My inlaws asked me to assist them in their search for a new Mercedes. They are interested in either the SL500 or the SL55 AMG. There are a lot of bad roads where they live, so I thought the SL500's suspension would handle the rough roads better than the tighter AMG suspension (I could be wrong). They are also concerned about safety and heard that the AMG was a safer car (not sure if that is true or where they came up with that - it seems like the cars are built on the same platform and share many if not all of the same safety features).

Can anyone give me some direction on choice here? Are there any safety reports available on these models? I checked the NHTSA site but they have not tested these cars or the information is just not available. I really do not see the benefit for my inlaws of going with the high performance AMG, but I could be missing something here.

Many thanks for any feedback you can offer.

LID