Adios to an Old Friend

"kyngfish" (martinbidegaray) 08/21/2015 at 11:16 • Filed to: None

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My SLK wasn’t the first car I ever owned, that honor goes to a 1987 Corolla SR5 coupe which I didn’t give enough credit or care to, but the SLK was the first car I ever remember WANTING.

Being broke and not growing up in a car culture, I gained my lust of cars through my friends. My best friend growing up had a 1972 Mustang with a 351 Cleveland engine. It handled like a whale and wasn’t really that fast. It was just loud, and beautiful. He and his dad taught me what little I know about wrenching my own, changing brakes and oil and generally trying to find my way around an engine bay. He sold it after 4 years and bought a Mercedes 190 2.3_16, and 6 months later some kid wrapped that Mustang around a telephone pole.

I don’t remember why I fixated on the SLK, but I remember the commercials (targeted to women, I didn’t care) in 1997, showing off the first electronic hard-top convertible. To me it was small, fast, German and represented the life I’d never had and probably would never have.

After my SR5, I went through 2 ‘85 Accords, one of which was a sweet little hatchback with a cable clutch and no power steering, or power anything really. Then an Audi A100 that went through fuel pumps like they were going out of style, and finally a 2001 Accord I bought from my parents for 10k. It had 40k miles, an EX with a V6 and it was fun for a while. Dead reliable and reasonably nimble. Sometimes I still miss that car.

When someone backed into my Honda and dented the door, my boss loaned me her black SLK230 to tool around in. The first time I dropped the top, I was hooked. When 2 months later I saw an ‘04 SLK32 AMG with 60k miles within my budget price, it felt like fate. I ignored the people that told me nothing was more expensive than a cheap Mercedes and bought it anyway.

Drop the top on a cool autumn day in a 360hp Supercharged V6, then bury the throttle and tell me if you give a shit about reliability.

Aside from maintenance, in the course of five years, I’ve replaced the motor mounts, the transmission plug, a rubber piece in the drive-shaft, the rear tail lights, and a crankshaft position sensor. Aside from having to change a battery and battery terminal cable in a parking garage at noon on a 100 degree day, it’s never left me stranded. It hasn’t been a Honda, but the enjoyment it’s given me has more than paid for the pain.

It’s a GT car, and the steering feel kinda sucks, but that engine is a gem. In the mid-range, it pulls like a freight train.

I’ll probably miss that, but it’s time to move on.