Some of you might remember my first SLK, a dark red 01 SLK320 that was my first 'nice' car after finishing school and getting a proper job. Loved it, drove it everywhere the first 2-3 years, but garaged queened it and really didn't use it much the last 5 years or so that I owned it. When Firm Jr came along I sold it and bought the XKR which is much better suited for family cruising. That was 2019.
Then, 2022, I stumbled into an 02 SLK230 that someone had left parked up on on a mutual friends property. It had sat for maybe 2 years, I bought it cheap (maybe $1800?), fixed it up (shockingly didn't need much), drove it for about 6 months and then sold it onto a young lady who was super excited to have it as her first hobby car.
That last one kinda re-ignited my interest in them, more as cheap fun runabouts, so since settling in down here in the south I've been keeping my eyes open for another. I found this 77K mile 2003 SLK320 locally. Originally from Escandido California, it was moved to Tennessee a couple years ago, and unfortunately the owner passed away and the car was donated to charity, ended up at a local auction here.
It looks like it was a well cared for car, and CarFax pulls up tons of dealer services records up to 2021, when I suspect the elderly owners stopped using it regularly. It's only seen a few hundred miles since then, and has been sitting around somewhat neglected.
The 320 is obviously the V6, which is a nice upgrade over the supercharged 4 cylinder, and has a slightly more plush interior. Wasn't many available options, but similar to my old 01, this car had every boxed ticked which includes factory Xenons, power heated seats and headlamps washers.
I got it over the Holidays so had some time to tinker with it a bit. Mechanically it's very solid, clearly someone had been keeping up with it as it has fresh fluids, belts, brand new Michelin Pilot tires, etc. Plus, it drives great with no drivability issues at all! The top was working slowly, which I determined to be low hydraulic fluid, topping it up got it working properly again, but there is a leak in one of the hydraulic cylinders so I've ordered a rebuild kit for the cylinders, Youtube videos suggest it's a pretty straightforward repair. A/C is non-op, no charge in the system, but I'll wait for some warmer weather to play with that.
It needed a handful of other small things; hood struts, a missing cover in the trunk, broken dash vent, all of which I've already addressed thanks to a nice parts car that showed up at my local scrap yard.
Interior was filthy, but I spent a morning on it and cleaned up really nicely, leather is damn near perfect! As a southern car, it's totally rust free; paint is dry and needs a good buffing, but it will clean up really well once I get around to it. I haven't even washed the body yet.
That's about it, it's now registered and we've been using it. I took it on about an hour drive a couple days ago and it performed flawlessly. Mrs. Firm will be the primary user of this one, the idea is that she can drive this whenever she isn't hauling the kids with her, she loves these cars, and it'll distribute some of the miles off the Escalade. I hope to use it a bit too...I like having something small like this for quick local errands, especially when the weather favors some top-down motoring.
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Nice pick up and lovely interior...these are starting to (or already are) be classics.
Is that a newish CRV in the background?
Yes, the oldest SLKs are 27 years old now! This one is 22 years old. Makes me feel old as I vividly recall watching Car & Driver Television around the initial launch of these and being in complete amazement, as a 7 or 8 year old, of the retracting hardtop....That's probably a big reason why I still like them.
That is a new CRV....my in-laws. They had driven down here for the Holidays. CRV replaced their 09 Fusion (V6), which was falling apart.
Very nice Firm. Have a coworker who has the next gen of that and she loves it, and much like your last one sold it is her first "hobby" car.
Do you still have that Trans Am? Hope you guys are doing well.
Thanks Johnny. I looked at a couple from the next gen, the R171s, and while I dig the looks, I don't like the interior at all. I would love an SLK55, but for our purposes, that's overkill, this is just right.
Still have the Trans Am, and everything else...Current count is 11 cars. I'd really like to finish up the MGB project and move it on to free up some parking, but it's been back-burnered for awhile now.
Love that Benz, really think the look has aged well. Must be plenty of engine with the V6. I had a 2 door coupe years ago that I bought from my father in laws friend. Really enjoyed my time with it, that little "compressor" moved it along well.
Thanks. The V6 is more than adequate, it's a bit lazy feeling for a sports car...There's a part of me that prefers the base model 2.3L Kompressor because it's a little more spirited feeling, even though it's actually slower. The V6 sounds miles better though, pulls stronger and is simpler/more reliable.
Finding cherry classics has to be a massive perk to moving south. What clean car!
Quote from: Tortoise on Jan 06, 2025, 09:26 AMFinding cherry classics has to be a massive perk to moving south. What clean car!
Not to mention the ability to drive these year round without worrying about winter tires, salt, and road debris.
Is that hood prop aftermarket? LOL 😆
Nice find!
Nice! Good thing you have such a big driveway!!
Sweet find Firm! A fun little car for sure ;)
Super cool! I'd love something like this as a cheap-ish fun car. But I'm not mechanical at all so I'm scared it would either always be broken and frustrating me, or cost me a ton bringing it to the mechanic all the time. I think I just need to jump off the deep end ;D
The key is to buy it low enough that it would take a lot to put you upside down, and be OK with it being broken sometimes - repairing it is part of the fun.
As for this SLK, the weather hasn't been great recently so I haven't done much with it, other than drive it a few times. I did get a new hood strut in, and replaced the part of the lower bumper that was missing (free thanks to my local scrap yard). The repair kit for the roof latch cylinder came in, looks like a fairly straightforward job, but I want a nice sunny warm day to tackle it.
Car drives fantastic though, suspension, brakes, driveline, etc all feel very tight and fresh.
Drove this to work for the first time on Friday, 50 mile round trip, drove great, no issues at all.
Today we're back into 'normal' outdoor temperatures so I tackled rebuilding the hydraulic cylinder for the latching mechanism on the top. I was always sort of intimidated by these top hydraulic systems, but once you get to understanding it, it's pretty simple stuff. Removed this cylinder, but since the lines are not detachable, rather than tearing apart all the interior and trunk to fish the lines out from the pump, I just unclipped enough length to get it out the window and rebuilt it right where it is in the photo...Definitely glad I haven't done any paint correction work on it yet. Rebuild is pretty easy; fight the retaining clip, pull out the piston, swap two seals, clean everything and reassemble. Total job took about an hour. Now we're leak free and the top works mint.
Now that the leak is addressed I can get the headliner back in. I tried recovering it re-using the original material awhile ago, but the material (some type of thin vinyl) reacted with the 3M Super 77 spray glue I usually use for those type of jobs and wrinkled up. So, I ordered some light beige suede and will 'upgrade' it to a suede headliner when it arrives.
Washed the exterior for the first time today too.
I also got in touch with the previous owner...Apparently it was with her family from new; her uncle bought it new in San Diego, he died in 2012 and his dad shipped it to his house in Sunset Beach NC....he died and his other son (this girl's dad) got it and brought it to Nashville. He got too old to drive and she donated it.
Nice girl though, had a good chat with her. She's a professional Cello player in Nashville - sent me a nice photo of her and her sister driving the car by the beach in North Carolina. I always get a kick out of these kinda stories.
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Freshly washed for the first time in my ownership:
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Looks good!
Headliner back in, really pleased with the way it turned out.
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Looks factory new Firm.
Mrs. Firm will love the "nice girl" comment ;D
Very neat headliner job, and clever approach to the hydraulics job!
Thanks! Been using this thing pretty regularly, nice to have something that's 'good' on gas in the driveway for quick errands and whatnot. I've made the work commute in it a few times as well, but the DTS is honestly better suited for that job.
Started working on the paint correction, got about 2/3rds of the car done...hood, roof, trunk and all the left side panels are done. The paint is in extremely good shape for a 22 year old black car, it had heavy clear coat scratches, probably from years of automatic car washes, but those all came out pretty easy. Very few stones chips, which is shocking since Mercedes paint from this era is terrible for chipping....Don't think this car saw much highway usage.
Going to need to deal with the non-op A/C soon though, that's going to suck, but you can't operate a black car around here without good A/C
More importantly though, Mrs.Firm has been loving it...using it every chance she gets.
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Looks great!
She certainly looks good in it.
When you're in Tennessee, do people call that thing a "Maarrrrcedes"?
lol, I haven't noticed. I always thought that was more of an Eastern Ontario thing. ::)
That Marrcedes looks great next to the Jagwire ;D
Nice job on the headliner. I need to do my Lebarons this year. Just need to find the right shade of whorehouse red.
Quote from: Revelations on Mar 05, 2025, 12:55 AMThat Marrcedes looks great next to the Jagwire ;D
Don't forget them little Emmgeebee!
AC was empty, and it's starting to get hot here, so I made some time to play with it. Pulled a vacuum and surprisingly it held vacuum just fine, so I put about half a can of freon in it, just enough to get the compressor to come on, along with some UV dye. Ran it a couple weeks like that and it held pressure. Did a thorough inspection with the UV light....no sign of any leaks. Did another inspection using a freon sniffer, no hits.
So, I filled it to the proper charge and it's now cooling really well. The question remains; why was it empty in the first place? Not sure honestly, but it's working good now, hopefully it holds out and I don't end up down the path of trying to track down some mystery leak.
Tossed a new cabin filter in it too. Only things left on my list are to do bunch of fluid exchange; oil, trans, diff, and then some detailing in the engine bay. Maybe some PDR work on a couple of small dings if I really want to make it perfect, and I am debating window tint. I have 20% (which is pretty dark) on the other DDs and it really helps cut down the sun & heat, but I am kinda digging the clear glass look on this. We also live in the woods and there's no streetlights, so tint makes seeing at night extra difficult....so iunno, I am on the fence on it.
Yesterday I gave the SLK it's first regular wash after the initial cleanup and paint-correction, and finally gave the wheels a proper detailing and wax - OE Benz brake pads are absolutely brutal for dust.
This thing is way nicer, condition wise, than I expected when I bought it. We've both been using it and enjoying it, and when family/friends come to visit it's nice to have a somewhat modern-ish car that's safe and reliable that I can toss them the keys to without worrying about it.
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Very Bentley like interior...nice
Very nice find.
I don't recall these having that fancy two tone interior.
I always liked the look of these but generally preferred the contemporary Boxster and Z3. Probably partly because of the dearth of manual SLKs out there.
Thanks, a lot of them had mono-tone black/charcoal interior, that's what my first one had. I actually really like this two-tone tan scheme, makes it feel a little more special. My brother had a white one with two-tone blue/black interior back in the day, I thought that looks pretty cool too.
I loved these since I was about 7-8 years old when the first ones started to come out and I recall watching the C&D review on TV and being absolutely mesmerized by the retracting top; it was the first time I'd ever seen anything like that and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I do like the Boxster of that era too, would happily own one if I came across the chance to, and having driven a few, it's definitely more of a sports car than the SLK. SLK was the practical option of the 3 with it's metal roof, and huge (with the top up) trunk.
Wanted to share a quick update on this car as it's been absolutely fantastic....Coming up on a year, about 2000 miles (3200 kms) added, and absolutely zero issues. Most of that mileage was with Mrs.Firm, it's become her primary ride for anytime she's going out without the kids in tow....Mostly gym runs and the odd shopping excursion. Really versatile little unit, super fun to cruise on the backroads with the top down, nice and secure with good heat/AC in bad weather, very easy to maneuver and park, good fuel economy, and a nice big trunk with the top up.
I got caught with it in an absolute monsoon the other day, leak free and handled the flooding interstate confidently. Gave it a good wash and a quick wax last weekend to clean it up.
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Quote from: Firm on Nov 25, 2025, 08:12 PMComing up on a year, about 2000 miles (3200 kms) added, and absolutely zero issues.
I should hope in a grand total of 3200kms that there would be zero issues!LOL 😆
Such are the milestones when owning a FGC! LOL 😆
Quote from: RRocket on Nov 26, 2025, 04:25 AMQuote from: Firm on Nov 25, 2025, 08:12 PMComing up on a year, about 2000 miles (3200 kms) added, and absolutely zero issues.
I should hope in a grand total of 3200kms that there would be zero issues!LOL 😆
Such are the milestones when owning a FGC! LOL 😆
[/quotQuote from: RRocket on Nov 26, 2025, 04:25 AMQuote from: Firm on Nov 25, 2025, 08:12 PMComing up on a year, about 2000 miles (3200 kms) added, and absolutely zero issues.
I should hope in a grand total of 3200kms that there would be zero issues!LOL 😆
Such are the milestones when owning a FGC! LOL 😆
Hey, it is a 22yr old German car, so zero issues is great. Anything at that age could have a an issue pop with just parts aging/drying out at this point.
Yeah, I mean, we're talking about a 22 year old German car that I bought for like like $2500 sight-unseen at an auction. I expected issues and have been pleasantly surprised.