Mercedes-Benz, SLK R170

FOREWORD

First of all I would like to thank you for having purchased this book. I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. This book covers the SLK R170, built from 1996 until 2004 with all its variations, AMG version, special editions and some of the tuner activities such as models from Brabus, Carlsson and Renntech. Although there were a lot more companies around that dealt in one way or another with its tuning, it would have been impossible to cover them all, so I ask for your forgiveness, that the list that made it into this e-book is not exhaustive.

When the R170 was first shown in 1994 at the Turin auto show as a concept car, it was a surprise to everyone, who was a bit familiar with Daimler-Benz. Although a German car magazine was already speculating in 1990 that something was cooking, nobody had expected a small sports car the size of the Mazda Miata. For Daimler-Benz it was not just a new car in a new segment, it was a quantum leap forward and put the company at once ahead of its arch rivals Porsche and BMW, which had or were to introduce similarly sized cars. Because when one saw it in its final version in 1996 again in Turin with its new fully automatic vario-roof, one had to admit that it was not just a clever marketing approach, but due to its roof a technical master piece that should prove surprisingly reliable. The folding metal top was indeed so popular that other manufacturers would, over the next couple of years, install them in numerous other convertibles. The idea even made it into the iconic Mercedes-Benz SL, debuting in R230 form in 2001.

From the beginning the SLK R170 was a big hit with roadster aficionados. It was offered in colors and interior variations that would have been previously unthinkable in a Mercedes and was aimed at a clientele that would have never considered a Mercedes as their car of first choice. For them it did not seem to matter that its smallest engine initially produced just 136 hp. The car was hip and everybody wanted one. So it was no wonder that Daimler-Benz had in the first year huge problems coping with unexpected demand. After the success of the 190SL (W201), the SLK was only the second entry into a market segment that Daimler-Benz had left untouched since the 1930s. And as history has shown, it was not the last such offering.

I would like to thank Daimler AG for the support I was able to receive from the extremely helpful staff at the Daimler AG archive. Special thanks have also to go to slkworld.com and benzworld.org for the invaluable information I was able to gather from their input. This is an updated version of the original 2014 e-book with more technical information. The buyer’s guide has been slightly revised and contains the latest second hand car prices gathered in early February 2017.

February 2017

Bernd S. Koehling

Mercedes SLK: How it all began

Whoever wants to know more about the small SL, the SLK, will at some point also seek to understand the vehicle concept`s history. After all, similar names were used by Daimler-Benz way back in the 1920s and 1930s, in cars synonymous with racing success across Europe. The vehicles to which I am referring, were instrumental in establishing the Mercedes brand as a major factor in the sports car market. Of course the huge and powerful SS (Super Sport), SSK (Super Sport Kurz) and SSKL (Super Sport Kurz Leicht) of those days had almost nothing in common with their tiny modern cousin.

A 1929 Model SSK

Still, such a relationship, even though just through similar names, never hurts. In order to find other connections within the long and esteemed Daimler-Benz history, one has to look to the 1950s. A certain Max Hoffman, well known for urging the creation of, and then importing attractive European sports cars into the New World, had pushed the executive board of Daimler-Benz to create a special automobile that would help him sell their cars in North America. This car would be responsible for effectively introducing the Mercedes brand to a larger group of potential customers in the US than the small circle then already familiar with the brand. The car carrying so much responsibility was, of course, the 300SL Gullwing, first shown to the American public at the 1954 New York automobile show.

But even prior to the launch of the iconic SL, Daimler-Benz management were discussing with Hoffman the notion that a smaller, more affordable roadster would be a beneficial addition to such an important market as North America. After they had finally agreed on the design, it took Daimler-Benz stylists just eight weeks to get from blueprints to a first 1:1 scale model. The car was of course the 190SL. And it stood side by side with the 300SL at said show in 1954.

300SL and prototype 190SL in 1954 in New York

For both Daimler-Benz and Hoffman, the decision to offer a smaller SL was entirely market driven. Everybody knew that the ultra-expensive 300SL would not sell in large numbers. But everybody also knew that a more affordable, similarly styled roadster would attract a much bigger crowd that was intrigued by the aura of the Über-SL, but not necessarily by the price tag that came with it.

Had it been only for the 300SL, the SL sports car would not have seen a successor. After all, counting coupe and roadster sales together, a mere 3,258 units sold (coupe: 1,400, roadster: 1,858) between 1954 to 1963. That means on average less than 30 cars a month found homes. Compare this to the lesser SL, of which a respectable 25,881 units sold between 1955 and 1963, convincing the executive board to go ahead with the development of a new version of the SL. As we all know, that was the 230SL launched in 1963, commonly known as the Pagoda.

Fast forward to 1989:

After the long and successful career of Pagoda successor, the R107, the R129 was launched in 1989. Initial production was planned for 20,000 units annually. Although prices for the new roadster reached almost stratospheric levels, demand far outweighed supply. At the top end of the convertible car market, the SL had no rivals in its price range. Capacity at the newly opened Bremen plant was soon increased to 25,000 units annually, but to no avail: the waiting list hovered at around two years and could even reach up to five years for rare models in unique color and equipment options. The situation was similar to that in the 1970s, when there was a famous saying among German farmers who had ordered a Mercedes Diesel sedan: I can cope with draughts and floods, but not with the long waiting list for my new diesel.

And then in 1990 suddenly everything changed: the Mazda MX5 Miata hit earth. Although it was not really a threat to the upper end of the convertible car market, Daimler-Benz management knew instantly: this was a game changer. Of course there were other convertibles available at that time. The Cadillac Allante, produced from 1987 to 1993, was an attempt by GM to steal some of the SL`s glamour. Although it was a bargain compared with the SL and although it offered the state-of-the-art Northstar DOHC V8, people did not warm to it in sufficient numbers. And flying it during its production process from Italy (Pininfarina had designed it and built the body) to the US in an exclusive deal with Lufthansa Cargo did not exactly help the bottom line. So when sales failed to impress management, the project was abandoned. Overall just 21,430 Allantes were built. Cadillac tried the convertible market again only in 2003 with the XLR. But this time with a retractable metal hardtop, designed and built by a joint venture company of Mercedes and Porsche, which also supplied the SLK’s vario-roof. The lovely Ford Mustang (especially with its 5.0 L engine) was a joy to drive, but was not offered by Ford outside the US. Much cheaper than the SL, it was also not meant to be a match for the SL’s build quality. And the BMW Z1 with its troublesome disappearing doors (and lots of interesting technical features for its time) was offered as a limited edition model with just 8,000 units sold from 1989 to mid 1991.

The Miata was different. It made people suddenly realize that open-top driving was within their financial reach. The small car was not only attractively priced and soundly engineered: on top of that it was gorgeous to look at and managed to hit the emotional soft-spot in most drivers, both male and female. As a consequence of all of this, it was THE car to be seen in. This included the rich and famous. Their today’s Prius was the Miata in the early 1990s. What the British had achieved so successfully in the years after WWII with cars such as the brilliant MG TC and later the MGA, the Japanese had now simply copied. And it is somewhat ironic that a team from Mazda had spent quite some time on the stand of the British Stevens Cipher roadster at the 1980 Birmingham Motor Show in the UK. Their later mission statement for the Miata is supposed to be a straight copy of the press release for the Cipher (according to Prof. Tony Stevens, Chairman of Stevens Research Ltd).

Daimler-Benz (together with other car companies) was keenly aware that this small convertible niche would not just grow at the rate of the overall automotive market; no, they realized that it would grow by leaps and bounds. And this would happen not only in the US and in Europe, but all over the world. They urgently needed some presence in this niche. Not at the price level of the Mazda. That was not their domain (yet), but size-wise their new Mercedes-Benz convertible had to be much smaller (and more affordable) than the R129. It was rather fitting that the company had launched, after an absence of some fifty years, a mid-prized sedan in form of the 190 W201 in 1982. A small and affordable roadster would make a more than welcome addition to this new line of cars and it was only natural that there was some parts-sharing from the new W202 C-class with the R170