I'm having a love hate relationship with my slk - some days I love it (Usually the sunny days, what there are of them) other days I’m not so impressed.
Its not a question of reliability, more to do with Mercedes lack of thought when designing the car, I think that they probably blew the budget on designing the clever roof which they co-developed with Porsche.
I have a '97 pre facelift model, I am aware that on the 2000 facelift model some of these design issues have been dealt with so it is good to see that Mercedes have acknowledged some of their design issues. However on a car that costs in the region of £30K new, the car should have been right first time.
The seats are uncomfortable over a long distance and they do not grip me when going around corners so I end up sliding about on the seats unless I use my legs to brace against the centre console and door.
The interior trim on my car is a two tone cream and black; on the centre console, glove compartment, and interior door handles - the cream fascia is chipping/peeling to reveal the black plastic underneath.
The door cards vibrate when the stereo is on any louder than a medium setting. Which is necessary to hear the stereo if traveling any faster than 60mph. This is because of the car being fitted with very little sound deadening material in the boot. At 80 there is a dull roar of road noise emanating from within the boot.
Mercedes have fitted the tweeters in the door cards facing across the front of the occupants close to the dashboard not at them as they should be, causing poor sound staging. This would help as the higher frequencies require directional alignment. On the motorway it can be difficult to pick out the vocals of a track over the road noise.
When it has been raining it is a slow 2 stage operation to open the boot, otherwise water ends up pouring into the boot as the water channel overflows.
But when the sun comes out – you tend to forget about all these niggles.
On the Positive side the car is very reliable and I have complete confidence in it getting me anywhere without breaking down.
It has more bootspace than expected of the car – even with the top down there is room for a couple of sports bags, or the weekly shopping.
The car is fast putting out 193 bhp as standard from its 2.3 supercharged engine, which manages to average 28mpg. this is the first automatic car that I have owned and I was surprised with the quality of the autobox which has a selectable summer and winter mode. Traction control is helpful because the car is rear wheel drive, this will stop you from being sat facing the other way if you pull out of a junction too fast and doughnut the car.
I have a family friend do the servicing for me so I can not say what the servicing costs are at mercedes. But I hear that they are expensive and sometimes problematic.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Mercedes A-Class - Hatchback - Front (FWD) - 6 Speed - (Man) / Autotronic - (Auto) - 1992 cc - Max Speed: 116 mph - 109 bhp - Diesel - Available Trims: Elegance SE, Classic SE, Classic, Avantgarde SE, Long
Hi, firstly, i'm very jealous! LOL. Second, to get top ratings, you would need to give some facts and figures like price, servicing, mpg, your experience of buying one etc.. Tamsin x
Oct 3rd, 2003
very helpful by (10%):
helpful by (90%):
