Second hand SL500 newbie advice

[tisted]

I have just become and member of the MB Owner's Association and was wondering whether somebody out there might be willing to offer me a little advice on buying a used SL500??? Apologies if this is already on the forum for this car but I couldn't find any specific answers...

I've found a 1990 SL500 which has done just over 100,000 miles - is this going to mean that the car doesn't have a particularly long life left?

Are there specific points I should look at when I go and visit this car before buying?

And finally, what kind of depreciation would there be over say 2 years assuming I do no more than 6,000 miles a year? (and will be treating the car with great care and respect!!)

Thank you very much to anyone who can offer me help! Apologies for the newbieness!

 

[guydewdney]

sl 500

hmm - major probs are trim looking poor - imho.. all the sl's i looked at looked tatty. CLs looked so much better. 500 engine should give no probs at all.CHECK ALL THE ELCTRICS...

good lluck, and welcome

 

[Keith]

buying an SL

Hi and welcome

I bought a mid 90s SL320 in December after a period of looking so a few learnings are:

weak spot is interior trim, if you manage to find a 1990 model which is very tidy in side then you are doing well and its a good indication that the cars had a quiet life

100k miles is nothing for the engine but the trim is likely to show it

cant comment on V8s specifically as I was only looking at 6pots. Benzworld.com has forums for each model including the R129 with lots of stuff on V8s since thats what most US cars are.

look as plenty and you will develop a feel for whats good and whats not. Look at at least 10, there are plenty out there.

there are v.few buyers at this time of year so expect a good reduction on advertised prices and be prepared to haggle hard to secure a realistic price.

The hood is critical , any honest seller will be more than happy to demonstrate the hard top and soft top on and off as it only takes a couple of minutes. I even got people to do it in the rain (although not ideal). If theres any mechanical issues with the soft top then reject the car as its very complicated and expensive to fix. Also if the soft top is not in good nick then this is also expensive. The rear window can be made clear if cloudy however cracks can't be fixed but the window can be replaced and is not too expensive.

As you look at a good number and read around the web you will develop some intuition. It worked for me and I'm delighted with my car.

Another site of interest is SL-Mercedes.com for background on the model

A CL is probably superior but you can't go topless which is the whole point of an SL.

good luck
K

 

[tisted]

Thank you very much for both these replies - I will pay careful attention to these points!

I will be taking a little time over this purchase as I've just discovered that if I get one as a company car through my own business it will still cost me £5,500 a year in income tax despite the fact that it only costs double or triple that to purchase. Therefore I need to be absolutely certain that it is the right car! Of course after 15 years old the tax situation changes but we're not quite there yet...

I have seen a couple of SLs advertised with dodgy hoods which were several thousand pounds cheaper so I realised that there was probably something to be noted from this.

Anyway, thank you so much for replying!

 

[ant500sl]

A tip on company car tax which you may find useful.

If you run a car privately you can charge you're own company a tax free amount of 40p per business mile for 10000 miles and 25p per mile after that. As tax is paid on the original list price i.e. 60k this scheme can save a lot of tax. I believe the inland revenue refer to it as the fixed profit car scheme. Its totally legal and details are on the revenues web site.

Having run cars that have a list price of 50 to 70k this system is very useful as on something like a 3k to buy 560 you will be paying tax on a 50k list price.

The fifteen year rule only applies if the car has a market value in excess of 15k otherwise tax is paid on original list price and not on market value.

Boring stuff I know but I've probably saved tens of thousands over the years.

Good luck searching.

 

[tisted]

Wow! Thank you for that on Company Car tax! I spent about an hour on the phone to the Inland Revenue asking about the 15-year scheme and nobody seemed to understand it. Must be something about the area in which I live!

As it happens I need to purchase the car with money from the business rather than from my own wallet so I am unfortunately stuck with the company car tax.

Thanks for your advice though!