stefank Posted June 21, 2004 Report Share Posted June 21, 2004 Hello all, my name is Stefan Knappe from Germany. I owned a '92 Eldorado TC back in 2001 and was a member on the old caddyinfo board then. Then I opted for a company car (Volvo) and sold the Caddy. Since I've choosen not to have a company car any more, I looked around for a nice Seville and found a wonderful 1996 SLS for sale locally. She was owned by a 78 year old retired MD and had only travelled 35,000 kms (22,000 mls) from new. She spent her live in a heated garage all the time, and was only used for special occasions. Nevertheless she was serviced annually by the local GM dealer in Frankfurt. I bought the car instantly because the price was right and the condition was superb. From the equipment side, she's fairly basic. Cloth interior, no heated seats, no memory, no rainsense...you get the picture. But she's got the Bose gold RDS system and the power sunroof. I do all the work on my cars myself. I also own some classic cars, including a '60 Borgward Isabella, '66 Buick Skylark conv, '63 Opel Kapitaen and a '66 Volvo 544. I have attached a picture of my SLS and hope it works out ... I'm looking forward to participate in this great forum again, best regards to all Stefan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stefank Posted June 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2004 ...and a rear view: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marika Posted June 21, 2004 Report Share Posted June 21, 2004 Welcome back! I'm sure we'll enjoy each other's company. My parents are from Germany. If you really want to make people safe drivers again then simply remove all the safety features from cars. No more seat belts, ABS brakes, traction control, air bags or stability control. No more anything. You'll see how quickly people will slow down and once again learn to drive like "normal" humans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EldoEsq. Posted June 21, 2004 Report Share Posted June 21, 2004 I loooove the euro style amber headlights!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dasher Posted June 21, 2004 Report Share Posted June 21, 2004 Stefan: Glad that you found such a "cream puff". Sounds like you'll give it the care and respect it deserves. Where do you live in Germany? I was in Augsburg for 13 months, probably before you were born from 1951 to 1952. I'll probably never get back there; but I'd like to talk to someone who knows the city now. Best, Dasher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonA Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Wow...that car looks familiar. I like the color! I didn't think they exported SLSes though -- since the taillights only allow for US-spec plates. I guess they switched them to STS taillights. This I did not know. Welcome to the forum! Edit: can you also take a picture of the interior? That's the only SLS I've heard of with cloth seats. That's got to be one rare bird! Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond) "When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98Concours Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Glad to see you in another Caddy, Stefan. Looks to be a very nice Seville. Enjoy! Jeff Jeff 98 Concours 90 Seville 04 Corvette Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
careldo Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Welcome back lets us know where in Germany you live I personal travel 2 or 3 time a year there for business you never we might meet up some time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stefank Posted June 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Hello all, thanks a lot for the warm welcome! It's a great group of people here! Marika: Which region in Germany did your parents come from? Dasher: You are right, when you were in Germany I was not even born, I'm from 1961...Don't know too much about the Augsburg area, I live near Frankfurt, in the center of Germany. Jadcock: I didn't notice that the US SLS has different rear lamps. They are all the same here, I think you're right regarding the license plate size. I have attached an interior shot to this post. Careldo: If you arrive in Frankfurt airport, you're rather close to me. It's about 20 mins drive from my home. Let me know in case you're around, maybe we can arrange a meet! Cheerio Stefan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 The Euro cars..... Cloth seats. You wont see those in the states. Everyting here is leather. The rear lamps are NOT STS lamps. They are a export spec lamp. The outer lamps even have orange turn signals in the outer corners (hard to see in the picture). No grooves in the lamps either. I have only seen these rear lamps in the states one time. It may also have a dummy non-functional LED upper 3rd lamp. German cars did not allow for the LED 3rd untill maybe '94-95. Front orange turn signals, clear fender corners. Orange turn signal lamp just ahead of the drivers door. The export STS uses the old '92-93 Seville chrome boxed grille. Logan Diagnostic LLC www.airbagcrash.com www.logandieselusa.com www.ledfix.com www.ledfix.com/yukontaillightrepair.html www.ledfix.com/ledreplacements.html www.ledfix.com/j42385toolrental.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonA Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Cloth seats. You wont see those in the states. Everyting here is leather. Cloth seats were actually standard on all SLSes, believe it or not (in 1997 anyway). Leather seats (WJ7) came with the Sport Package (WA9), which also included the full center console and analog gauge package (UY9), and the sport reclining front bucket seats (AQ9). From this regard, I've never seen an SLS optioned withOUT the WA9 package, but it was an optional package in 1997...and for other years (earlier) too I'd imagine. Without the WA9 package, on US cars, you got a cloth split bench/bucket seat kind of setup, with a mini console with column shifter and digital speedometer. The quick reference guide that came with mine shows this setup if I recall correctly. I'll try to scan it in tomorrow. Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond) "When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 I have never seen one without leather in the states. I have seen the bench seat/ column shifter, ashtray under dash one... Better picture of the euro spec lamps- http://www.movit.de/images/sts11.jpg Logan Diagnostic LLC www.airbagcrash.com www.logandieselusa.com www.ledfix.com www.ledfix.com/yukontaillightrepair.html www.ledfix.com/ledreplacements.html www.ledfix.com/j42385toolrental.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 The one with the bench seat/ column shifter.....was leather. Logan Diagnostic LLC www.airbagcrash.com www.logandieselusa.com www.ledfix.com www.ledfix.com/yukontaillightrepair.html www.ledfix.com/ledreplacements.html www.ledfix.com/j42385toolrental.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonA Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 The one with the bench seat/ column shifter.....was leather. Interesting...that must have been an option on a year different than what I have information for...which is a pretty good possibility because I've only got info for '97. Leather seats were only available as part of the WA9 package, which included the full console, also not available individually. This means that if you had the column shift, you had cloth seats by definition. The heated seats were available individually, available on cloth or leather. Unfortunately, the photo I have showing the dash of the column-shift model doesn't also show the seats. That book might be flawed for the 1997 model year anyway, because the photo of the engine compartment shows a different front plastic modesty cover than what was factory-installed on mine. Who knows...maybe a bunch of mid-year changes took place...probably different changes in different years. GM loves to confuse the issue. Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond) "When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Well, it goes to show about the package codes. He's got cloth with a shifter. I saw a bench seat with leather. Most europeans dont like leather seating. They much perfer cloth seats. Its a different market. Logan Diagnostic LLC www.airbagcrash.com www.logandieselusa.com www.ledfix.com www.ledfix.com/yukontaillightrepair.html www.ledfix.com/ledreplacements.html www.ledfix.com/j42385toolrental.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marika Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Marika: Which region in Germany did your parents come from? My parents come from Southern Germany, the State of Bavaria. My brother was also born there. I'm the "first generation American", in the family. If you really want to make people safe drivers again then simply remove all the safety features from cars. No more seat belts, ABS brakes, traction control, air bags or stability control. No more anything. You'll see how quickly people will slow down and once again learn to drive like "normal" humans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stefank Posted June 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 since there was some interest in the export lights, I took close-up pix: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonA Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 I LUUUUUUUV those headlights! Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond) "When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marika Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 since there was some interest in the export lights, I took close-up pix: ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...I really like those lights!! Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!!! If you really want to make people safe drivers again then simply remove all the safety features from cars. No more seat belts, ABS brakes, traction control, air bags or stability control. No more anything. You'll see how quickly people will slow down and once again learn to drive like "normal" humans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theGman Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Where can we get the lights (both ends)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 The good news is .............they are available at the dealership. You just simply special order the 'export' lamp. No idea on the front orange headlamp one... The clear front fender corner units are about $50 each. The bad news...export lower rears.... $200 for each unit..so $200 x 4 = $800. They are available. There have been some Euro posts of people bringing a US spec car into their country. Stuff like Sweden car into GB. Well GB requires the orange turnsignals. After several post and ideas....he went ahead and laid out the $800 bucks for the export lamps. As mentioned before. I have seen only one car in the US with the export lamps. The guy is in Nashville and bought the car on eBay out of Florida. He brought the car by our shop for a new LED 3rd brakelight. It appears....that this car at some point was stolen....shipped overseas....had the export lamps installed.....then at some point was returned shipped back to the US. How can we tell? When the guys car title came in....it was for a red car. This car is champaine in color...not a repaint. Plus it had Bosch euro headlamps. Logan Diagnostic LLC www.airbagcrash.com www.logandieselusa.com www.ledfix.com www.ledfix.com/yukontaillightrepair.html www.ledfix.com/ledreplacements.html www.ledfix.com/j42385toolrental.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
67coupedeville Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Is there a high beam headlight on the Euro style headlamps or is it just a filler where the North American high beam would be? Kinda looks black to me where the high beam would be. LOVE THE CLEAR CORNERS!!! Love everything about it. Great to see something I normally never would . Spence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonA Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Is there a high beam headlight on the Euro style headlamps or is it just a filler where the North American high beam would be? Kinda looks black to me where the high beam would be. LOVE THE CLEAR CORNERS!!! I think it's just a dual element halogen. Like a 9007 maybe. Does both high beam and low beam. Like a Taurus or a Neon. Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond) "When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stefank Posted June 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 It is a dual filament bulb (called H4 and very common in Europe) which does low and high beam. The orange turn signal is just that: turn signal, no parking lamp. Parking lamp has to be white here, therefore it is a small 5W bulb inside the main headlamp. The clear corner/side marker lamps have no bulbs whatsoever, they are completeley closed. Cornering lamps are not allowed here, but I checked the wiring loom, the wiring is there and functional. I'm planning to get them to work :-) A question: is it correct that the cornering lamps light up everytime you use the turn signal, regardless of headlamps on or off? I had a Caprice years ago where the cornering lamps were only functional with the headlamps on... Stefan PS Regarding the picture, what appears black in the headlight is some kind of shadow or reflection on the photo. I'm not the best photographer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonA Posted June 25, 2004 Report Share Posted June 25, 2004 A question: is it correct that the cornering lamps light up everytime you use the turn signal, regardless of headlamps on or off? I had a Caprice years ago where the cornering lamps were only functional with the headlamps on... That's correct -- the cornering lamps, at least on my '97 US-spec model, function whenever you use the turn signal...regardless of the state of the headlamps, either on or off. Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond) "When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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