a 129?
Build quality? Reliability?

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk/www/cars/MERCEDES-BENZ+CLK/Ne-2-4-5-6-7-8-27-44-49-53-61-64-67-103-133-146-236,N-89-115-174-240-4294967032-4294967227/advert.action?R=200917332978526&distance=17&postcode=HA7+4QJ&channel=CARS&make=MERCEDES-BENZ&model=CLK&min_pr=10000&max_pr=17000&max_mileage=&vehicleYearOfManufacture=2003&vehicleRegLetter=53

 

[BTB 500]

I think 209s still suffered from the rust problem?

Supposedly build quality in general is not up with the R129 (which to be fair was a much more expensive car when new).

 

[MD5]

I've owned my 96 SL500 for about five and half years now, and was getting itchy feet last year, being seriously tempted by the 209 CLK 500 cab. Lovely looking car, and I thought it would be nice to bring myself into this millenium of MB car manufacturing! As Bill says though, rust will be a bigger issue, long term, for the 208 (and probably the 209) than the 129 I suspect. If you change your private cars regularly (I don't), then this shouldn't be a problem. I've only been in a CLK coupé once before, and found it very cramped and lightweight, and the newer 500s sound quite sterile against my old beast, which I would have virtually had to give away to change. Instead, I bought a doggy E280T to temporarily scratch the itch for a bit of fun!

As with all of these cars, service history and all the bills are essential, and I agree about grey leather! Mine has done 137k miles, but you wouldn't know it, so don't let mileage put you off if it's been cared for and gets you a bargain (the one under £5k earlier in the thread will give someone a great motoring experience for years to come).

 

[speedwell]

Well you don't have to worry about grey leather - the sl500 in Essex has been snapped up.

 

[stats007]

Needed a fair bit of work so was a borderline bargain. Made sense if you wanted to keep hold of it but I didn't.