R170 as a year round daily driver?

[GTdrive]

I have been considering a R170 as a year round daily driver.

It ticks so many boxes for me at the moment as I moved to a big city and want a small, affordable car which is still fun. The car is small and easier to find parking than if I had a saloon. Besides that it's RWD and can do double duty as a coupe/convertible. And prices are affordable too, which at the moment is important.

But the newest R170 is 17 years old now. So I wonder about reliability and running costs.

I would be looking at the 4 cylinders for insurance costs and fuel economy purposes. So 200 Kompressor or 230 Kompressor cars. In manual as well as I enjoy 3 pedals.

It snows in winter here and they use salt on the road.

I would use it as a daily driver, although might not actually drive it everyday. Depending where I'm going it's easier to just have a 20 minutes walk. On the weekends I would do a 400Km trip (200km each way).

Is this a feasible idea to have a R170 as my only car and daily driver?

Are these cars sensitive to miles? Is something for example with 138k miles on the clock ok or it must be ultra low mileage?


Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[loquacious]

Lots of people use them all year round, good heaters and heated seats (optional) and not sensitive to miles and no more (or less) reliable than any other Merc of the period. Watch out for rust! Arches and front wings get a bit frilly but otherwise not usually bad.

I have a 171 and use it daily (well, weekly as I don't do many miles) and it's fine.

[egor110]

loquacious said:

Lots of people use them all year round, good heaters and heated seats (optional) and not sensitive to miles and no more (or less) reliable than any other Merc of the period. Watch out for rust! Arches and front wings get a bit frilly but otherwise not usually bad.

I have a 171 and use it daily (well, weekly as I don't do many miles) and it's fine.

Do the superchargers need servicing at 100k like on the minis ?

[loquacious]

Don't know as mine is a 350 so no supercharger. Join SLKworld.com as it's solely about SLKs and lots of knowledge

[paulwirral]

egor110 said:

Do the superchargers need servicing at 100k like on the minis ?

Slks are easily usable as daily drivers , I've had a couple of 170s , both 6 speed manual 230 .
The gearbox isn't the best change in the world but ignore the wannabe Clarksons , it nowhere near as bad as rumour has it , I short filled mine when I changed the oil and the change was a little better.
The supercharger is easily self serviced , it's just an oil change and it's difficult to do it wrong , as is most things on the 230 engine , it sounds like a bag spanners but it's easy to work on and very robust . Last one I bought was a two owner 2002 with 120 k miles on it , I gave it a good service, new discs then installed the bigger bottom over pulley and remapped it , I actually put a bigger intercooler on too but I really don't think it made any difference , the pulley and re map turned it into a surprisingly quick little car . I drove it like that for a couple of years all over Europe including a couple of ring trips and it was fine . I sold it to a mate who did the same with it and he sold it to another mate and it's still going strong at 150k miles without any problems .
They aren't exactly special to drive but they do make a decent little car with power upgrades . Plus they are cheap to buy , run and keep . Put it this way , I sold it for £1200 , the power seat package on the new slc 43amg that replaced the car cost that , and the old 230 had power seats !
And if the guy who enquired about the car when it was advertised on here about 3 and a half years ago is reading this , you should have phoned and not emailed as I requested! You'd have scored a bargain as my new car had been delivered and I didn't have space to keep the old one .

[DickyC]

The only thing against the early SLK as an all-year car to my mind is its slippery road behaviour. Dire. For my wife's 230 we have a set of winter tyres on a spare set of wheels.

[GTdrive]

loquacious said:

Lots of people use them all year round, good heaters and heated seats (optional) and not sensitive to miles and no more (or less) reliable than any other Merc of the period. Watch out for rust! Arches and front wings get a bit frilly but otherwise not usually bad.

I have a 171 and use it daily (well, weekly as I don't do many miles) and it's fine.

Thanks for the rust tips. I will check those spots for sure when I get to look at one.

[GTdrive]

loquacious said:

Don't know as mine is a 350 so no supercharger. Join SLKworld.com as it's solely about SLKs and lots of knowledge

Great tip. Thanks.

[GTdrive]

DickyC said:

The only thing against the early SLK as an all-year car to my mind is its slippery road behaviour. Dire. For my wife's 230 we have a set of winter tyres on a spare set of wheels.

I will have two sets of wheels for sure. So summer and winter tyres.

Edited by GTdrive on Saturday 30th May 16:27

[GTdrive]

paulwirral said:

Slks are easily usable as daily drivers , I've had a couple of 170s , both 6 speed manual 230 .
The gearbox isn't the best change in the world but ignore the wannabe Clarksons , it nowhere near as bad as rumour has it , I short filled mine when I changed the oil and the change was a little better.
The supercharger is easily self serviced , it's just an oil change and it's difficult to do it wrong , as is most things on the 230 engine , it sounds like a bag spanners but it's easy to work on and very robust . Last one I bought was a two owner 2002 with 120 k miles on it , I gave it a good service, new discs then installed the bigger bottom over pulley and remapped it , I actually put a bigger intercooler on too but I really don't think it made any difference , the pulley and re map turned it into a surprisingly quick little car . I drove it like that for a couple of years all over Europe including a couple of ring trips and it was fine . I sold it to a mate who did the same with it and he sold it to another mate and it's still going strong at 150k miles without any problems .
They aren't exactly special to drive but they do make a decent little car with power upgrades . Plus they are cheap to buy , run and keep . Put it this way , I sold it for £1200 , the power seat package on the new slc 43amg that replaced the car cost that , and the old 230 had power seats !
And if the guy who enquired about the car when it was advertised on here about 3 and a half years ago is reading this , you should have phoned and not emailed as I requested! You'd have scored a bargain as my new car had been delivered and I didn't have space to keep the old one .

Great write up. Thanks.

The one I'm eyeing right now is a 200 Kompressor. I guess they are fine too? It has about 140K miles though. But seems to be in good condition and it's a good colour too. Fully MOT for a year.

I would love to hear about the performance upgrades you mention (pulley + remaping). Is it costly? How much hp it adds?

By the way, on wiki it lists 2000 and up SLK 200 Kompressor at 161hp but the older than 2000 SLK 200 Kompressor at 189hp. Is this a typo or was the supercharger different/differently set up?


And no problems with the electric roof? They are relaible? I ask because on another thread somebody posted this:

mrtwisty said:

I would expect something with a reputation for rust, a complicated tin-top power roof at approx. 20 years old, and a supercharger to have decent potential for making your wallet cry.

I've never driven one, but I'm aware they have a reputation as more of a cruiser than a driver's car. I do have quite a soft spot for them though.

[paulwirral]

GTdrive said:

paulwirral said:

Slks are easily usable as daily drivers , I've had a couple of 170s , both 6 speed manual 230 .
The gearbox isn't the best change in the world but ignore the wannabe Clarksons , it nowhere near as bad as rumour has it , I short filled mine when I changed the oil and the change was a little better.
The supercharger is easily self serviced , it's just an oil change and it's difficult to do it wrong , as is most things on the 230 engine , it sounds like a bag spanners but it's easy to work on and very robust . Last one I bought was a two owner 2002 with 120 k miles on it , I gave it a good service, new discs then installed the bigger bottom over pulley and remapped it , I actually put a bigger intercooler on too but I really don't think it made any difference , the pulley and re map turned it into a surprisingly quick little car . I drove it like that for a couple of years all over Europe including a couple of ring trips and it was fine . I sold it to a mate who did the same with it and he sold it to another mate and it's still going strong at 150k miles without any problems .
They aren't exactly special to drive but they do make a decent little car with power upgrades . Plus they are cheap to buy , run and keep . Put it this way , I sold it for £1200 , the power seat package on the new slc 43amg that replaced the car cost that , and the old 230 had power seats !
And if the guy who enquired about the car when it was advertised on here about 3 and a half years ago is reading this , you should have phoned and not emailed as I requested! You'd have scored a bargain as my new car had been delivered and I didn't have space to keep the old one .

Great write up. Thanks.

The one I'm eyeing right now is a 200 Kompressor. I guess they are fine too? It has about 140K miles though. But seems to be in good condition and it's a good colour too. Fully MOT for a year.

I would love to hear about the performance upgrades you mention (pulley + remaping). Is it costly? How much hp it adds?

By the way, on wiki it lists 2000 and up SLK 200 Kompressor at 161hp but the older than 2000 SLK 200 Kompressor at 189hp. Is this a typo or was the supercharger different/differently set up?


And no problems with the electric roof? They are relaible? I ask because on another thread somebody posted this:

mrtwisty said:

I would expect something with a reputation for rust, a complicated tin-top power roof at approx. 20 years old, and a supercharger to have decent potential for making your wallet cry.

I've never driven one, but I'm aware they have a reputation as more of a cruiser than a driver's car. I do have quite a soft spot for them though.

The roofs are fine as far as I know , supercharger is scrapyard replaceable , if your ok with spanners it's about an hours work and buttons to buy , there's a lot of them around and they are really simple mechanically as it's the same as c class 230s and they are scrap yard fodder .
Search speers in Germany for the tuning options , again cheap to buy and easy to install on the drive , if you want to learn about home mechanics 170 slks are a good option.
It's speers chip tuning now I've thought about it and wheeler dealers bought an old 170 with a dodgy roof and whining supercharger , search it and watch for the hour then you'll know everything you need to .

Edited by paulwirral on Saturday 30th May 18:01

[GTdrive]

paulwirral said:

The roofs are fine as far as I know , supercharger is scrapyard replaceable , if your ok with spanners it's about an hours work and buttons to buy , there's a lot of them around and they are really simple mechanically as it's the same as c class 230s and they are scrap yard fodder .
Search speers in Germany for the tuning options , again cheap to buy and easy to install on the drive , if you want to learn about home mechanics 170 slks are a good option.
It's speers chip tuning now I've thought about it and wheeler dealers bought an old 170 with a dodgy roof and whining supercharger , search it and watch for the hour then you'll know everything you need to .

Edited by paulwirral on Saturday 30th May 18:01

Thanks. That's good to know.

I did a search for the wheeler dealers episode and couldn't find the full episode.

[lonny]

I had one from new in ‘99 until 2011. Was generally reliable - only real issue was rust.

Was fairly hopeless in snow but guess that was to be expected.

[WJNB]

Like a Porsche they were built for daily all year round use for those who wanted sporty al fresco transport but not overly precious about their car & without having to belly ache about reliability or build quality.

[GTdrive]

lonny said:

I had one from new in ‘99 until 2011. Was generally reliable - only real issue was rust.

Was fairly hopeless in snow but guess that was to be expected.

Thanks. Did you have winter tyres?

[lonny]

No, I didn’t - I guess they would help. I lived in Home Counties those years so only had a few days max per year that affected me.

[DickyC]

We would have normally taken my daily but we had one long run on winters in the SLK down to my mum's and back in Devon. On regular tyres we could get there and back on a tankful - 400 miles ish. On winters we had to stop for fuel on the way back. It was very wet and the tyres were working hard to displace water; it was spraying away from the car sideways. The car's behaviour was a lot better in slippery conditions but it came at a cost.

[GTdrive]

lonny said:

No, I didn’t - I guess they would help. I lived in Home Counties those years so only had a few days max per year that affected me.

Oh, ok. Winter tyres definitely help quite a bit. Many countries it's even illegal to drive on summer tyres during winter time.

[GTdrive]

DickyC said:

We would have normally taken my daily but we had one long run on winters in the SLK down to my mum's and back in Devon. On regular tyres we could get there and back on a tankful - 400 miles ish. On winters we had to stop for fuel on the way back. It was very wet and the tyres were working hard to displace water; it was spraying away from the car sideways. The car's behaviour was a lot better in slippery conditions but it came at a cost.

Well, at least you were safer.

[psi310398]

My wife had a R170 (230) and now has a R171 (350).

I found the 170's seats hateful. Just about bearable for a few miles but I'm 6'1" and well upholstered and my back ached after a journey of any length in the car.

The car was very reliable and it is cheap to maintain. We had no problem with the roof mechanism.

Having a fitted luggage set really works for optimising the space.

With snow tyres, the SLK coped with the Simplon pass with no problem at all.

We only don't have the R170 any more because I wrote it off rear ending some dozy berk who stopped to answer her phone on the slip road to a motorway...