1 minute read
February Car In The Room
February Car In The Room 1993 Mercedes-Benz 500SL by Dennis Whimp
February’s car in the room was Jim Maud’s extremely tidy Mercedes-Benz 500SL which is a 5 litre engined roadster with both hard and soft tops. Jim started by explaining that he joined the Wellington branch of the VCCNZ in 1966 with a Ford Model A roadster which was not looked on with any enthusiasm by those in that club, but was in Rotorua when he shifted here a few years later. After a stint in Canberra, he moved back to Rotorua and sold the Model A in the 1970s to replace it with an Aston Martin.
The Mercedes-Benz came about in 2016 when he went to look at the new Ford Mustang and was somewhat put off by the requirement to put down a $5,000 non-refundable deposit to confirm your order with no definite delivery date. A fellow customer there had the Mercedes that the Ford dealer would not take as a trade in. So Jim after some negotiating became the proud owner with what was a far better car than the Mustang. These roadsters were around NZ$250,000 new. The car was built in Germany and exported to Japan. It came to NZ in 2014. The engine is an all aluminium V8 fuel injected 320hp with the top speed limited to 250km/h. Transmission is 4 speed automatic.
The convertible hardtop needs two people to remove and put back on. The cloth convertible top goes up and down with the push of a button. There is a roll bar that automatically extends if the car senses that a rollover is imminent. Jim hopes to not get the opportunity to try that feature out.
A problem since solved was that the engine would stop suddenly at the most inconvenient place such as at traffic signals. Turned out to be the distributor caps having hairline cracks. There are two distributors and the replacement cost for the two caps and points was eyewatering. Another issue was the brake warning light being on indicating the brake disc pads were worn. It turned out to be dust on the sensors that was easily cleaned after a fair bit of investigation. Thanks Jim for showing us this top of the range vehicle and explaining the fun in owning it.
