How To Set Clock On 2003 Mercedes Sl500
From the April 2002 issue of Car and Driver.
Say what you will about the cheese-cake lines and frumpy 2-tone pigment schemes of the outgoing Mercedes-Benz SL, information technology was no slave to fads. For 13 years the R129, every bit Mercedes engineers knew information technology, bucked changing fashions to embody the company's traditional love of precision applied science, contemporary technology, and restrained design. It was a silk pinstripe on a rack of polyester pretenders.
And equally the R129 points its rectilinear nose into the sunset, it'due south reasonable to expect that the replacement, the R230, which pioneers a new electrohydraulic brake technology (run into sidebar) and has a folding hardtop whose choreography would stand up with a Bolshoi number, volition emulate the blueprint. Germans make things to endure. The Brandenburg Gate survived the Halifax bomber, for example. So shall the bourgeois SL stay its course confronting the style onslaught of chichi new droptops.
Or will it? Today's plutocrats want more than than just safe, dignified transportation, and Mercedes' competitors are lining upwardly to requite it to them. The Porsche 911 Cabrio offers more performance, the BMW Z8 more than exclusivity, the Jaguar XK8 has a more than coddling interior and classically evocative lines, and the Lexus SC430 is more than avant-garde. The old SL may have been content to be timeless executive wear, but the new SL wants to be this flavor'southward sauciest skid-on.
Just look at the way it flaunts itself in public. Mercedes' stylists lengthened the wheelbase by one.viii inches, widened the track by most an inch, and shortened the overhangs to give it a road-inhaling stance. They folded down the windshield to a garish rake and draped the aluminum sheets in an attracting wedge over the big wheels. The scandalous curves are a magnet for attention and moved one young male passerby to exclaim, "Human, you lot must get all the women."
Don't exist fooled. Nosotros don't go the women, and the new SL, despite its gorgeous shape, proves to be only a halfhearted extrovert once you take a closer look. For ane thing, the stylists seem to accept hitting the creative wall later on penning the lascivious profile. The olfactory organ bears a stock four-sided corporate grille bracketed by a variant of the C-class Mr. Peanut-shaped headlights—livened upwardly somewhat with a tighter waist (Mrs. Peanut?). Just the existent offenses in our eyes are the hood and fender vents, which look cheap and gape ostentatiously. What manner law-breaking did the last SL's artfully subtle slots commit?
More important, the new SL moves the driving-excitement needle but incrementally, rather than substantially, out on the road. True, the new car finds 60 mph a full 0.5 second sooner than the last SL500 we tested ( C/D, Dec 1989), even though its SOHC 302-hp, 24-valve V-eight produces 20 horsepower less than Mercedes' one-time DOHC 32-valve Five-viii. And the holding power on the skidpad was a very sticky 0.88 g, 0.06 1000 amend than the SL500 we tested in '89. Some credit goes to the fitment of the optional Sport packet, which includes side and rear fascia changes and 18-inch wheels wearing the latest Z-rated Michelin Pilot Sports, upsized to 285/xl in the back.
Simply the dividends to steering precision and road communication from the revised chassis oasis't fully accrued to the overall experience. The SL now enjoys more lively rack-and-pinion steering, but there's however too much cushion in the weights and responses, too much old software left over from the luxury-car department to brand the cycle as sharp equally it could be. For example, if the SL were a true sports roadster, the steering would give you the adept, the bad, and fifty-fifty the irrelevant news. This SL provides a brief executive summary.
Some of the SL'south dynamic shortcomings tin exist blamed on the weight, which despite the aluminum sheets and magnesium door castings is still 4172 pounds, virtually the same as a Jeep M Cherokee Limited. The Agile Body Command arrangement directs a hydraulic ram higher up each coil leap to continuously modify its spring rate in lodge to counter torso roll, pitch, and swoop. This limits the trunk motions in long sweepers and during hard applications of the pedals, just this heavy machinery can't make the machine experience less massive than information technology is all by itself. And except for allowing Mercedes to choose softer springs than it might take otherwise, ABC doesn't do anything for the ride quality, which is on the tranquil side simply which degenerates into quivering concussions over Midwestern frost heaves.
The trademark trapezoidal instrument cluster is amidst the Mercedes icons relegated to the dustbin in the new SL. The substitute is a pair of sculpted, hooded dials that take the nigh direct cue non from the lumpy 300SLs of the '50s or the pagoda-roofed SLs of the '60s, but from generations of dearly departed Alfa Romeo spiders. The climate-command plate recalls something less savory--nosotros're thinking Madonna's chrome brassiere--and the twin aluminum rings that control the temperature for driver and passenger wobble slightly in their races and feel as if they were pilfered from the Hyundai parts bin.
Mercedes did manage to blend the conflicting themes of retro wood and nouveau brushed aluminum into a warmer, more spacious, and more organic interior than in the previous SL. The exception is the door armrests, which are as hard as squealer iron and cruel to the elbows. At least one can flip upwardly the armrest to open up the storage bin underneath and perch the elbow on the much softer spine of the leather-bound owner's manual.
The most familiar item in the cockpit is the COMAND system panel, which includes densely packed buttons for the radio, phone, and GPS-based navigation functions. The voice-activation feature and the oval steering-bike buttons help sort it out, but using the system remains as taxing equally herding cats. Another thing you tin can't exercise without straining is load the CD changer. The slot to a higher place the COMAND screen accommodates one music CD or 1 of the 11 navigation CDs (there's nevertheless no one-disc DVD system available); the changer is nestled in the left of the 2 cubbies behind the seats. Nosotros find that an odd place to put information technology, because a Ford Focus can be optioned with an in-dash changer.
At least Mercedes has created a serene environment in which to relish the radio. With the top erected, the temper is hushed enough to hear your passenger's tendons snapping during a postnap stretch. Still, the draining of the sound swamp did betrayal at to the lowest degree one evolutionary throwback wriggling in the mud. At about 2100 rpm, a hollow, moaning resonance disturbs the cabin, thanks to an offensive frequency in the exhaust or powertrain that excites the surrounding body.
A new thing the machine pictured here doesn't take, only which we sampled at Mercedes' introduction, is Keyless Go. It'due south a transponder shaped similar a credit menu that unlocks the motorcar and allows the driver to get-go and end it by pushing a button on the shifter. It promises to make a lost art of inventing new curses to phone call forth misplaced keys. In that location is no price on the option nonetheless.
The SL'southward new top is without dubiety the category killer. Flip upwardly the paddle switch at panel heart (the small buttons to manually raise and lower the roll bar are hiding underneath), and wait 16 seconds while the aluminum and glass panels divide, somersault flat, and stack efficiently in the trunk. Once deposited, the top leaves only enough space to wedge in his and hers golf bags.
The cavity is attainable by pushing a red button on the trunk sill that electrically tilts the unabridged top stack to a 20-degree bending. A louver in the body that must be in identify before the top volition come down prevents irish potato chip crushing. With the top stowed and the stretchy mesh current of air deflector in position, the occupants tin can debate their destination at conversational levels right upwards to 80 mph.
The new SL's terrific top and improved performance are the best excuses to cash in an one-time softtop SL and simultaneously rid the garage of its bulky detached hardtop. If those aren't reasons plenty, consider that the $87,000 cost may ultimately be the cheapest way to completely overhaul your appearance.
Counterpoint
Bated from an automatic climate-control system that looks as if it came from a pre-WWII Tatra, the latest SL advances the state of its breed and is a existent looker. In fact, it could exist argued that this is the coolest Mercedes sheetmetal since the 300SL Gullwing. Information technology's also comfy, techno-trick, reasonably quick (for something that still scales in north of two tons), and reasonably agile (ditto). But unless you're into such accessories as bays wives and gilded Rolexes, the new SL merely isn't the sort of device that raises pulse rates. If you like envy, this ride'south for you. If y'all want adrenaline, better await for the AMG version. —Tony Swan
Robinson drove the SL500 home from Arizona, reminding me of a similar jaunt I made in the original 600SL. That automobile, also, was a people magnet, a serene cruiser, and a rocket sled. That machine made me experience like a power broker, and so does this one, except here I feel like an addled magnate. Setting the clock took 15 minutes of tinkering, followed by an embarrassing consultation of the possessor's manual. The futuristic height and by-wire brakes set new benchmarks, and the sinuous sheetmetal recalls elements of the original 300SL. I like it all, just I wish the dash controls were simpler. Simple controls would qualify as retro chichi, wouldn't they? —Frank Markus
Is there anyone in America who doesn't pay a little more attention to the driver of a Mercedes SL? The car is such a universal icon of tasteful style and refined substance that it magically confers those qualities on anyone who drives one. The SL performs this alchemy because for nearly 50 years it has represented automotive excellence. The original Gullwings were close cousins to Le Mans winners. The contempo ones accept bristled with cutting-border applied science. The 1 mutual thread has been visual beauty, and this fifth-generation SL is the prettiest i in the past xxx years. It'southward sure to keep those valets standing upwards a little straighter. —Csaba Csere
Braking The Mold
This new SL introduces the virtually significant wrinkle to stoppers since the advent of anti-lock brakes: estimator-operated brakes that take control of the calipers in a way no human could emulate without four brake pedals and the feet to work them.
The underhood heart of the Sensotronic Brake Control (SBC) system is a large aluminum valve block fitted with an electric motor for maintaining 2000 to 2300 psi of fluid pressure in an adjacent hydraulic accumulator. When you hoof the brake pedal—an electronic sensor with a spring-loaded plunger to mimic restriction resistance but non the annoying ABS pushback—the computer flutters the solenoid-operated valves inside the cake, releasing force per unit area from the accumulator to the otherwise conventional steel lines heading out to the calipers.
The computer thus has ultimate command over the pressure each caliper receives (a redundant master cylinder provides pressure to the front end calipers in case of power failure) and uses its position of responsibility to provide some extra adequacy. For case, the system varies the brake pressure not merely fore and aft but also from side to side, applying increased pressure on the laden outside wheels in a turn while relaxing the inside calipers to prevent lockup. The calculator as well monitors for sudden releases of the accelerator, in which instance information technology assumes a panic situation is brewing and pumps upwards pressure while snuggling the pads confronting the rotors to ready for a hard cease. In the rain, the system will imperceptibly pulse the brakes every few minutes to go along the pads dry out, and over time information technology will learn your driving style and tailor the brake response.
Considering it's the get-go shot at virtual brakes, Mercedes and supplier Bosch got information technology by and large right. Tip into the pedal as lightly equally y'all tin can, and the initial appointment is undetectable. Whack the pedal hard, and the machine freezes in 155 anxiety from lxx mph, or 10 feet shorter than a Ferrari 360 Modena F1 ( C/D, September 2000). Do it six times rapidly, and the distance grows by only nine feet, still better than the Modena's best. The SL'due south brakes also accept stomps in mid-apex without relying on ABS or squirreling the car into oversteer.
The system's opaqueness increases during prolonged mid-attempt applications, such every bit when rolling up to a cease sign. The pedal acquires supersensitivity, adjusting the force per unit area out of proportion with pocket-size pedal movements. Suddenly, it feels as if the car is lurching ahead when all y'all meant to do was ease the pressure slightly to stop on the appropriate dime. Release the pedal from a dead cease, and the calipers of our examination automobile sometimes responded with an audible "clunk." With this wrinkle, Mercedes still has a picayune ironing to practise. —AR
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How To Set Clock On 2003 Mercedes Sl500,
Source: https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a15137855/2003-mercedes-benz-sl500-road-test/
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