I've been in the SLK, only for a short while, but I can tell you this much. It seems like it's half the car the SL is, and I don't mean in size only. The 4 cylinder car is buzzy (small vibrations all over when accelerating hard), the interior is tight and has cheaper materials. As far as the top goes, I don't know of any specific issues, but as with everything this complex, the early models may have more problems. Personally I would get the 6 cylinder model with the manual transmission, I noticed the auto seemed lazy.

I think you will be OK with it if you don't expect a full Mercedes out of it, that's my observation anyway. Good luck.

Eli.

__________________
________
'90 500SL (sold)
17" AMG's