Originally Posted by rominl

umm..... not sure about super light. considering the size and the setup of the car, i just dont see it able to beat the slk at all. the slk is smaller, smaller, of course it's lighter

Originally Posted by 1SICKLEX

Its 3.0l straight six made 215hp at 5,800 RPM. It was the world's first production car with fuel injection. [COLOR=Blue]

Originally Posted by 1SICKLEX

Its 3.0l straight six made 215hp at 5,800 RPM.

Originally Posted by Lil4X

One of my business partners took her almost-new '93 300 CE into the dealership to have her brakes checked. Some half-wit mechanic jacked it up (using the wrong jacking point?) and broke the windshield. Very long story short, it cost her $1200 for a new windshield . . . plus the brake work - total about two grand. Naturally the dealer claimed she brought it in that way . . . sure, with her head sticking out the window so that she could SEE!

If it would have happened to me, I think they'd still be trying to clean up the bloodstains. Think I'll be buying anything from MB? Not likely.

Originally Posted by mmarshall

First car with FI ? Maybe.
Depends on how you define 'production". The 1948 Tucker Torpedo, with a rear-drive fuel-injected, air-cooled, flat-six similiar to some pre-1997 Porsches, was planned as a "production' car, but only 51 were built, for a variety of reasons I won't go into here. It also was the first car to incorporate seat belts, a third, center-mounted center swiveling headlight, disc brakes, padded dash, and a number of other safety features that the public (and the car industry) weren't ready for.....until Ralph Nader came along in the 1960's.

Originally Posted by mmarshall

First car with FI ? Maybe.
Depends on how you define 'production". The 1948 Tucker Torpedo, with a rear-drive fuel-injected, air-cooled, flat-six similiar to some pre-1997 Porsches, was planned as a "production' car, but only 51 were built, for a variety of reasons I won't go into here. It also was the first car to incorporate seat belts, a third, center-mounted center swiveling headlight, disc brakes, padded dash, and a number of other safety features that the public (and the car industry) weren't ready for.....until Ralph Nader came along in the 1960's.

Originally Posted by Lil4X

A fairly good biopic of Preston Tucker, "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" (1988) will give you the Cliff's Notes version of the Tucker story. Coppola used several vintage Tuckers in the production of the film, and the cars are pretty amazing.

Originally Posted by Dozer42

Just got back from the Mercedes dealership in San Francisco, that was by far the worst experience I've ever had with a dealership. The salesman was a complete and utter jerk (refraining from using more colorful language here), and at the end he flat out called me a liar and all but kicked me out of the place.

Why? Because I wouldn't buy his SLK55 on the spot after test driving it for $10k over MSRP.

Originally Posted by Dozer42

I love the looks of the SL55, but the insane price and 4200+ curb weight is just stupid heavy.

I like the looks of the SLK55, but there's a lot of things NOT to like about the car: Ugly wheels (would have to change that), no Bluetooth availability (would have to change that), an extremely lousy nav system, interior isn't that great, no adaptive cruise control, and a dealer that's a total ***ktard.

There are some good things to it, 360hp, 370+ft/lbs torque, 7 speed tranny, nice ride, fair price, etc...

But, I just went for a test drive in a Cadillac XLR again, wicked car. Beautiful interior, superb handling with the magnetic suspension, only 40hp less than the SLK55 and about 3500lbs, fantastic soundsystem and nav system, adaptive cruise control, heated and cooled seats, HUD, and the dealer offered me $10k off MSRP without me even asking. Sales on the XLR have been VERY VERY slow and GM is cutting production in half.

I'd go for the XLR now, but the XLR-V is coming out in less than a year, 440hp Supercharged V8, still around 3500lbs, that'll blow the doors off the SLK and give me a happy medium between my 700hp Supercharged Corvette Z06 and my Lexus SC430.

Yeah, I could twin turbo the SC430, but once the money is put in you lose it, and that'd cost about $25k. I'd still have to improve the handling too. I love my SC, but it's silly to have $100k+ worth of cars in the garage when one will do.

What's really pissing me off is taxes though. I am NEVER going to buy another car again, ever. I'm planning on leasing for the rest of my life.

Why? Because when you lease a vehicle you only pay tax on the lease payment and not the entire vehicle. And that sure adds up when you're talking about $50k-$90k cars! With my Z06, the first owner paid $5k in taxes, he drove it 688 miles and I got it off ebay. I paid $4k in taxes, and it's now at 8500 miles. It's up for sale now, and the next owner will pay $5k in taxes.

I cannot understand why the GD government is making $15k on the Z06 when GM didn't even make that much!!!

Screw it, I'm leasing and only paying tax on the lease payment. That alone would've saved me over $5k in taxes over the past year or two, and that adds up to $250/month or so!!!

Originally Posted by alexulan

You can stop right there. This is straight up a Northern California Thing. We had multiple discussion on this topic on buying Lexus Vehicles from Bay Area dealers as well.

Most of agree on one thing "go buy your car in LA and drive it back"

The Luxury Car dealers here just major SUCK!

The worst offender being BMW of SF.

Originally Posted by jaydunn

I'm not sure I see the tax advantage here. For instance, when I traded my Acura TL in on my RX330 it was a cash deal. I only paid sales tax on the difference in price not on the whole cost of the RX-isn't that the same thing? You aren't paying tax on the residual value of the car and neither am I.

Originally Posted by rominl

i guess it's cali, but as far as i know we don't pay tax only on the difference. when i traded in my TL-S for the is300, we paid tax on the full price, not the difference.

Originally Posted by AmethySC

Wow, that really sucks we pay only on the difference. However , our tax rate is 14.5 %, & can be up to 17% with luxury tax