Late summer 2021, I have a mission to complete. During the lockdown I took the decision to retire as soon as the spreadsheet turned green but I knew I wasn’t active enough beyond very high stress work and a bit of casual cycling. Step 1, I joined the local cycling club, which goes out every weekend the weather is safe to ride, Step 2, I have always been a confident home mechanic so I decided to get a sports car as a hobby car but it also had to be my daily driver because I didn’t know exactly when I could finish work. Step 3 I took on a contract job as an administrator leaving the high pressure aerospace industry manager’s job to someone younger than me. Step 1 was easy, the small group is friendly and I soon found social as well as cycling friends. Step 3 was surprisingly easy, the local salt mine needed a temporary person to cover long-term sickness and I fitted in well with an extensive engineering background. My 11 week posting turned into 11 months and I had 6 months working underground in a relatively safe environment; an adventure! Step 2 was tricky, in my heart I wanted to get an MGF with its British roots and the car that I always thought should have been produced much earlier than it ever was. From a practical point of view I didn’t have suitable storage for a classic MGB or similar which do need dry inside conditions to keep the rot at bay. I researched MGFs and found that despite engine cooling and head gasket issues, there were plenty of viable modified ones at reasonable prices including a garage in the East Midlands that restored plenty of cars to a decent standard. A visit to there and a test drive of a couple of cars put me off; the car drives great, very balanced, plenty of useful power but with the roof up there is a awful amount of wind noise on the sides of the hood behind the door glass which was distracting for me and too much for the likely long trips we would be taking. That made me start looking at German cars (MX5s the boot is too small), Z3s are great, affordable but quite small, Z4s are a good quality car but at a price I wasn’t willing to pay, which led me to look at SLKs, plenty of which are affordable, have the metal roof and an engine version for every occasion. Test driving a few V6 SLKs made me want one and within a couple of months I found a decent 2006 280 with less than 50k on the clock and wasn’t going to break the bank (yet!!). We collected the car on the 1st of November 2021 and I drove it home on that chilly bright day with the roof down; I was hooked! The colour is Tellurium Silver and the R171 “F1esk” nose made me really like the car and of course silver nearly always looks clean. A week or so in and the rear hubs were squealing, dropping the brake disk off revealed a rotten stone guard and the retention spring had broken free causing the handbrake shoes to rub. Back to the dealer, they fitted new parts by cutting and welding them to avoid disassembling the hubs. Great! and new shoes as well! 1 month later and rust bubbles on the front wing behind the headlamp which was “repaired” when I agreed to buy the car, much face pulling but the dealer had the rotten metal cut out and welded a patch in and didn’t make a bad job of it. I joined the SLK Owners Club and attended my first event the following summer. For me the main benefits of the club were the new people I met and the useful information shared between members and I soon had a decent knowledge of likely ownership issues, I also realised the risks with the rear sub frames. The next issue was that a work colleague told me that the alarm was going off in the car park and subsequently on the drive at home in an unsociable way (2am). I found a local Merc Specialist and they informed me that there were no faults stored or current. Reading on the club site about the failed siren battery issue, I purchased a new siren from MB and that made no difference (as the Merc specialist had told me!). I bought an Icarsoft 3 reader and noticed the battery voltage at just below 12v, a smart charger for Christmas fixed that issue. In periods of low use (4 mile commute wasn’t enough) I charge the battery every couple of weeks if its below 12.2v. 1st MOT for me. I booked it in for a major service and MOT with MB Stoke; they condemned and replaced the sub frame. Next; intermittent ac, where it would come on at start-up but would suddenly go off and car would steam up at inconvenient times typically in traffic on the way to Leeds to visit family. A new compressor and several visits to an MB specialist, diagnostics company and ac specialist (more than £1000 spent), the Icarsoft pointed to the front SAM unit. £1200 with MB sorted that but took me a year; I am the world’s foremost procrastinator! An essential job I did, was restoring the headlights with a sanding and paste kit off Amazon and I use Turtlewax headlight restorer every few months to keep on top of them. It has new rear tyres every 10k (3p/mile) In the interim we’ve had some great trips, a few with the club including last year’s Alpine Adventure, some on our own including a regular North Wales circuit coming home via the Denbigh Moors, the Scottish NC500, a couple of adhoc Scottish West Coast, this year a tour around Wales and our latest and greatest in June – a tour of France including Lake Geneva, Route des Grandes Alpes with 400+ miles in the mountains, The Mediterranean 4 night stopover and Orleans to see some friends. On all those trips the only glitch was a cracked windscreen when we were in the Alps this summer. I use the air blow function of a wet & dry vacuum cleaner to keep all the drains clear, I use Auto Glym Vinyl and Rubber or Gummi Pflege for the seals (both jobs every 3 months or so) and I use an MB specialist in Macclesfield for serving and repairs. I do my own mechanical repairs that don’t need a lift or expensive special tools. I attend a local car show, I’m going to Simply Mercedes in August with the club and Sue & I are going on the Gretna to Portpatrick run in September. This car is great to drive, the 7 speed auto with steering wheel manual, comfort and sport settings is spot on for all occasions and 230bhp is enough to excite. We travel roof down if it’s dry for most off motorway trips, a great feature is two flicks of the roof switch lowers all glass both sides, great for extreme heat and light rain. Its coming up 88k (40k by me) miles in just less 5 years but seems to have a bit left in it yet!