Why would you buy a 2002 Mercedes-Benz SLK 32 AMG instead of a brand new car?
For about the same amount of money as a new Mazda MX-5 you could buy a 2002 Mercedes-Benz SLK 32 AMG…but why would you?
IN 2002 THERE WAS no Facebook, Google wasn’t a verb, Nokia was cool and this Mercedes-Benz SLK 32 AMG was sold in Australia for around $160,000 plus onroads . Its supercharged V6 was good for 260kW and 450Nm delivered to the rear wheels via a five-speed automatic gearbox which made it capable, back in 2002, of a 0-100km/h time of 5 seconds. Even today that’s a respectable acceleration capability.
Fourteen years later the AMG has 54,000km on the clock and is worth around $43,000. I’m taking some photographs of it for a friend, work which included a drive, of course, so I thought it’d be interesting to ponder the choice spending that $43k on an older car like this one, or something suitably sporty, top-droppable and brand new.
For instance, if you took your $43k to a Mazda dealer then you could drive away in brand-new MX-5, as opposed to this much older Mercedes. The little Mazda is more nimble and better fun to drive than the SLK, has a warranty, would be more reliable and cheaper to run, and have most of the ‘luxury’ features that in 2002 were considered special. If all you want is cheap open-top motoring then the MX-5 is what you should buy. But if you wanted to spend a little bit more then the Mustang awaits, available as automatic only but with a choice of four cylinder or V8 power. The Mustang is a much more practical car than the MX-5, just as modern, albeit not as much fun to drive and more expensive.
7 Comments
I needed to buy a car as my daily drive was a loaner, and they wanted it back, how rude!!
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Thanks for a great article Robert – interesting thoughts. I agree on the tech overload. A lot of road testers (from gen Y club?) place these things as the most important and talked about features in a lot of their car reviews these days – so disheartening.
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Hardly anyone comments about proper considerations in testing a car, like body roll, under/oversteer, other handling aspects, power to weight ratios. They’d rather have a car win a compare due to an extra USB slot of Bluetooth properly working or an extra beeper on the bumper.
No wonder car companies are building this crap in every increasing doses per unit, people are so removed these days, en masse, from the true joys of driving and what’s important in a car and manufacturers are pandering to this mindlessness. Sure, put a paragraph in a review about the car’s tech but don’t use half the review and call it a bad car ’cause the tech is 3 days older than the last car you drove! Cheers, Brian
No wonder car companies are building this crap in every increasing doses per unit, people are so removed these days, en masse, from the true joys of driving and what’s important in a car and manufacturers are pandering to this mindlessness. Sure, put a paragraph in a review about the car’s tech but don’t use half the review and call it a bad car ’cause the tech is 3 days older than the last car you drove! Cheers, Brian
I’ve no idea why my last paragraph was duplicated above! Any ideas mods?
Sorry, none
Why I you buy a 2002 Mercedes-Benz SLK 32 AMG instead of a brand new car? No.
From experience. I bought a pristine (2002) C32 AMG for the meagre sum of $31,000. And with only 119,500kms on the clock…mint condition, perfect duco, test drove well, solid feel and flawless luxury Mercedes interior…even had a multi-function wheel (which your SLK above does not). “What could go wrong?” I told my wife. And then Old Testament God decided to smite me with a series of punishments. And not that I drove the car hard at ALL. No sir. I drove it with kids gloves. Alas, first the Bosch Fuel Filter Pump ($5,000 installed) went – and because it was my daily driver I needed to get a replacement fast. Had I not been in a rush I could likely have sourced one via the web for much much less. Then the idler pulley sheared off, in the process taking out the Water Pump and other expensive engine bay parts ($3,000+)…then the tell tale chirping sound of a Supercharger coupling on it’s way out (quoted $4,500 replacement for whole Supercharger unit)…But! I was learning by then and replaced just the coupling via a forum member for $400. And then the electrics started playing up – often – going into limp mode for no apparent reason, then out again. From Mercedes Dealer to Mercedes Dealer, no one had an answer. It passed all the tests. But. the engine mysteriously kept stalling, mostly in Sydney’s unforgiving CBD Peak Hour traffic. Oh the humiliation! But at least – with a $200 blue tooth connection kit (connected to the multi-function steering wheel) – I could call help from the vehicle itself eh. So in my experience, the car is too old despite what’s on the odometer. Buy a newer car with warranty and save yourself the headache, because as much as it was fun to own and drive that C32, the headaches outweighed the joy. Oh, and the claimed 5 secs to 100. Not after all these years. It would have to be tuned very specifically to get that new performance again. A great driving car with a surprising amount of today’s tech in the cockpit, but mechanically…a complex beast and that’s a different story. $12,000 spent on the car over 18 months, just to keep it on the road. If that doesn’t scare you then go for it.
Hi Jim. Thanks for an informative post. You highlight exactly what we’re talking about…old expensive cars are cheap to buy but are often expensive to run. However, the base point remains the same:
$43k + $12k = $55k.
assuming that this car is as bad as yours, which isn’t a given. That’s still much, much cheaper than a new one. Yes, the 0-100 isn’t going to be the same but it doesn’t really matter, it’s still quick enough.
Also, a new SLK 55 is $177k drive away. I looked up a 2015 model and it’s $150k, and a 2012 (4 years old) is $120k. So in two years or so the new model has lost $27k, and another $30k in the next two years. That’s just “keeping it on the road”. The older car couldn’t possibly lose another $27k of value over anything like the same time. I’d argue you made the better financial choice. I’d say even a 2012 model (out of warranty) would be a better bet than a new one, from a financial perspective.
The above doesn’t factor in the hassle of failures of course, and the new-old car thing are different experiences as I describe above. But for a car like this, spending even $7-8k a year on maintenance (averaged) for 3-4 years is probably more cost-effective than taking a big depreciation hit with a new car that requires no or little additional maintenance. And the new car will still require routine servicing.
The other point to take away from your post is that such cars are probably better used, if possible, as second cars. This will reduce maintenance costs, reduce risk of accidents, and preserve value for later. That’s not always possible of course, just an ideal.
Oh Yes…..watch the value of an SLK 32 AMG climb as fast as the value of a new car drops.