Hi, I have been using the forum for a little while but thought I would tell you all how I arrived here.
In October last year I bought a 04 plate Mercedes SLK from a garage in Derby. I had been after an open top 2 seater ‘weekend car’ for a while and had roughly 5k to spend. The original model SLK seemed to fit the bill and there were plenty within budget. A sliver 2 litre SLK caught my eye on Autotrader and following telephone inquiries and a test drive I bought it. On the final leg of the 200 mile drive home I began to hear an intermittent grinding noise coming from the engine bay and called my local garage for them to take a look. I also rang the garage I had bought it off to let them know the score. To cut a long story short it turned out that the SLK had a suspected camshaft and timing chain fault (a call to Mercedes confirmed that worn camshafts on the W170 engines are a common issue.) I was advised not to drive it as this could hammer the valve and cause the top to drop off and destroy the pistons! The estimated cost for parts and labour plus VAT was . . . . . . . wait for it . . . . . . £2,430. I was gutted! My garage advised that the car should be recovered back to the garage that sold it to me.
I rang the garage I had bought it from and emailed them all the details and they arranged collection saying they would have it looked over by a Mercedes dealership in Derby. Two weeks later and after several emails and phone calls (and many sleepless nights) I got their verdict: they diagnosed the same fault as my local garage and the repair costs were about the same.
I received this news 5 days before we were due to go on a driving holiday around the East Coast in our new car. The garage owner said it wasn’t worth them paying for the repair and offered me my money back, I would need to bring back all the SLK documentation and complete some paperwork. He also said they had several cars in stock that I might be interested in if I wanted to use the 5k to buy something else. Since the garage had been very good about the whole affair I was quite happy to check out their stock.
We set off to Derby (again) and on the way down a quick check on their website showed only one car that fitted the bill: an unmarked 56 plate Z4 2.0i Sport in titanium silver, high miles but a FSH. It was up for £6,995. I had never considered a Z4 (don’t ask me why) and although this was 2k more than the SLK I went for a test drive. Wow – what a machine, there was no comparison to the SLK, which in hindsight did feel dated and certainly wasn’t as smooth to drive.
I offered £6,500 for the beauty and they accepted.
5 days later we were blasting down East Coast roads under blue skies in our open top Z4
In October last year I bought a 04 plate Mercedes SLK from a garage in Derby. I had been after an open top 2 seater ‘weekend car’ for a while and had roughly 5k to spend. The original model SLK seemed to fit the bill and there were plenty within budget. A sliver 2 litre SLK caught my eye on Autotrader and following telephone inquiries and a test drive I bought it. On the final leg of the 200 mile drive home I began to hear an intermittent grinding noise coming from the engine bay and called my local garage for them to take a look. I also rang the garage I had bought it off to let them know the score. To cut a long story short it turned out that the SLK had a suspected camshaft and timing chain fault (a call to Mercedes confirmed that worn camshafts on the W170 engines are a common issue.) I was advised not to drive it as this could hammer the valve and cause the top to drop off and destroy the pistons! The estimated cost for parts and labour plus VAT was . . . . . . . wait for it . . . . . . £2,430. I was gutted! My garage advised that the car should be recovered back to the garage that sold it to me.
I rang the garage I had bought it from and emailed them all the details and they arranged collection saying they would have it looked over by a Mercedes dealership in Derby. Two weeks later and after several emails and phone calls (and many sleepless nights) I got their verdict: they diagnosed the same fault as my local garage and the repair costs were about the same.
I received this news 5 days before we were due to go on a driving holiday around the East Coast in our new car. The garage owner said it wasn’t worth them paying for the repair and offered me my money back, I would need to bring back all the SLK documentation and complete some paperwork. He also said they had several cars in stock that I might be interested in if I wanted to use the 5k to buy something else. Since the garage had been very good about the whole affair I was quite happy to check out their stock.
We set off to Derby (again) and on the way down a quick check on their website showed only one car that fitted the bill: an unmarked 56 plate Z4 2.0i Sport in titanium silver, high miles but a FSH. It was up for £6,995. I had never considered a Z4 (don’t ask me why) and although this was 2k more than the SLK I went for a test drive. Wow – what a machine, there was no comparison to the SLK, which in hindsight did feel dated and certainly wasn’t as smooth to drive.
I offered £6,500 for the beauty and they accepted.
5 days later we were blasting down East Coast roads under blue skies in our open top Z4
