Mercedes-Benz SLK350 : First Drive

Ever since I got to be of an age where the visual wasn’t enough to impress me, form following function being more in sync with why I craved for something more, the automotive equivalent I first got to grapple with were Mercedes-Benz two-seat roadsters. The 300SL Gullwing had so ingrained itself in my psyche and while first it was for the flip open doors, it really got my heart pounding when one took in the tubular spaceframe chassis and its derived from racing 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder engine and impeccable sporting record. That it had the measure of most Ferrari GTs and could wallop them in a straight fight only added to the allure of the car for both heart and mind.

Things didn’t mean much then when one set eyes on the pert little 190SL roadster, seemingly the small entry level foil for the 300SL in Merc’s line-up in the late 1950s. A small four-cylinder Mercedes roadster never made sense to me then and doesn’t do much to stir the senses to this day. However, as time went on and the curvy 300SL and 190SLs gave way to the more angular and upright 230SL and onwards, one began to see a pattern emerging. The mighty 450SL and SEL coupes were a hint that Mercedes-Benz had gone back to its roots and come up with the goods – big, brawny roadsters in soft top and fixed hard top forms, large inline twin cam six-cylinder engines to begin with before climbing on to torque crunchers with 4.5-litre V8s which on sheer muscle many a time made Italian thoroughbreds seem puny.

However, this didn’t last long in the modern age – the 1990s and the first decade of this century but Mercedes-Benz carried on its tradition of two-seat roadsters. The SLK followed and it was a successful product but something still didn’t feel right. It was too feminine, too fashionable for macho males and also seemed to be caught up in a transitory phase as its maker grappled with forces within itself as to how it should go about making cars – the honest to goodness time tested engineering over all else approach, or trying to be frugal, if not value engineering, to cut manufacturing costs down. The results of this approach are all there in the public domain but thankfully a few things have happened for the better. Mercedes-Benz has seen that its future lies in what it used to do best – engineer cars better than most – and has gone back to this dictum. Secondly, it wants to be able to retain its position as the leading manufacturer of premium roadsters in the world and hallelujah, the new 350 SLK seems to be the new face of a company rediscovering its mojo.

The last two generations of SLKs have been decent cars and in fact the last generation version did appear to draw inspiration from the McLaren-Mercedes SLR form to hint at something special. It could have worked had the SLR been a genuinely proficient machine all round rather than just being a sledgehammer in straight line tyre-shredding acceleration. This time round though there is a better inspiration and a more successful one to boot with more character traits of the past – yes, you guessed right, I am bringing in the SLS AMG with its wide, low stance, rippling muscular turnout, the right sort of engine placed midships ahead of the cockpit and driving the rear wheels and yes, the gullwing doors came back. All of a sudden retro seemed great and Mercedes knew what was expected of it for its next generation SLK range.

The first thing which strikes you is how handsome, rather than how pretty the new SLK is! And that is a first big positive for the new model. Being sketched around the SLS AMG is no small thing but the new wedge-shaped roadster has had the large heavy nose job wrought well with the rest of the package to present itself as bold and bountiful with a classic long hood, short deck approach. Having seen the same car kitted out with tasty AMG body add-ons, the SLK surely looks even better but hey, I am not complaining even with the base offering which is even hornier than any previous SLK.

That snout is best looked at when the car is on full attack mode and zipping it hot through fast sweeping corners and the rest comes around with just a hint of tail sliding out for both effect and pleasure. The new SLK has been toughened up with more abrupt angles from the easily recognised upright Mercedes grille to a rear diffuser with integrated exhaust. The front end is wider with big air intakes at its lower outboard edges. Despite this more muscular front end, the co-efficient of drag has been trimmed from an already impressive 0.32 to 0.30. The car looks best with its top down but given that we were blessed with both rain and shine in Pune for the week we had the SLK with us, the folding hard top is a boon and comes with the MagicSky option, able to transform the glass panoramic roof from clear to tinted at the push of a button – magic indeed!

Open the doors and you step ‘into’ the car, a bit of body English being the norm here to slide yourself gracefully behind the wheel. Master this art and you may seem the king of cool but what awaits you is a cockpit that wraps all around you with plenty of high grade trim and kit to pamper and pleasure you. The ergonomic art of Mercedes-Benz is best appreciated in the sporty cars and the SLK 350’s cockpit highlights this line of thought.

Aluminium, high gloss burl walnut or dark ash trim, big round instruments brilliantly placed, a quartet of air outlets with a faint resemblance to the design language eschewed by the SLS AMG, a hint of living in the here and now being reflected thanks to the well-dressed analogue clock centred atop the dashboard when one plumps for the Premium package, this SLK 350 is mega and is already hinting of the possibilities once I hit the ignition key. But before I do that, there is that lovely feeling coming my way as the eyes dart to the central digital display, get the seat all adjusted and wrapped to my slightly developed girth and then caress that flat bottomed steering wheel covered in shiny sun-reflecting leather. Short of the Ferrari 458 Italia which I drove a couple of months ago, I don’t think any other automobile has had me hooked just stepping into its operating environs, the subtle give away that the SLK has turned on its ample charms.

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Mere charm gives way to explosive delights once you turn on the ignition and that large all-aluminium 3.5-litre V6 rasps into life with a throaty bark, seductive yet not obtrusive. Mercedes-Benz has been known to make refined engines as fitted in its present day E- and S-Class range but what they have managed to do in the SLK 350 is something else altogether. The unit is creamy but with an urge should you be careless and stomp on the loud pedal as you would your C-Class. Then all hell breaks loose, the revs from this direct injection motor streak high into the stratosphere, the large fat 245/40-R17 91W rear tyres bite and then hurl the car forward at astonishing velocity.

Zero to 100km/h is a mere formality, being dispatched in under six seconds and you haven’t even begun going through the top two speeds of the 7G-Tronic Plus automatic transmission. Forward thrust is never lacking and with the top speed electronically limited to 250km/h, it is all about darting through narrow gaps in traffic in stunningly short, sharp bursts which make the SLK such a heady tool on our roads.

No manual gearbox is offered but the new auto ’box is more than capable and features Sport and Manual modes as before but now the Comfort setting has been replaced with one marked Economy – so keen a detail for the times. With Start-Stop as standard fitment, and in Economy mode breezing through city boulevards with early gentle upshifts impressively delay visits to your friendly Speed or Power outlets. Get into Manual mode and the delectable woof from the exhaust on each downshift is sheer music to the senses, heightened even more so when you take it pedal to the metal in Sport mode and everything starts happening in a rather controlled frenzy!

Dynamically, the SLK makes it clear that it’s more for fun-in-the-sun motoring rather than stitching corners. The car clearly has a preference for smoother roads, the sort more common on German autobahns than our less than perfect roads. The ride is pleasant, but gets a bit brittle over rough surfaces when switched to Sport' mode. However, the car feels poised and compliant under most conditions no matter how brutal you get behind the wheel. The standard Dynamic Handling package includes Direct Steer and Torque Vectoring braking systems. The former is a type of variable assist that varies from light at parking speed to well weighted at higher speeds. The torque vectoring features uses selective brake application of the inside rear wheel in severe cornering situations to stabilise the car. The result is a delightful blend of steering accuracy and feedback that gets better as speed climbs.

However, I did have an issue when trying to get into corners at speed and the nose heavy attitude of old Mercs did try to rear its head by fighting the steering input and wanting to plough straight ahead. No hard rapier jabs but smooth progressive inputs get the best out of this car. That said, I know for certain this is a car developed not for the rabid speed junkie and corner carver but for the relaxed sort who would want to turn in softly yet without upsetting his lady’s composure sitting alongside. The performance is there to be unleashed once out of the corner and seeing a straight stretch of tarmac but then this is about attitude and also about for whom this car is built and aimed at. No arguments with that and in this regard no one does better than Mercedes-Benz.

This is a Mercedes so it comes laden to the gills with safety equipment. In addition to eight airbags and the requisite ABS and ESC, the 2012 SLK comes with a drowsiness warning system called Attention Assist and an anticipatory protection system called Pre-Safe. The first monitors driver behaviour through 72 inputs and warns of a lapse in attention via a flashing coffee cup symbol on the instrument panel. Pre-Safe is capable of initiating full braking when necessary to avoid a crash. God, I wasn’t even trying to doze and wonder how can one in such a car which makes you feel so alive!

What is truly impressive is not the style and the structure, the performance and the agility, or even the gadgets and gizmos which surround you all over, but the fact that in the SLK 350 one begins to get the same feeling of rock solid build and dependability I had felt in the vault-like W124 series cars of a decade and a half ago. If this is indicative of a return to traditional values, then I am sure every well heeled punter would love the lure of the three-pointed star, to impress and be impressed!