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Traveling in our SlK

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6.9K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  Deafy  
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#1 ·
After retirement my wife and I wanted to do some traveling meet some new friends and I wanted a sports car. I knew there would be little pleasure traveling long distances in a noisy rough riding car so I set out to find a sports car that would fit our needs. It did not take long to recognize that the Mercedes SLK 350 would be the car. It's a classy car, plush, with a good ride & quiet with the hard top up. We purchased the SLK joined 3 car clubs & started planning a few trips.

Our first trip in 2012 we planned to travel north on the Blue Ridge Parkway, to Gettysburg, Hershey, the Adirondack Mountains to Lake Placid, NY. From there we turned east to Maine then south down the coast and over to the Catskill Mountains. From there we headed back to the coast and visited the Wright Brothers Memorial in NC. Then west back home. About 3,000 miles for the total trip & 13 states.

Our second trip in 2013 we planned to travel cross country and tour Alaska. To shorten the total time for the trip we shipped the SLK to Seattle. My wife and I flew to Alaska for a train tour then flew to Seattle, picked up our car and started the drive home. On the way we passed through about 12 states and numerous national parks & about 3,000 miles. Among other stops we visited the Coulee Dam, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, the Tetons, Sturgis, Mount Rushmore, Custer National Park, the Badlands, and the John Deere Museum. We enjoyed seeing that part of the country and I had a ball driving the SLK cross country.
:bannana:
 
#2 ·
Sounds like you had a blast. I really wanted to drive cross country (San Diego area) this past May, but my daughter decided to have a baby. So my youngest son and I drove to the New England area. Stopped to Elmira, NY to visit a friend, went to Mass to stay with my sister, drove to Narragansett Bay, RI. Saw many of my friends while in Mass. On the way home stopped in Basking Ridge, NJ to visit another friend. It was fun driving "Rosie" on the highways. Smooth and comfortable ride. The only thing I didn't like was having to wash my car about 5-6 times in 3 weeks. It was dirty and dusty and muddy. I can keep the car pretty clean in FL. Put over 3000 miles on her in 3 weeks.
 
R
#3 ·
Traveling in my SLK

Hello Mustbedreaming,

There is a Mercedes club in Michigan that host a trip every year around one of the Great Lakes. I'm hoping to convince my wife that we need to do the lake trip in 2014. You folks should plan to attend. We can meet up somewhere on the way up north and travel together. Two SLK's together should scare the Z4s and Vets away from us. :) :) :) :)
 
#4 ·
Sounds like you had a great trip, it must have been fun. The driving trips are the ones my wife and I enjoy the most, we travel well together. Did they make the R172 cockpits a bit roomier than in the R171's? I imagine a trip that long could get rather "Close", but it would still be fun. I'd like to do that.
 
#9 ·
I had a 172 loan car and the inside is a very very nice place to be
 

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R
#5 ·
Traveling in my SLK

The 2012 350 is my first SLK so I can't compare it to the R171. I am about 5ft. 8 inches and weight about 150 lbs. so I'm not a big guy. My wife and I don't find the car to be cramped. I have had people tell me I'm crazy to purchase a sports car for traveling. The way I see it is that my butt can only take up so much space in a seat if it's in a 4 door sedan or an SLK. We can store two suit cases the size that fits in the overhead on an airline in the trunk. In addition we can put in a box of my wife's wine, a six pack of Tonic water for my Vodka and a couple of jackets and small stuff in the trunk with the top down.
Us humans are funny. I guess it all boils down to a persons mental attitude. We love the car and find traveling in it a blast.
 
#7 ·
The r172 seats are a lot more comfortable than the r171, it'll be really difficult to do a long trip without a sore back in the r171. You need to some kind of pillow back there for long trips with the r171. I did the Euro Delivery and drove from Sindelfingen, through the black forest into Baden-Baden, from the Alps to Austria w/o feeling anything but excitement, adrenaline pumping the entire time made me forget about my back. But now I can't drive it more than an hour w/o feeling sore. My 911 have really supportive and cushy seats, I can drive that forever w/o feeling pain.
 
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#8 ·
I agree with you totally. From the first time I sat in the R172 I knew that we would be changing.
Our objective in buying the SLK was always to (ideally) put a lot of miles on it while enjoying the top down experience..in a quality car.
As much as I really enjoyed the distinctive look of the R171 nose, the comfort level on a long drive was too hard to ignore.
My wife and I have done several trips of over a thousand plus miles each and one was a 9 day road trip. Seat comfort was fabulous.
In a few days I'll be finishing 2 years of ownership on the R172 and 98% of the time am perfectly satisfied with the car and how it was optioned and how it performs. The other 2%? An AMG (if distronic were available.).
But I honestly know that's mostly about my ego as opposed to a "need for speed.":)
 
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D
#10 ·
I've driven across many of the lower 48, with the exception of the NW quadrant, so I'm jealous of your visit to those parks, Yellowstone in particular. That's on my bucket list!
I've done the Blueridge Parkway both in Spring and Fall and both seasons were breathtakingly beautiful.
 
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