On Thursday evening a nice couple came walking in the door, arrived at my desk and said something to the affect of: “We’re just starting to look around for a fun convertible that we can take on the road, we don’t know anything about Mercedes-Benz cars, can you help us?”
This is one of my favorite kinds of customers to work with… is there anybody who is in the market for a Mercedes-Benz convertible that’s in a bad mood? Who’s just completely annoyed with the fact that they have to by a new car? No way. It’s one of the most fun things I can imagine doing.
This couple, from Walker, MN, was an absolute pleasure to work with. We looked at new and pre owned models of the Mercedes-Benz SL and SLK. They were also considering a BMW Z4 Roadster, I had a pre owned one of those to show them as well. They decided the SLK was probably the best vehicle for them… it’s got a retractable hard top, has enough room for a respectable amount of luggage, and is a lot of fun to drive… not to mention, it gets pretty good gas mileage for those long road trips.
We drove the new 2012 Mercedes SLK and a pre owned 2007 model SLK that we had to take off the showroom floor. Both SLKs are great cars, of course, the new one was about $60,000, the pre owned 2007 model with just 35,000 miles was just under $30,000. We looked at lease options on the 2012 and purchase options on the 2007… which I must say, is probably one of the nicest, most well cared for 2007 SLKs I’ve ever seen. If one looks closely at things like, the side bolsters of the seats, the door sills, condition of the trunk… all of those things can give you hints as to the care previous owners gave the car. This car had clearly been taken care of, and driven sparingly.
In the end, they chose to purchase the pre owned 2007 model… black with beige leather interior, the premium 1 Package, AIRSCARF and a number of other options that will make this a great car for the cross country road trips they’re planning in the coming years. Congratulations Sarah and Keith, and I hope you enjoy your SLK!