Would You Buy Your 2000 Mercedes Sl 500 Again
From the Apr 2002 issue of Car and Driver.
Say what yous will about the cheese-block lines and frumpy two-tone paint schemes of the outgoing Mercedes-Benz SL, information technology was no slave to fads. For xiii years the R129, equally Mercedes engineers knew information technology, bucked changing fashions to embody the company's traditional love of precision applied science, contemporary technology, and restrained pattern. It was a silk pinstripe on a rack of polyester pretenders.
And as the R129 points its rectilinear nose into the sunset, it'southward reasonable to expect that the replacement, the R230, which pioneers a new electrohydraulic brake technology (see sidebar) and has a folding hardtop whose choreography would stand with a Bolshoi number, will emulate the pattern. Germans brand things to endure. The Brandenburg Gate survived the Halifax bomber, for instance. And so shall the conservative SL stay its form confronting the manner onslaught of chichi new droptops.
Or will it? Today'southward plutocrats desire more than just safe, dignified transportation, and Mercedes' competitors are lining up to give it to them. The Porsche 911 Cabrio offers more than performance, the BMW Z8 more exclusivity, the Jaguar XK8 has a more than coddling interior and classically evocative lines, and the Lexus SC430 is more advanced. The old SL may have been content to be timeless executive habiliment, but the new SL wants to exist this flavour's sauciest slip-on.
Just expect at the way it flaunts itself in public. Mercedes' stylists lengthened the wheelbase by 1.8 inches, widened the track by about an inch, and shortened the overhangs to give it a road-inhaling stance. They folded downwardly the windshield to a garish rake and draped the aluminum sheets in an alluring wedge over the big wheels. The scandalous curves are a magnet for attention and moved one immature male passerby to exclaim, "Man, you must go all the women."
Don't be fooled. We don't get the women, and the new SL, despite its gorgeous shape, proves to be only a halfhearted extrovert one time you lot take a closer look. For i thing, the stylists seem to take hit the artistic wall after penning the lascivious contour. The nose bears a stock four-sided corporate grille bracketed by a variant of the C-class Mr. Peanut-shaped headlights—livened up somewhat with a tighter waist (Mrs. Peanut?). But the real offenses in our optics are the hood and fender vents, which look cheap and gape ostentatiously. What way criminal offense did the terminal SL's artfully subtle slots commit?
More important, the new SL moves the driving-excitement needle only incrementally, rather than substantially, out on the road. Truthful, the new car finds 60 mph a full 0.5 2nd sooner than the last SL500 we tested ( C/D, Dec 1989), fifty-fifty though its SOHC 302-hp, 24-valve V-8 produces 20 horsepower less than Mercedes' quondam DOHC 32-valve V-8. And the property ability on the skidpad was a very gummy 0.88 g, 0.06 g meliorate than the SL500 we tested in '89. Some credit goes to the fitment of the optional Sport packet, which includes side and rear fascia changes and 18-inch wheels wearing the latest Z-rated Michelin Pilot Sports, upsized to 285/40 in the back.
Just the dividends to steering precision and road communication from the revised chassis haven't fully accrued to the overall experience. The SL now enjoys more lively rack-and-pinion steering, but there'southward even so too much cushion in the weights and responses, too much erstwhile software left over from the luxury-car department to make the wheel as abrupt equally it could exist. For example, if the SL were a true sports roadster, the steering would give you lot the good, the bad, and even the irrelevant news. This SL provides a brief executive summary.
Some of the SL's dynamic shortcomings tin exist blamed on the weight, which despite the aluminum sheets and magnesium door castings is still 4172 pounds, almost the same equally a Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited. The Active Body Control system directs a hydraulic ram above each coil spring to continuously alter its jump rate in order to counter body roll, pitch, and dive. This limits the body motions in long sweepers and during hard applications of the pedals, merely this heavy machinery can't make the auto feel less massive than it is all by itself. And except for assuasive Mercedes to choose softer springs than information technology might have otherwise, ABC doesn't do anything for the ride quality, which is on the tranquil side but which degenerates into quivering concussions over Midwestern frost heaves.
The trademark trapezoidal instrument cluster is among the Mercedes icons relegated to the dustbin in the new SL. The substitute is a pair of sculpted, hooded dials that have the most straight cue not from the lumpy 300SLs of the '50s or the pagoda-roofed SLs of the '60s, but from generations of dearly departed Alfa Romeo spiders. The climate-control plate recalls something less savory--nosotros're thinking Madonna's chrome brassiere--and the twin aluminum rings that control the temperature for driver and rider wobble slightly in their races and feel as if they were pilfered from the Hyundai parts bin.
Mercedes did manage to blend the conflicting themes of retro wood and nouveau brushed aluminum into a warmer, more spacious, and more organic interior than in the previous SL. The exception is the door armrests, which are as hard as pig iron and cruel to the elbows. At to the lowest degree ane tin flip up the armrest to open up the storage bin underneath and perch the elbow on the much softer spine of the leather-jump possessor'southward manual.
The most familiar item in the cockpit is the COMAND organisation panel, which includes densely packed buttons for the radio, phone, and GPS-based navigation functions. The vox-activation feature and the oval steering-bike buttons assistance sort it out, but using the system remains every bit taxing as herding cats. Another affair you tin't do without straining is load the CD changer. The slot above the COMAND screen accommodates one music CD or one of the 11 navigation CDs (at that place's yet no one-disc DVD system available); the changer is nestled in the left of the ii cubbies backside the seats. Nosotros find that an odd place to put it, because a Ford Focus can exist optioned with an in-dash changer.
At least Mercedes has created a serene surround in which to enjoy the radio. With the tiptop erected, the atmosphere is hushed enough to hear your rider's tendons snapping during a postnap stretch. However, the draining of the audio swamp did expose at least ane evolutionary throwback wriggling in the mud. At most 2100 rpm, a hollow, moaning resonance disturbs the cabin, thanks to an offensive frequency in the exhaust or powertrain that excites the surrounding body.
A new thing the car pictured hither doesn't have, but which nosotros sampled at Mercedes' introduction, is Keyless Go. It's a transponder shaped like a credit card that unlocks the car and allows the commuter to start and terminate it by pushing a button on the shifter. It promises to brand a lost art of inventing new curses to call forth misplaced keys. There is no price on the choice notwithstanding.
The SL's new elevation is without doubt the category killer. Flip up the paddle switch at console middle (the small buttons to manually raise and lower the roll bar are hiding underneath), and wait 16 seconds while the aluminum and glass panels carve up, somersault flat, and stack efficiently in the trunk. Once deposited, the top leaves simply enough infinite to wedge in his and hers golf bags.
The cavity is attainable by pushing a red button on the body sill that electrically tilts the entire height stack to a 20-degree angle. A louver in the trunk that must be in place before the tiptop volition come downward prevents potato chip crushing. With the top stowed and the stretchy mesh wind deflector in position, the occupants can argue their destination at conversational levels right up to 80 mph.
The new SL'due south terrific top and improved operation are the best excuses to cash in an old softtop SL and simultaneously rid the garage of its beefy detached hardtop. If those aren't reasons enough, consider that the $87,000 price may ultimately be the cheapest mode to completely overhaul your advent.
Counterpoint
Aside from an automatic climate-command system that looks equally if it came from a pre-WWII Tatra, the latest SL advances the state of its brood and is a real looker. In fact, it could be argued that this is the coolest Mercedes sheetmetal since the 300SL Gullwing. It'due south as well comfy, techno-trick, reasonably quick (for something that even so scales in north of two tons), and reasonably agile (ditto). But unless yous're into such accessories as bays wives and aureate Rolexes, the new SL simply isn't the sort of device that raises pulse rates. If yous like envy, this ride'due south for you lot. If yous want adrenaline, better wait for the AMG version. —Tony Swan
Robinson drove the SL500 home from Arizona, reminding me of a similar jaunt I made in the original 600SL. That car, too, was a people magnet, a serene cruiser, and a rocket sled. That car made me feel like a power banker, and then does this ane, except hither I experience similar an addled magnate. Setting the clock took fifteen minutes of tinkering, followed by an embarrassing consultation of the owner'due south manual. The futuristic top and by-wire brakes ready new benchmarks, and the sinuous sheetmetal recalls elements of the original 300SL. I like information technology all, but I wish the dash controls were simpler. Elementary controls would qualify as retro chic, wouldn't they? —Frank Markus
Is at that place anyone in America who doesn't pay a piddling more attending to the driver of a Mercedes SL? The auto is such a universal icon of tasteful style and refined substance that it magically confers those qualities on anyone who drives i. The SL performs this abracadabra considering for nearly fifty years it has represented automotive excellence. The original Gullwings were close cousins to Le Mans winners. The recent ones have bristled with cutting-edge engineering. The one common thread has been visual dazzler, and this fifth-generation SL is the prettiest one in the past 30 years. It'due south sure to continue those valets continuing upward a little straighter. —Csaba Csere
Braking The Mold
This new SL introduces the nigh significant contraction to stoppers since the advent of anti-lock brakes: computer-operated brakes that take control of the calipers in a way no human could emulate without four restriction pedals and the feet to work them.
The underhood heart of the Sensotronic Brake Control (SBC) system is a big aluminum valve block fitted with an electric motor for maintaining 2000 to 2300 psi of fluid pressure in an adjacent hydraulic accumulator. When you hoof the restriction pedal—an electronic sensor with a spring-loaded plunger to mimic restriction resistance but not the abrasive ABS pushback—the computer flutters the solenoid-operated valves inside the block, releasing pressure level from the accumulator to the otherwise conventional steel lines heading out to the calipers.
The reckoner thus has ultimate command over the pressure each caliper receives (a redundant principal cylinder provides force per unit area to the front calipers in case of power failure) and uses its position of responsibility to provide some extra capability. For example, the system varies the brake pressure not only fore and aft but also from side to side, applying increased pressure on the laden outside wheels in a turn while relaxing the within calipers to foreclose lockup. The computer also monitors for sudden releases of the accelerator, in which case it assumes a panic state of affairs is brewing and pumps up force per unit area while snuggling the pads confronting the rotors to prepare for a difficult stop. In the pelting, the system will imperceptibly pulse the brakes every few minutes to proceed the pads dry, and over fourth dimension it will learn your driving manner and tailor the brake response.
Considering it'due south the outset shot at virtual brakes, Mercedes and supplier Bosch got information technology generally right. Tip into the pedal every bit lightly as you lot can, and the initial engagement is undetectable. Whack the pedal hard, and the car freezes in 155 feet from 70 mph, or ten feet shorter than a Ferrari 360 Modena F1 ( C/D, September 2000). Exercise it half-dozen times speedily, and the distance grows by just nine feet, still amend than the Modena's all-time. The SL'due south brakes also accept stomps in mid-apex without relying on ABS or squirreling the automobile into oversteer.
The organization's opaqueness increases during prolonged mid-endeavour applications, such every bit when rolling up to a end sign. The pedal acquires supersensitivity, adjusting the pressure level out of proportion with small pedal movements. Suddenly, it feels as if the automobile is lurching alee when all you meant to do was ease the pressure slightly to stop on the appropriate dime. Release the pedal from a dead stop, and the calipers of our test car sometimes responded with an audible "clunk." With this wrinkle, Mercedes still has a lilliputian ironing to exercise. —AR
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