Toys4RJill

I always thought this was the final end of Mercedes greatness. This was an unparalleled design that was born out of the late 80s (I think)

This was before all the screens and tablets and gizmos. The build quality is OMG. The leather wrapped/stitched roll bar



Did I hear correctly? There is a hard top...and a glass pano hard top accessories....when the glass hard top is inserted...the car transforms

The host gets it right when he says this is the end of analog era and where the digital era begins

RNM GS3

That was a great car but MB has made a ton of amazing and better cars since then.

The current AMG-GT is superior in every way.

mmarshall

Jill's got at least somewhat of a point. The build-quality of 80's vintage Mercedes products was arguably the best in the industry, before Lexus and Infiniti's competition, at lower prices, forced them to cut back on costs and the fact that they were over-engineering their vehicles so much.

tex2670

People have been saying "they don't make them like they used to" for my entire life. 51 years of degrading quality of these products--it's amazing that cars don't just disintegrate when you drive them off the dealer lots.

charley95

I love that guys channel. He'll go completely off topic sometimes and totally cracks me up. His review of a BMW electric car is really funny if you're an old school minded person as myself.

RNM GS3

You can make that same claim about the original MB 300SL Gullwing. Mercedes has a long rich history of incredible cars, personally that particular SL600 would not even make the top 10 of their greatest cars.

SW17LS

I LOVE these SLs. I have considered buying one as a third car.

mmarshall

The main problem with gull-wing doors is that, even with Mercedes-levels of engineering and quality-control back then, has always getting the seals perfect, so that they don't leak. Another potential problem, of course, is getting them open if the vehicle rolls over.

mmarshall

......and, in many (although not necessarily all), cases, they are correct. In many vehicles, sheet-metal, hardware, and trim have been getting (steadily) less-substantial for decades....not just with M-B, but in general, throughout the industry. What seemed like thin sheet metal 20 years ago would feel like a tank compared to a lot of today's vehicles.

Of course, some of that has been deliberate, with the advent of crumple-zones that fold up and absorb crash-energy rather than transmit it through to the cabin.



If you are refering to M-B products, some of the electronics in the late-90s through early-2010s generations were doing just that.

tex2670

See...you get it. Moving away from cars as heavy as a tank isn't necessarily a bad thing. Heft doesn't necessarily make a car better. Cars are more complex than ever, but I would argue more trouble-free than cars in the 70s, 80s and 90s. I think that's "better".

And that's different than the nostalgia of a classic MB SL coupe. I had my 3 Series in for service this week; in the service center waiting area there was a BMW 2002 (customers were not allowed in the building, so I couldn't see it up close). I couldn't take my eyes off it, and I even thought "I wonder if that's for sale?" It was way cool; but that doesn't make it "better" than modern cars.

mmarshall

It does when you have kids in the neighborhood that are careless with bikes/scooters, people careless with snow-shovels, and trees/squirrels that like to drop solid nuts.

70s and 80s, I'll agree (easily)....but Toyota and Honda, IMO, made many of their best and most solidly-built vehicles in the 1990s.

LexBob2

Kind of a stretch. These are all things I never worry or think about with regards to old or new cars. The benefits of newer generation cars far outweigh these worries.

mmarshall

Garages, of course, prevent most of that, but not every car-owner has that option.


Arguably so, if you are looking for safety features.

mmarshall

Back to the SL600 of decades ago, I can remember looking at one and inspecting it (but not an actual test-drive). I agree with Jill...the build-quality on those had to be seen to be believed. Today, the closest Mercedes product remaining to that, in terms of build-solidness, is the G-Wagen.

And that's because the G-Wagen is actually a product of that-generation....indeed, even some time before that, if one considers that the basic design goes lack to 1979, as a military vehicle for the West-German and Austrian military.

Stroock639

i certainly have a soft spot for this era SL, very comfortable and surprisingly boat like which i appreciated since i can see this being a great long distance cruiser

as far as being the 'last great mercedes' i don't think i'd go that far, and the power roofs on these could have issues and end up spewing hydraulic fluid everywhere