Owning a supercar might be expensive, even when you will have the means. The engineering and parts that go into making these vehicles perform the way in which they do might be shockingly expensive. Take what one dealership charged a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren owner for brakes.
In creating the SLR together, Mercedes and McLaren developed a brand new braking system called Sensotronic Brake Control. Essentially a brake-by wire-system, it eliminated lots of the mechanical parts that were utilized in normal braking systems. Mercedes said the carbon-ceramic brakes were fade-resistant as much as temperatures of two,200 degrees fahrenheit. They were massive, measuring just over 14 inches for each the front and rear discs, the fronts used eight-piston calipers while the rears had four-piston calipers.
Brakes like these, especially on a automotive with performance of the SLR, unsurprisingly have an equally massive price after they should be replaced. This particular 2005 SLR is owned by @humped.my.importer, a automotive collector and enthusiast who took to social media to tweet his frustration over how much he paid for his brakes. He took his SLR to Mercedes-Benz of Knoxville, Tennessee for the service. Whatever number you’re pondering of in your head probably still won’t prepare you for the actual cost of what they charged this man to do a brake job: $120,462.79. No, that number just isn’t a mistake.
I mean sure, the SLR cost nearly half 1,000,000 dollars when it recent, and fewer than 3,000 were made. But still, it might probably’t be that expensive, can it? Wanting to know more, I called a number of local Mercedes dealers here in Southern California to see if that’s what it might really cost to do the brakes on this supercar.
I began with Mercedes of Downtown Los Angeles. After putting me on hold for nearly 10 minutes, the service advisor got here back and laid it on me: the front brakes could be $67,219 while the rears could be a rather cheaper $65,283. He also informed me that the rear brakes were out of production they usually’d need to get them organized from Germany. Wanting a bit more convincing, I called one other dealer.
Next I got in touch with Mercedes of Beverly Hills, a dealer who must have some pretty good experience coping with SLRs. Weirdly I got a price quote that was as if the SLR was some other Mercedes, as he quoted me prices of just $3,350 for the front and $1,858 for the rear. If true, this might be a steal, though I actually suspect the guy misunderstood me or something.
Since that didn’t seem quite right, I called Mercedes of Ontario, who were blissful to assist me out. The client service was excellent but it surely went to a different level once I told them what automotive I used to be calling about. Their pricing almost lined up with Downtown LA’s: including parts and labor it might be $64,840 for the front brakes and $62,840 for the rears, so figure just below $128,000 for a full brake job. It looks like that actually is the going rate for a brake job on one in every of these items, so the unique Twitter poster was actually getting a little bit of a deal. Even when you will have deep pockets, it’s still a sphincter clenching price.
This Article First Appeared At jalopnik.com
