My research narrowed it down to the 96-98 models. We purchased a 98 and couldn't be happier with it. had the 4 speed tranny, went to five speed in 96. I figured they had two years to work out the kinks in that. 99 engine changed and has a little less hp, but there are more mods available for the 99 engine. 98 they went to digital climate readout and many other little things. Plus the 00 to 02 models was really out of our price range for what we wanted to spend. You can check out this site, but don't believe everything you read on here. It is a little biased as you will see. I mean pulling a SL out of the ditch buy the door handles.......come on.
www.kenrockwell.com