roadsters, or where I can send her to research, meaning which years to
look
for, what to avoid, the major problems, etc., I know about the rubber
parts,
and prone to rust in the trunk areas.
You're mostly there with that list. Rust in the rockers is an
issue, just like all the other similar design era cars (115, 116).
The years that come with the Evil Chrysler ACC From Hell are
IIRC 77-80, so beware of them as they may easily need a kilobuck
repair/upgrade to the servo system (and its amplifier). The early
380's have a single-row timing chain that needs to be kept on
top of. "Doesn't play well with others" applies to the pistons
(vs valves). Many have been converted to 2-row chains, but many
probably have not. Soft top condition is a big expense if it's
unsatisfactory to you. That's most of the ones I can think of
off hand, the rest is pretty much normal MB. Pre-76 is D-Jet,
which offers extra parts to go wrong, worse mileage, and fire
risk if you let the rubber bits underhood go. Pre-76 is also,
IIRC, manual valve adjustments. The earliest models are 350 SL,
the Euros actually had a 3.5l (and there's also a 2.8l Euro) that
scooted, US got anemic smogged 4.5l motors with the 'wrong' badge.
560SL is nice, but eats premium. Some Euro 500SL's around, dunno
much about them. Euro bumper and light package many people find
particularly attractive, though the anemic US headlight package
can be upgraded to truly awesome high-beam performance. (We
did ours.) 75-76 450 SL's have underhood catastrophic converters,
which help to cook the underhood bits.
-- Jim
