I moved from very reliable and satisfactory Honda CRX's to my first SLK
230 Kompressor, 5 and a half years ago.

I am delighted with:
Service costs being far less than the Honda, especially with the [then]
6 month / 6000 miles intervals for Honda, compared with 11,000 intervals
for my SLK
Strength and durability of leather seats, trim and fittings. It all
looks so good after 82,000 miles and fit for another ????? miles.
Auto gearbox, steering and brakes are superb and make for a really
relaxing car for touring and eating up motorway miles.
Seats are firm but very deep and comfortable for my 6'3" height
The whole car feels very strong and robust, with very little scuttle
shake. A very reassuring car to travel in.
Tyres are quite cheap for such a car. £320 a set
Parts are 'reasonable' compared with some frightening Japanese part
costs

Gripes are:
a slightly rough engine, but plenty of power for my needs.
Many bulbs have failed, including headlamps, tail lamps and dashboard.
Although my car has never let me down, they are not as well built as
Japanese cars, in terms of clinical engineering. I have had a few bits
fall off inside and out, [the bonnet/hood catch was ungreased and ceased
up] yet I am sure the car will last many years more than Japanese thanks
to super quality raw materials and more thought on durability as opposed
to efficient reliability of japanese components. [Am I contradicting
myself?]
One brake sensor failed, causing the loss of abs and cruise, yet this is
against over 80k miles of motoring

Overall, I will always speak well of my 2 Hondas, but I have my name
down for the next SLK due out in 2004, and cannot wait.

Owen

Hi Caz,

I own a 99 SLK200. And my recommendation: Keep your Toyota!
Okay - perhaps it's a question of prestige. But:
With my SLK I only have problems!! The quality is quite poor.
Here two of round about ten problems:

With the engine now after 50.000 km a special guiding bearing
is now the second time broken. The repair is 1.300 Euro each!

It's impossible to park the car for longer than one week because
then the battery (a new one) is empty (electronic problem).

The second problem after the poor quality is the poor
service. After changing the obove mentioned bearing the
car had a lot of scratches and the service team
forgot to fill in oil!!! (no joke!!!).

So, my recommendation again: keep your hands away from a mercedes
younger than 10 years! (Or buy my one ;-)
Last week I had a test drive with the new MR2. That's a quality
mercedes is far away from. (But now space for luggage in the MR2 :-(.

Best regards from Stuttgart/germany

manfred