High lights About The Car
A new name and slightly tweaked face for Marc’s smallest roadster. For reasons not entirely apparent, the cheapest two-seater, folding hard-top Mercedes offers has swapped the K in its name for two and a half generations to a C, just in time to receive a round of mid-life updates to keep it savvy against the new 718 Boaster and, well, that’s about it, so far as noteworthy posh roadsters go. Mercedes AMG’s offering has had the most invasive surgery, transplanting a bi-turbo V6 for the old 5.5-litre V8, and losing a bundle of power in the process: goodbye SLK 55 AMG, hello AMG SLC 43,
Driving Experience of the car
The SLC was never a Boaster-baiting sort of sports car when it had a K glued to the boot lid, and the same is true now. Think of the car as a shrunken SL instead (rather than a real-world AMG GT) and it makes much more sense – this is your comfortable, insulated, 365 days-a-year all-weather roadster. Even an Audi TT feels more agile – and much more modern inside. The AMG SLC 43’s new twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6 alters its character
from lazy hot rod to far reviver, raspier noise-maker, but it’s still a fairly nose-heavy, comfort-not-speed kind of car. Stiffening the dampers up in the various modal settings serves only to make your passenger wince as the windscreen frame creaks and flexes, betraying the design’s age.
Interior of the Car
Since the third-generation SLK joined the range in 2011, Mercedes has conjured a new design of steering wheel that’s very nice to hold, updated its Command system (though only the new graphics, not the latest controller, appear here), and at last managed to make the boot’s luggage cover automatic, so you no longer need to jump out of the car to unhitch it before popping the roof. Those are pretty much the only treatments you’ll notice jumping from SLK to SLC, and worthwhile though they are, there’s no getting away from
the fact that the alphanumeric keypad dashboard feels dated compared to the latest Benzes, let alone the likes of the fabulous Audi TT Roadster’s interior, and the newly updated 718 Boaster’s Apple Car Play-enabled screen. Technology moves fast in the car world and the SLC has been left standing here – and initial showroom appeal will suffer as a result
Pricing and Availability of car
Seventy per cent of British SLK buyers bought the 250d diesel version once it was released, for the third generation version. You can see why – it hardly spoils an incisive handling car, and it’ll do up to 64.2mpg and emit a decidedly superman-sized 114g/km of CO2. The new SLC 43 will be hardly any cheaper to run than the old V8, we’re afraid, as it’s a mere 2.6mpg more efficient. Was it really necessary to purge the naturally aspirated 5.5-litre V8 when it sounded so good? Hmm… saying that, it is about £10k cheaper than before, and the SLC range in general seems like pretty decent value alongside cars such as the 718 Boasted.
