I said goodbye to a member of the family yesterday. After nineteen years, I sold my mom’s Mercedes SLK-230, which we knew as the Speedbug. I’ve parted with plenty of things over the past year, but none were quite as tough to let go of as this little firecracker.
The Speedbug was first purchased by someone in Minnesota, I think, but my parents bought it in Indiana back in 2007. It didn’t take long for them to fall in love with the quirky German roadster. With its retractable hardtop and supercharged inline-four, the little Mercedes was an absolute blast to ride around in. More importantly, the thing could really scoot! I learned that firsthand when I borrowed it for my senior prom in 2009. Meet Aerabe and the Speedbug.
I drove as sedately as I could manage on the way to dinner and the dance, but my good judgment didn’t extend to every decision I made that evening. For starters, here’s another shot from prom, memorialized forever by the Muncie Star Press. I’m wearing shutter shades. I would never do something like that today! Go to a high school prom, I mean.
At any rate, the Speedbug proved to be much more than an accessory at prom over its many years in my family. As my Mom put it in a farewell tribute to the car, “You brought us so much delight these past nineteen years! From parades and prom dates to autumn runs watching the leaves turn. From a wild, sun-drenched trip to Key West, to a cramped ride home in the cab of a flatbed tow truck after buying a batch of bad gas in Tennessee. You were the snazzy wheels for plenty of wind-blown jaunts to visit friends all over. In short, you were the mostest fun!”
Unlike every disintegrating hunk of crap I’ve ever owned, the Speedbug still looked remarkable for a car approaching its thirtieth birthday. It’s been to rural flowing wells and pioneer cemeteries, but my parents took excellent care of it and kept it covered or hidden away in a storage unit every winter. Over the years, they had the leather seats reupholstered and the dash refinished. Its original StarTAC car phone was replaced by a modern Pioneer stereo. Even the droptop still worked! Anyone familiar with aging European convertibles knows that’s no small feat.
After three decades, the Mercedes had accumulated just 89,000 miles. I contributed a few hundred of those in recent years when the horn of my own car wouldn’t stop blaring thanks to a faulty clock spring. Every time hit my head on the roof, sank into the bolstered seat, and got behind the wheel, I was reminded of what made the Speedbug so fun. I may have looked like a Shriner driving it with the top down, but the Mercedes’ long prow still twisted confidently through every empty roundabout a little faster than I should have allowed, and it hit sixty on the straightaways in about seven seconds. That was serious performance when the SLK was new and plenty quick for me today.
Of course, keeping an aging German roadster on the road isn’t cheap and doesn’t get any less expensive. The Mercedes needed some work -a brake job and a new supercharger pulley- but Mom knew that it was time to pare down, especially since she could no longer enjoy the Speedbug with my stepdad, Jerry. I knew it too, but that didn’t make getting ready to hand over the keys any easier. After nineteen years, it was hard to imagine the Mercedes belonging to anyone else.
Fortunately, I think the Speedbug found a good home. The couple who bought it made a three-hour trek from central Ohio and seemed to appreciate the car’s history and what it meant to our family. They understood that it would have its quirks, and they weren’t expecting something showroom-perfect. They seemed excited about the prospect of making some memories of their own with the car, just as we had for nearly two decades.
The Speedbug was always raring to go- ready for some of our family’s happiest memories, along with some misadventures that became good stories once enough time had passed. It was never the most practical vehicle in my parents’ driveway, but practicality wasn’t the point: the Mercedes existed in our lives to make an ordinary drive feel like an occasion! Here’s hoping that its new owners have every bit as much fun with it as we did.
Everyone needs to have owned a car something like this at one time in life. Something that is not at all practical, but is something that makes an ordinary drive the point in itself instead of just a means to some other point. And I salute someone who can keep a car like this over so long a stretch.
But I also understand when the time comes to let a favorite car go. I am glad you found the right buyer for it.
All told, I preferred my ‘91 Miata. Stick, a thousand pounds lighter, and not as much stuff to go wrong. Although getting to the battery was sort of a bitch. Sadly it was totaled when an elderly neighbor forgot to put his 1500 in park and it rolled down the hill that separated our driveways.
That said, the Miata lasted maybe nine months under my stewardship? The SLK, though- nineteen years was a long time. I remember you describing your fit or your Miata as a puppy dog happy and willing to just lap up the miles. That was the Speedbug for us.
Good to hear this was a reliable little car ~ my favorite color too .
My Sweet nearly bought me one of these ten years ago, I was really on the fence because I work on older vehicles by choice .
-Nate
It had its ups and downs, but my stepdad always addressed them. I remember a lengthy period of keeping the top strictly UP! Otherwise, very much so.