Buying 1997 SL500

[nyycebro]

Hi, I live in Charlotte, NC and next Tues or Wed I am buying a 1997 SL500 from a frat brother. The car drives and handles very well and has both tops. It has an excellent interior and fair to good exterior with 142,000 miles. He orginnally brought the car new 10 years ago and most of the miles are highway miles. When he first brought the car 10 years ago I told him I wanted the car when it had depreciated enough for me to afford it. Well that day is here and I am getting it at I think at a fair price of $12,900. Oh, I forgot it has the sport package as well with the AMG rims. My questions are:

1. What oil do you receommend for this car? He is currently using Castrol high mileage 20-50 syncblend. I would like to use a full sync. maybe mobil 1 or amsoil, thoughts?

2. He did not originnally have a factory Cd changer, but added an aftermarket one that plays through the radio. I hate those things and am currently bidding on a factory unit on ebay. Is it hard to install? Do I need a special cable, my understanding is the car should be prewired for the changer.

3. Due to the low hanging front dam and his love of hitting it on curves, I have crack damage on the front bumper. I think a good body shop can b repair this for me. Anyone have simlar problems with this? Did you have to replace entire front bumper?

4. The car have never been wreaked, but he did have it painted a couple of years ago and it was not so good paint job in places, as an example the put the letters back on the truck as "LS 500" instead of "SL 500", he never noticed until I pointed it out to him. I plan to have painted professionally in the next year. Question, how much would you expect to pay for good paint job for this car at the same Dark Blue color.

[tecqboy]

A new bumper skin is about $1300 at the MB body shop before painting. I had a hole in mine and found an independent shop that did a decent job of patching and repainting for $350. That included removal and replacement in my garage. He just took the bumper skin to his shop. It's easy to remove.

I got an estimate from a really good paint shop for my all black SL two years ago. There is no body damage, just lots of stone chips on the hood and fenders. So they would repaint only the hood and front up to the pilars. They are famous for quality work, but I thought $2500 was a bit high. My car doesn't look bad from a short distance, so no repaint. These cars have not held value well since 2001 ( new model R230 introduced ). Cosmetic repairs will not increase value $ much. So unless you really love the car, don't waste too much making it look perfect. Up here in Wisconsin, the car you are looking at would sell for under $10K. ( Salt belt. )

[lynns]

Originally Posted by nyycebro

Hi, I live in Charlotte, NC and next Tues or Wed I am buying a 1997 SL500 from a frat brother. The car drives and handles very well and has both tops. It has an excellent interior and fair to good exterior with 142,000 miles.

1. What oil do you receommend for this car? He is currently using Castrol high mileage 20-50 syncblend. I would like to use a full sync. maybe mobil 1 or amsoil, thoughts?

2. He did not originnally have a factory Cd changer, but added an aftermarket one that plays through the radio. I hate those things and am currently bidding on a factory unit on ebay. Is it hard to install? Do I need a special cable, my understanding is the car should be prewired for the changer.

3. Due to the low hanging front dam and his love of hitting it on curves, I have crack damage on the front bumper. I think a good body shop can b repair this for me. Anyone have simlar problems with this? Did you have to replace entire front bumper?

4. The car have never been wreaked, but he did have it painted a couple of years ago and it was not so good paint job in places, as an example the put the letters back on the truck as "LS 500" instead of "SL 500", he never noticed until I pointed it out to him. I plan to have painted professionally in the next year. Question, how much would you expect to pay for good paint job for this car at the same Dark Blue color.

Lot's of good questions that you can find a lot of good answers to if you SEARCH this http://www.benzworld.org/forums/r129-sl-class/ as well.

1) Stay with the original oil. I have hear of problems in this area. Especially with a 142K mile car.
2) If you put in a factory CD changer the electrical and fiber optic should be hidden behind the left side trunk liner. You will probably need to build you own custom attachment to secure the changer. But if you go to the above forum and Search you will find a guy that details how to do it. http://www.cardomain.com/ride/262575/20
3) Be careful with your AMG front apron. They will catch again on concrete parking slabs. Stay away. If you choose to get it repaired there are many mobile bumber repair services that service Dealers and private parties. They can repair and paint for under $400.00. I did it and they did a great job. http://www.benzworld.org/forums/r129-sl-class/1286209-plastic-bumper-repaint.html?highlight=bumper+paint
http://www.benzworld.org/forums/2228104-post1.html
4) No comment.

[page62]

Lemme try here...

1. Mobil1 15w50 would be OK. But I wouldn't go to a thinner oil. It may just be me, but when an engine gets used to a thicker oil, it's never good to start using thinner stuff (I speak from experience).

2. Don't waste your money on a factory CD changer. Rip out the factory head unit and stick an Alpine unit with built-in CD in the dash opening. A Volkswagen wiring adapter will work. Do a google search or two...

3. Yes. A good body shop can fix it without a single sigh or groan.

4. How much money you got? That's what you'll end up spending. Hint: The more the estimator moans and groans about how hard it is to do a Mercedes, the more you're gonna get screwed.

[Mike Miller]

I've got a '92 and have pondered your questions..................

1. I use Mobil1 15w50. When I told my Indy to use this synthetic oil, he said OK, but we needed to watch to see if my oil consuption jumped up. With
160K+ on the clock, he was afraid the slippery stuff would leak by the valve guides. We watched and there was no problem. Go-4-it.

2. I'm with the guy above. Don't waste your money on an OEM changer. I have a top of the line Alpine with built in CD in the dash. The key here is that it can play MP3 digital music. I carry two CD's in the center console. Each has approx. 120 songs on it. What more do you need?

3. Yes. Most anyone can fix your bumper for under $400. Only Mercedes and your local ripoff artist will insist it can't be fixed and want to put a new one on.

4. I now have 167K+ and yes, I have no wrecks, but an assortment of stone chips. There are plenty of opportunities on the Southern California freeways. Maybe I will paint it some day, but right now I have a good chip repair pen and just keep filling them in.

[nyycebro]

I picked up my car yesterday. I will be detailing it this weekend. Thanks for the insight guys!

[iwrock]

Originally Posted by nyycebro

Hi, I live in Charlotte, NC and next Tues or Wed I am buying a 1997 SL500 from a frat brother. The car drives and handles very well and has both tops. It has an excellent interior and fair to good exterior with 142,000 miles. He orginnally brought the car new 10 years ago and most of the miles are highway miles. When he first brought the car 10 years ago I told him I wanted the car when it had depreciated enough for me to afford it. Well that day is here and I am getting it at I think at a fair price of $12,900. Oh, I forgot it has the sport package as well with the AMG rims. My questions are:

1. What oil do you receommend for this car? He is currently using Castrol high mileage 20-50 syncblend. I would like to use a full sync. maybe mobil 1 or amsoil, thoughts?

2. He did not originnally have a factory Cd changer, but added an aftermarket one that plays through the radio. I hate those things and am currently bidding on a factory unit on ebay. Is it hard to install? Do I need a special cable, my understanding is the car should be prewired for the changer.

3. Due to the low hanging front dam and his love of hitting it on curves, I have crack damage on the front bumper. I think a good body shop can b repair this for me. Anyone have simlar problems with this? Did you have to replace entire front bumper?

4. The car have never been wreaked, but he did have it painted a couple of years ago and it was not so good paint job in places, as an example the put the letters back on the truck as "LS 500" instead of "SL 500", he never noticed until I pointed it out to him. I plan to have painted professionally in the next year. Question, how much would you expect to pay for good paint job for this car at the same Dark Blue color.

1) Mobil 1 0-40. I run that in all my cars.

2) You can add the OEM CD player, as all the wires are there. You just need to make sure that if you have a fiber bus, you get one that works with the fiber bus!

3) The lip on the SL is torn up, and need to be fixed on my car as well. We got a quote for 350 to plastic weld the front bumper so that its all mended and back in one piece.

4) Expect a good paintjob with MB paint to be in the neighborhood of about 3 grand. Ours has many little rock chips on the hood and on the fender, but because its my dads daily driver, we arent worried about it. Thats why we have not done the bumper yet, as its a daily driver that gets well used.



OT but what fraternity are you a brother of?

[nyycebro]

Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.