Pj, the one I ran through the fence was a ragged car that I bought and fixed up on the cheap. It didn't look bad, but it was not absolutely pristine like the 320 I just bought. These cars don't have some of the high end gadgetry as do the sedans. Even the C class has more in the way of electronic wizardry than the SLK. The build quality overall is pretty good though.

The interiors are indeed a problem. The ragged car I had actually had portions of the dash that were broken. In 2000 or 2001 they introduced what they called the facelift version with some subtle improvements. I think the interiors are a little more durable in the facelift version. The most common interior problem on all of them is that they have a paint coating on top of a black plastic base. As it gets chipped and scraped the black plastic shows through. If the paint on top is white or red or something other than black, it looks ugly when the black starts showing through. My newest car has a black interior, so the chipped spots don't show up very badly. If you can find a car with a black interior it will make it look much better as it wears. This is the worst problem with the interior.

Mechanically the cars are pretty decent. The supercharger wears out if the oil in the gearcase is not kept changed. The odd thing is that MB does not indicate the need for the SC oil being changed. It is a special oil and is a little bit of a hassle to change, but if you have a good SC you should keep it changed. The V6 eliminates the need for this of course, and the V6 car is a more refined car. It is not only smoother, but it delivers very nice torque from idle to redline. This makes it wonderful with the six speed manual, but I expect is quite nice with the auto box as well.

The other issue to investigate before buying one is to see if you fit in it. I am 6'1" and barely fit into it. If you are taller than about 5'11" make sure you are comfortable in it.

Overall I really like the little car. It took me a really long time to find a stick shift 320, but now that I have it nicely sorted, it was well worth the wait.

I am leaving on vacation tomorrow, but I will try to post a picture before I finish packing and leave.

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2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

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