Let’s get the reality out of the way – £32,267 is a lot of money. Running costs of 63.3ppm aren’t cheap either. And £5145 is a lot to spend on options.
Right, now for the car.
Mercedes‘ facelifted SLK is glorious. The 231PS 3.0-litre V6 engine is responsive, high revving and emits a delicious noise that begs to be driven through a tunnel.
Some 93% of SLKs will be sold with an automatic gearbox, which is a shame as the manual transmission is sharp and the gears are perfectly well spaced.
Meanwhile, fhe facelift changes are subtle to the extreme – apart from a new front bumper the differences are barely noticeable. But this matters not. Even with the Calcite white paint and red leather seats of our test car, the SLK is lovely.
Verdict: A fantastic two-seater rear wheel drive roadster, but is it really worth twice as much as a Mazda MX5?
