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!

[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?

[DC_Street]

it needs new wheels

[quirkmanly]

Same car as mine....from a color perspective..

Nice wheels!

[PNF]

nice car~

but really not feeling the wheel.......too.... bling/ricey..

but you're not supposed to mod a SLK anyway, it looks great as it is

[Blu-Benny]

awesome car!!! congrats!!!

[LynxFX]

Originally Posted by toefer

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

Yeah an AT, but to tell you the truth I've driven a stick for 16 years and I'm tired of it, especially in LA traffic. If it was just a weekend car, I would probably opt for a stick but this is my daily driver. It does have paddle shifters for a bit more control but it isn't quite the same.

The best part is that my insurance only went up $10.

it needs new wheels

New rims next year. The ones on it were part of the AMG sport package. No choice.

[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.

[brettallica]

Originally Posted by PNF

nice car~

but really not feeling the wheel.......too.... bling/ricey..

but you're not supposed to mod a SLK anyway, it looks great as it is

"Ricey" is not the right term for that, but "bling" is. They don't look terrible or anything, and chrome wheels work with the color of that car. Rock on, my friend. A bunch of haters up in here killing the joy of your new Benz!!!

[Bigdog]

Originally Posted by brettallica

"Ricey" is not the right term for that, but "bling" is. They don't look terrible or anything, and chrome wheels work with the color of that car. Rock on, my friend. A bunch of haters up in here killing the joy of your new Benz!!!

I think something with a gun metal or black chrome type look would go nicely with that shade of red with a stainless or brushed metal type ring around the outside of the rim.

That has got to be one hell of a difference going from the kia to a benz, did the salesmen at the benz dealer laugh at you when you asked him about a trade in value?

[LynxFX]

Originally Posted by brettallica

Rock on, my friend. A bunch of haters up in here killing the joy of your new Benz!!!

No worries, everyone has different opinions and tastes. And thanks!

Originally Posted by Bigdog

That has got to be one hell of a difference going from the kia to a benz, did the salesmen at the benz dealer laugh at you when you asked him about a trade in value?

lol I didn't even bother. I knew I would get nothing for my old car as a trade in. I'll just sell it on craigslist or autotrader. It is still a good car with relatively low miles, only 65k. Someone will get a decent deal.

It was an interesting experiment in profiling though whenever I pulled onto a BMW, Porsche or Mercedes lot in my dinky KIA. How many salesmen do you think rushed over to help me? Not many. After some talking, the test drives were easy to get though. Actually the stingiest of all the dealers I went to was probably Nissan. They would give you a dirty look if you even asked to sit in a 370z let alone glance at GT-R.

At the dealer I ended up buying from they had a lot of really, REALLY nice exotics. Parked near mine was a $300k Porsche Carrera GT. Made me feel like I was buying a go-kart in comparison. Maybe next time.

[brettallica]

Nissan is a little uppety about letting people mess around with the 370. The guy at my local dealer told me they haven't allowed anyone to drive it yet, and it's been in there for probably about two months now. It is the only one they have, though, so they're probably trying to keep the test drives to serious buyers only.

[Johnny Vinyl]

I'm not a car guy at all....just bought 2008 Nissan Sentra, but you've got a cool ride there! Congrats!

John