NHTSA Complaint #11456885 — 2003 MERCEDES BENZ SL500

The 2003 SL500 with seemingly no instigating incident or event had the gas tank baffle come apart due to the poor and faulty design of this component. This baffle now is loose and floats on the gas in the gas tank, banging around when there is acceleration or deceleration, even turning sometimes causes it to bang around. Speed bumps are another source of loud banging from the baffle bumping into the sides of the tank. The issue with 2003 SL500's is ubiquitous, it is not a question of what percentage of them will experience as it appears it will happen to this vehicle at some point due to the poor design and implementation of the baffle. This wouldn't be such a big problem if this was a minor repair and was a reasonable price to have a shop perform or for the more mechanically inclined owner to perform themselves, but it is a ridiculously complex and time-consuming job just to get to the gas tank and take it off. My mechanic told me it is akin to taking the transmission or engine out and as such labor is outstandingly and outrageously expensive with this job requiring approximately $2000-$2500 to perform according to my mechanic and other SL500 owners who have also had to deal with this issue. This is an issue that you may not experience if you don't own one of these vehicles for long enough, but the vehicle will have this problem during it's lifetime and Mercedes should be responsible for allowing such a design to make it into production.