I bought a new toy today....

[argonaut]

I hate to disagree with you DRTY, but the handeling on the SL is just not very good. On a straight away it has a lot of power, and is really fast (fun to drive too, I like stealing my dad's) but once you hit the curves it really sucks. a stock bottom of the line BMW 3 series will out handle that merc any day of the week. The sad truth. Now if you aren't on the track, or driving curvy roads, that Merc would be ideal. And besides, it's an automatic. I guess that is my biggest beef with mercedes. they are no fun. All you have is an automatic and traction control that you can't turn off. What fun is that? The TC kills a lot of the torque of those cars. Now if mercedes offered a manual or at least and F1 tranny, and a button to turn the TC off like on the BMWs then I would run out and buy one because I think they are absolutely beautiful cars, and not girly at all.