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Mercedes
SL500 Safety
© 2006
KenRockwell.com
Montaña
de Oro, California, July, 2004
Torrey Pines,
California, July, 2004
skip straight to comparisons of model years
Palm Desert,
California, May, 2004
The only convertible that looks sharp with the top up. Note the perfect flowing line from the top of the door moving rearward.
Cambria, California,
July, 2004
Projecting perfect proportions from every angle, the R129 SL500 is the crown jewel of the automotive designers' art. Designed with passion and vision, the R129 SL500 looks as astonishing today as when it was introduced.
San Luis Obispo,
California, July, 2004
1997 SL500 with almost unheard of brown soft top (click to enlarge)
SAFETY
The SL is the world's safest convertible. It is so innovative that Mercedes still brags about the automatic rollbar - twice - in their 2006 full line brochure.
The automatic rollbar pops up just prior to a predicted crash, even with the hard top attached! I once had the rollbar pop up without crashing. It surprised me at first, and then I realized that as far as the blind computer knew I could have been about to hit something. I braked hard and quickly got back into my lane after aborting a pass, so as far as it knew I was swerving to avoid something. There's no harm in popping up the rollbar. Better safe than sorry. It's nice to know my SL500 cares about me so much.
I also later wondered why my doors were unlocked, and realized that it unlocked the doors automatically when it raised the rollbar so if I did crash people could get me out. Getting the rollbar back down after the SL raises it has a slight trick as explained in the manual: hold the UP button for about five seconds until you hear an engagement click, and then hit the down button. If you just press the down button nothing happens.
The SLs have two airbags per person; four total. The side airbags were added as of the 1996 model year.
Explosive charges in each seat called "Emergency Tensioning Retractors," or ETR, snug down the seatbelts in case of crash.
A sensor in the passenger seat prevents the passenger airbags from going off if there's no passenger, saving us the costs of two airbags if not needed.
The windshield frame is strong enough to support the entire car. This is stronger than ordinary cars with roofs that collapse in crashes!
Auto-dimming rear view and driver's side mirrors.
Wiper
Automatic rain-sensing windshield wiper system. One time I did get caught in the rain and drizzle and the system worked perfectly. When the rain stopped the wiper stopped, when mist happened it magically wiped when it needed to, and when rain fell it just ran all the time. It did exactly what I would have done without me having to touch the wiper control. It freed me to concentrate on traffic and driving and not have my attention distracted by having to twiddle with the wipers. BRAVO, this could save my life in these conditions where one tenth of a second of inattention can cause an accident.
Trick: I never saw this in the manual. A shallow tap of the wiper stalk (in towards the steering column) gives a single dry wipe. Press it harder, of course, to get washer fluid and three wipes.
Single cam-operated wiper blade sweeps the entire window. This is much better than 2 wimpy wipers on less expensive cars, like the 2003 and newer SLs, because all the rain is immediately thrown off the window. With 2 wiper systems most of the water is just pushed from the passenger side on to the drivers side waiting for a second sweep to clear it. The single huge center wiper simply flicks rain off the window immediately.
Rain channels along the sides of the windshield capture and direct rain up and over roof, eliminating wet side windows and mirrors.
Even when the top is down, gutters along the top of the windshield frame collect and channel water down through the two side windshield columns so water doesn't land on your lap.
Of course who cares, no one has to drive these in bad weather anyway. Even the cloth top has some rain channeling where it meets the windshield, and the hard top has rain channels running its length and around the rear window to keep the rear window dry!
Brakes, Traction and Stability
Antilock Braking System (ABS). 11.8" discs front, 10.9" discs rear. All SL500s have ABS.
ASR, Anti-Slip Reduction, is standard. It's the opposite of ABS. ASR help keep the incredible power of the Sl500 from spinning the wheels and wasting your time with burnouts while hammering it. It slightly brakes a spinning wheel until it regains traction. If you really do something stupid, like punch it in a sharp turn, it will throttle back the engine to get your back end to hook up again. it works at least up to 80 MPH. You know it's working if you see the yellow triangle blinking at you on the dashboard. I've had it come on even at 80 MPH at full throttle in 3rd gear on real roads that were rough enough to have the tires loose all their grip. It's impressive that the SL500 can break the tires loose at 80 MPH on cracks on rough roads! ASR is standard in 1997 and probably for most, if not all, years.
ESP, Electronic Stability Program, is even better than ASR. It adds accelerometers to sense if you've lost it in a turn or are having over or understeer. if you get things loose it brakes any or all of the four wheels individually to work like the Hand of God and slide you back onto your intended line. It's fun: just hammer your Mercedes while in an increasing radius turn and it will get you through it and increase the power as you straighten out. Fun! Likewise, if you're getting out of control the same yellow triangle in the middle of the speedometer starts blinking to tell you to cool it. ESP wasn't invented yet in 1990, it was optional in 1997 and became standard in 1999. ESP is more important than airbags in helping you avoid an accident in the first place.
An alarm comes standard as it has on every Mercedes since the 1980s. Like most other Mercedes since the 1980s, it arms and disarms silently and automatically so you aren't discourteous to others and may never know it's there. It never honks or beeps when it turns on or off. This is a bit ironic; we who own these SLs live in palatial estates with no neighbors to would be bothered by our alarms beeping every time we come and go (and of course we armor these in garages anyway where they don't need to be locked), and the people who have to settle for Lexus or Chevrolet live in apartment houses or tract developments where everyone gets woken up when people get in and out of their cars at all hours. Oh well; you can turn off the beeps in lesser cars if you read the manuals. Thank God there is no way to set the Mercedes to make those callous beeps every time you lock and unlock the vehicle. Just look for the flashing LED on the dash if you're unsure if it armed.
Want to hear it? Just let yourself into your car using the inside door handle from the outside with a locked car and you'll set it off. Otherwise it's always silent.
Ignition Lock
I have to take my foot off the service brake to remove the key.
If I keep my foot on the brake, I can't turn the key all the way to the left and it seems stuck, which it is until I release the service brake.
It doesn't care about the parking brake; I'm taking about the regulr service brake.