The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Roadster Is the Forgotten Mercedes Supercar

But this is still a cool and special car and today i'm going to review it and show you what i mean before i get started an important message. This sls is currently live for, sale being auctioned right now on cars and bids, which is my new online enthusiast car auction website for modern cool cars. This sls currently live, and it is an amazing car. It has around 600 miles. It is bright red as you can see, and you can buy it on cars and bids. So after you finish watching this, video click, the link in the description below to be taken to the auction for this car, where you can place a bid for this sls to buy it on cars and bids. But anyway, let's talk sls, the sls came out for the 2011 model year and it was famous for reviving the goldwing doors that were such an icon. On the mercedes 300sl of the 1950s and 60s, this car, the sls roadster, came out for 2012.. It ditched the going doors, but it gained a convertible roof for top down open air driving, but the market seems to prefer the doors over the last decade. Since these cars went on sale, values of coupe models have steadily remained higher than the roadsters, which is not typical but it's because of those doors, and that has left the roadster as sort of mercedes forgotten supercar, but it probably shouldn't be forgotten. This car has a naturally aspirated v8, makes 580 horsepower and does 0 60 in about three and a half seconds.

It is amazing, and today i'm going to review it. I reviewed an sls amg black series, the high performance version and i reviewed an sls coupe years ago before my current format, but i've never touched the roadster. So today, i'm, going to take you on a tour of this car and show you all of its interesting quirks and features. Then i'll get it out on the road and drive it and then i'll give it a dug score all right, i'm going to start the quirks and features of the sls by getting in where you start with the key, which is just a standard, mercedes, benz key. You buy a base model cla, you get this key. You buy a 200 plus thousand dollar sls. You get the same key, nothing special here and then you open the door and well it's, just a regular door again that's the big drawback compared to the coupe. It just feels a little more normal with that normal door and when you climb in here, things also seem pretty normal, at least if you've owned a mercedes benz from this area. You'Ll feel right at home because there's a lot of familiar mercedes, benz stuff in this interior, for instance, the steering wheel, looks like most mercedes models from this era. The window switches on the door panel look very 2010 xero mercedes benz same deal with the climate controls in the center mercedes use. This on a lot of different vehicles, turn signal stock out of a lot of other mercedes benz models and that's.

Also the center controls. You can see here again from other mercedes models. This, in my opinion, was always a big drawback of this interior. So much relatively cheap plastic in here right in the center facing everybody. It just didn't, look as upscale as it should have considering what this car is. Frankly, that center control area didn't look upscale enough for most mercedes models at the time, let alone the sls. But while there is a lot of shared mercedes stuff in here, there's also some special things worth noting one that's immediately striking is the dashboard which is very upright and straight that's, a throwback to the old 300sl, which also had an upright sort of straight dashboard. As was the style at the time when this car came out a lot, more dashboards were swoopy and they connected to the center console with these nice lines, but not in this car. They wanted to mimic the look of the 300sl with this horizontal straight flat. Dashboard. Next up, another notable item in here the whole center console situation in this car is kind of strange on the driver's side facing the driver. You have, the engine start stop button which lights up in red. You push it and, of course, that turns the car. On now, at the back of the center console, you have a little storage area back here and inside it there's, actually a keyhole which will also turn the car on. I guess the thinking was if the start stop button fails, here's a backup where you can actually insert the mercedes benz key twist it and that will start the car as well.

So you have two different ways to start the car within the center console now forward of that storage area. You have this arm rest, you can see, but if you push the button on the side of the armrest, you can move it back and then it reveals cupholders. But of course, then, it's too far back to really use as an arm rest and now it's, covering that storage area that i showed you a second ago, so you really have to choose what you want in this car, an armrest or cupholders, or that rear storage Area you can't have them all such was the packaging situation in the sls. Also, another unusual item in the center console is over on the passenger side. This little carbon fiber flap. You can open it to reveal the cigarette lighting area. You have an ash tray in the rear part of it and in the front part you have the actual cigarette lighter and then there's some space in front of it. I guess so. You can hold your cigarette in that spot or, if you don't want to use this stuff, you can just cover it up, and then most people probably never even realize there's something in here but that's where all the cigarette lighting stuff is located. And of course, one more notable item in the center console that would be the lever to control the convertible top right here in the very middle and it's pretty easy to use.

You just push it down and then the top goes up or you pull it back and then the top goes down. This is a small car, small interior, small top, and so it happens pretty quickly take a look at the top going up and down. But beyond the top and the center console there are some other interesting items in here. One is this little button in the center control stack with a seat and like an arrow coming from the headrest that button controls air scarf, which is like a heating system for your neck that's built into the seat. This is an amazing feature to have in a convertible, because you can ride with the roof down on a colder day and have warm air blowing on your neck, and it feels so good and you can use this button to turn on air scarf and decide. How much air scarf you want? One cool thing about the sls is the vent for air scarf in the seat is adjustable. You can move it up or down, depending on where you want the air to blow sort of on the base of your neck or higher up. You can choose other mercedes. Convertible models have air scarf, but i've never seen the adjustable vent before that's pretty cool, and i love that feature next up. Another notable control in the center control stack is this button it's pretty clear to see what it does it raises or lowers the spoiler? You push that and then the spoiler and bat goes up.

Then it looks cooler and more aggressive. You push it again and the spoiler goes back down pretty simple stuff. One thing i like with this is that the button is a pretty faithful depiction of an actual sls. You can see the rear line of the car. It looks like an sls in the button, although you can see they've chosen a coupe, not a roadster, to immortalize. In their spoiler button, next up, another unusual item in this interior is the parking sensor situation on the dashboard. You see this little black strip, that's the parking sensors in this car, the front parking sensors and when you get close to an object that black strip lights up sort of with more and more lights, the closer you get. So you can see just how close you are. Interestingly, there is also one of these black strips mounted in back between the seats and it's placed there. So you can see it in your rear view, mirror so you're backing up and again the lights light up more and more as you get closer and closer to an object, you're looking in your mirror – and you can see exactly how close you are, if you trust That parking sensor that's a pretty interesting feature: mercedes benz use similar parking sensors for years in all of their cars before dropping it and going to a system that just beeps at you and obviously now with cameras. That makes it easier to see where you're going to.

But that was the standard mercedes parking sensor for a long time now, speaking of behind you in between the seats, you can also see back here, there is a wind deflector. This is removable. If you want to take it out, you can just unclip it and then pull it off as you can see, and then no wind deflector. But if you want to keep it in place, i guess it keeps wind from blowing on you quite as much it sort of skips over you with that wind deflector there, so you can install it or remove it. If you want next a few more weird things in this interior for one, you can see this interior is black and beige two tone and frankly i think it looks beautiful. I love these two colors, but one odd thing: why is the latch on the glove box? Black, the rest of the glove box and the lower part of the dashboard in general is all beige, but just the glove box latch is black it's such a strange decision. I guess they weren't making beige glove box latches. So, even though your lower dash is all beige that little piece is black, what a strange one and also strange in this car, something i have always found strange on the sls put the sun visor down and you can see there are holes in it. I find this very weird if i'm putting down the sun visor, i want it to shield me from the sun, so i wouldn't want holes in it so that sunlight could get through, but indeed the sun visor in the sls has holes in it.

So the sun can get through seems like it would kind of defeat the purpose now. Next up, i want to talk infotainment, although there's really not that much to say this car uses pretty much the exact same infotainment system as basically every other mercedes benz model. From this era and there's, nothing particularly weird or interesting or exciting about it same deal with the screen in between the gauges, just the pixel black and white screen, nothing unusual or special or weird in there. Although it is worth noting in this gauge cluster area, you do have a shift light. You can see it at the top center of the gauge cluster and when you get near the red line, that thing starts to light up to, let you know it's time to pull the paddle and up shift that's, pretty cool, and you don't get that in a Lot of other mercedes benz models, one other thing you don't get in other mercedes models back to the steering wheel. Although the general design looks like other mercedes, this one has alcantara on the sides where you're gripping it, which of course feels nice makes it a little grippier on the race track. You also have a bright red center line on the top of the steering wheel. So you know when your wheels are centered again for race track driving. So there are some differences in here in the steering wheel, gauge cluster area and next climbing out of the sls moving around to the back, where you have something amazing, and that would be the exhaust note, this giant naturally, aspirated v8 sounds pretty good.

Take a listen! Now this car is mean sounding that's, one of the benefits of the convertible top. You lose the cool doors, but you can hear the engine better when you're driving it now. Another interesting thing back here is the amg badge which doesn't just say, amg, but it also says gt in red over on the left. When the sls first came out, it was called the sls amg for the first two model years 11 and 12. for 13. They changed it to the sls amg gt and with gt came some nice upgrades throughout the car, but the biggest was 20 more horsepower, taking it from about 560 horses to about 580, like in this car and the other sls gts, and so to commemorate that change. That upgrade to the sls gt, they put a little gt badge on amg and that's. One way you can tell, apart the later cars like this one from the earlier models, without the gt upgrade. Finally, last thing i want to touch on back here: is the trunk open it by pressing the trunk button on the key fob and then you can pull it open the rest of the way, and you can see it is quite a small trunk, not very big. Back here, even by exotic car standards, this is really not much of a trunk that's, because a lot of room had to be made for the convertible top and because of this car is sort of tapering rear, end design, but it's a trunk.

You can stick stuff there and that's pretty nice. You also have like a little storage bag up against the back wall of the trunk, where you can stick smaller items if you don't want them to be rolling around in terms of design and styling, though probably this car's most distinctive trait, is up front. This long flat hood, this has become sort of a hallmark of mercedes top level, sports cars and supercars. The slr had it the amg gt. Has it, and also the sls too. This long front end become a very distinctive mercedes, benz high performance car trait now hiding under the hood of that long front end you have the engine and actually it's interesting. When you get under here, you can see the engine is placed way far back in the engine bay for weight distribution. You don't want that heavy engine hanging out over the front end, and so, despite this long front end, the engine really only takes up about half of it in the back part, the front doesn't really have to be this long and the front part of this engine Bay could be compacted more and the car be made smaller, but i guess mercedes just wanted this cool front end design to be a characteristic look of this car. Now, as for the engine itself, this is mercedes, famed. Naturally, aspirated 6.3 liter v8 same engine used in a lot of other 63 model amg cars from this era, although it has more power in the sls, the 6.

3 and it even says 6.3 on the side. So you know this isn't, some turbo smaller engine except it's, not actually at 6.3. This is a 6.2 liter engine that mercedes calls a 6.3 and the reason they do that is to tie it in to the old 300 sel 6.3 one of the original high performance mercedes benz models that car is an icon in the history of mercedes benz performance. So, even though this is a 6.2 liter engine, they called it the 6.3, the e63 the s63 to try to tie it in with that historical significance in the mercedes benz world. Frankly, i think it's weird to call a car 6.3. When you know it has a 6.2 and finally, since i'm out here last thing i want to discuss is the styling. This is a very beautiful car. Frankly, i think the convertibles looked a little bit nicer than the coupe, especially with the roof down. The hoop had kind of a melty helmet, looking back that i never loved but either way the sls was a gorgeous car, coupe or convertible. But i think the problem is the design was never really that distinctive it's, a beautiful car, but it didn't, have the exotic, crazy, exciting. Look that a lot of other high performance cars had, especially at this price point. This car was around 210 000 base price when it was new, and there was a lot of money to spend for something that looked kind of like a mercedes sl, and i think that may have turned off some of the people who were thinking about buying this Car at the time it just didn't quite look daring or thrilling enough, but i've driven these, and it has a pretty daring and thrilling driving experience so time for me to get the sls out on the road and see how it drives all right, driving the sls.

But i don't want to drive it far because i've driven sls before and because this one has basically no miles on it 589 miles. As i start this drive, so i don't want to be the one who adds the 600th mile, for instance, i'm, going to keep it pretty reasonable here, which is actually too bad, because i love driving the sls. In the very first time i went to drive an sls was a few years ago for this channel, and i approached it kind of not taking it all that seriously, because my thought was: oh it's, just a mercedes, you know they don't. They make the sl and that's kind of what it looks like and it's, just not going to be good to drive it's gon na be like a cruiser. Well, it isn't. This thing drives with all the vigor. You can possibly imagine, and i still daydream, about driving this car, and so now here i am driving this car. Oh the sound! Oh! Listen to that! Oh wow! I'M. Like speech, the driving experience is great, but oh man that noise. I always knew this car sounded. Amazing, but you really do open up the sound by having the convertible version. I admit the doors are cool on the coop and i get why the coupe sell for more it's, so rare to have a coupe version sell for more than the convertible version. But you understand it here, but i got to tell you from a pure driving perspective, particularly if you live in a warm weather place like i do, san, diego or texas or florida, or los angeles or arizona.

I mean a convertible is cool and listening to that noise, oh that's, one of the great engine notes. It just sounds so deep and throaty and muscular and as i drive it, i'm acutely aware of the fact that cars aren't going to sound like this going forward and that this is a pretty special thing actually being able to drive this and listen to that now. The thing i love about the sls, the thing i've loved about it in the past has actually not been the sound. The sound is great, obviously, but it's been the steering precision and this car has some wonderful steering precision. That was the thing that always surprised me. The most about the sls it's, a mercedes, they don't know how to make cars that steer well. That ain't true. I also love that it feels like it can get squirrely. You accelerate right now, like i'm doing a little tail happy! Oh that sound! Oh, my god! I love that sound that sound is so good. I bet there are states where an exhaust that loud is illegal. This one's stock, the sls, is kind of a weird thing because it you look at it from the outside and, like it doesn't pass. The my wife test is how i consider it my wife, if she looked at this, she wouldn't consider this. She another mercedes convertible. She wouldn't know that it's, special and so on. The outside it doesn't seem all that special and i think the amg gt has kind of diluted the sls, because it's even cheaper and it's made this seem even less special.

But then you drive this car and the steering is amazing and the acceleration is amazing and the handling is amazing and the sound is amazing and it's like this. Car is so much better than how it looks, and i think that's, one of the things that's kept. It from really shooting up in value these are relatively cheap and i think part of that is because they just look too restrained. They don't look like the supercars. They are, you have to drive it to understand and once you drive it, you understand and so that's the mercedes sls amg gt roadster. I know this car doesn't have the doors, but it still has the amazing driving experience and the naturally aspirated v8 and the performance and the top down enjoyment. So you could hear the engine with the coupe getting all of the attention. This car has become something of a bargain and you can buy this one right now on cars and bids, so check it out and now it's time to give the sls a doug score, starting with the weekend categories and styling. The sls roadster looks very nice beautiful, but not quite special enough, like an exotic car should, and it earns a seven out of ten acceleration. Zero to sixty is in the mid three second range, and it gets an eight out of ten handling is very sharp impressively. So, and it gets an eight out of ten fun factor – is huge between the amazing performance, the fantastic steering and handling and the incredible sound and the general enjoyment of top down driving.

This gets a 9 out of 10. finally cool factor, and these are cool, but less so than the coupe model. Still this car turns heads and it gets a 7 out of 10 for a total weekend score of ' out of 50.. Next up are the daily categories and features it's reasonably well, equipped, nothing too special or bad, and it gets a 5 out of 10. comfort is, as you'd expect, think. It'S a 4 out of 10. quality is excellent. The materials are generally good and this car has the upgraded head bolt design that makes it more reliable than other mercedes models that use this engine. It gets a 7 out of 10.. Practicality is low, given the small trunk in only 2 seats, and it gets a 2 out of 10. value. On the other hand, is high. These are bargains given their performance and exoticness. I won't speculate on what this one's worth. Since it's being auctioned on cars and bids – but i think this might offer the best driving experience for the money among exotic cars and it gets a 7 out of 10 for a total daily score of 25 out of 50.. Add it up and the doug score is 64 out of 100, which places it here against some similar cars.