New wheels, Mercedes SLK350

[LynxFX]

After 6 long months of paying off debt and looking for a new car to replace my pathetic, yet appreciated, old KIA, I found my new baby. Now that I live in SoCal I figured a convertible might be nice, but I did prefer the look of a coupe a little more and I wanted just a two seater. I ended up driving a Saturn Sky, BMW Z4M Coupe, Porsche Cayman S, BMW Z4M Roadster, Nissan 370z & 350z, Mercedes AMG55, Lotus Elise, and a Maserati Spyder before landing on the SLK350. Of all the other cars I drove, I really liked the Z4M Coupe the best but they are just too rare to find one with the options, color and price that I wanted. I stumbled on the SLK350 which was the exact color combo I was looking for, was cheaper than I had budgeted, and a hardtop convertible giving me the best of both worlds. I was hooked.

I ended up taking it to the canyon roads behind Malibu and had some fun this weekend. I never knew that area even existed, it is beautiful. There are tons of great twisty roads and quite a few with basically no traffic so you can really push the car around those corners. One section even turns into a one lane, one way, curvy descent for pure unadulterated car driving bliss. If any of you are in southern california and want to know of some great driving roads let me know.

Here are some photos from my two days of getting to know the car. The first day, I had a big smudge on my camera lens so some of the pics are a little softer. The second day (saddle peak) looks much better and I found an awesome overlook of the mountains, ocean and LA.
http://www.lynxfx.com/slk350/

[Ferris]

Dang... nice ride! Congrats!!

[SDon1969]

Wow, that's a beauty! Retractable hardtop? Sweet....no wonder you only have one blu-ray!

[Teabaggins]

so you just spent 6 months paying off debt, good for you. now you are replacing an old KIA with a mercedes?

did you win the lottery and paid in cash or are you getting into more debt

[jw]

It was a bailout

[brettallica]

I love hardtop convertibles. They're way better than standard rag-top convertibles in my opinion. They always look so much better with the top up than a rag-top does.

Nice ride!

[Ferris]

Originally Posted by Teabaggins

so you just spent 6 months paying off debt, good for you. now you are replacing an old KIA with a mercedes?

did you win the lottery and paid in cash or are you getting into more debt

Well, good for him, I say. Being debt-free allows him to make much higher payments on this car. I'd probably do the same thing. But hey, that's just me! I love spoiling myself.

[LynxFX]

Originally Posted by SDon1969

Wow, that's a beauty! Retractable hardtop? Sweet....no wonder you only have one blu-ray!

lol, one of these days I'll add all my blu-rays. Or just let people keep thinking that I really really like Ironman.

so you just spent 6 months paying off debt, good for you. now you are replacing an old KIA with a mercedes?

Lucked into a much better job last year which allowed me to accelerate paying off a bunch of old debt from the last 10 years of my life. The KIA to Mercedes jump seemed logical.

The retractable hardtop is definitely one of my favorite features. Thanks for the comps!

[DeeChizzle]

From a Kia to a Benz. Now that's the definition of from ashy to classy.

[toef]

Nice car... but is that an AT I see?