2002 Mercedes-Benz SL500 reliability?

Looks nice..less than a new Civic,but a bit more "fun".
Iirc they had fixed the wiring issues by then,and this was the last year before the new model,and that's usually a good thing. And the wiring thing may not apply at all.
These are really nice cars and can roll like thunder. But expensive to fix,and maintenance/upkeep is above average,too.
The usual get the ppi advice applies...
But,wow,that's a pretty car.
Cheers,
RE

 

I had a 2002 E500 and it was HORRID!!! Bizarre and endless electrical weirdness from
day one until I traded it in. Self-discharging battery, flaky door entry system, flaky
NAV system, random "complete blackouts" - once at freeway speed, where all the
lights and controls went dark but the car kept running... on and on. That car was
in the shop SEVENTEEN TIMES for repair of weird electrical crap - total time in the
shop was over THREE WEEKS. I won't begin to tell you the $$$$$ pain involved.

I was told that the 2001-2004 MB electrics were all known to be flaky.

My advice is proceed with EXTREME caution and request the MB dealer maintenance record to
see what all has failed and been repaired

Jedi

 

Couldn't tell you specifically about the 2002 SL500, but growing up my mom had a 1996 SL500 and it was in the shop a lot. The one particular problem I remember is something on the radiator broke...some part made out of plastic so the entire thing had to be replaced (same thing happened to my dad's car at the time, which was an '98 740iL). German engineering...

 

Looks nice. I think the 993s are regarded as being more reliable than the 996. I don't follow the 996 much, but have heard things about the engine's rear main seal having a leak (early 996 years supposedly).

 

I have a 91' with 47000 on it bought new. So far except for the vaccum door lock line leakage, it has been totally issue free. Pre 95 cars have basic electronics. The S & E after 2000 had a lot of their electronic conponents outsourced. Where the 2000- 2001 cars were the low for MB cars. I have not heard anything regarding the SL.

 

Hope you don't get snaked & see someone else post; "Hey, fellaz, look what I got"

 

The W129 SL came out in 1990 MY and the 2002 MY is the last of the run. Car was likely made in early 2001. So 2002 was the 13th and final year of the run. I'm sure most of the kinks were worked out by that point. The 2002 has the 3 valve per cylinder 5.0 liter dual plug engine, so it is not that fast considering the weight of that car. This car has simpler electronics and no nav, etc. as the mid life restyle (when the interior was upgraded over the 1990 to 1995 cars) was in 1996. Might be worth considering so long as a PPI checks out and there is no air suspension system. Good luck in your search.

 

That's a very nice silver arrow. I've been kicking around the idea of getting one for years. I've owned 3 R129 cars, the most recent of which was a 1996 SL500. I had no problems with it. They are nice cars -- not exactly fast, but not exactly slow either. I think reliability won't be an issue but I think the problem you may have is that not long after getting it you might start to feel like the car is very anachronisitic -- the 02s were the 'latest and greatest' of the 129s, but they are still fast approaching 15 years old now and were the same basic shape and interior of a car that debuted in 1989 (and the design of which actually begin in the 70s), so it really is very dated. Having said that, it has that really great old-school MB feel of quality and damn-the-cost engineering approach to it that is just no longer apparent in any of their current models. For example, it was one of last MBs to have the cool telescoping mono-windshield wiper design (the '03 E320 wagon being the very last car with it) which has since been cost-engineered out of all Benzes.

Also, I'm pretty sure they don't have air suspension -- that was the S class of the same era.