Short Take Road Test
MERCEDES HAS A SHOWY line of sporty roadsters with slick folding hardtops—the SLK and the SL—but if it’s a full-size convertible you’re after, with an old-fashioned but tech-current softtop, here is your only choice. It’s a knockout, though the price could bring some to one knee: $65,675 without the big bag of optional tricks and $79,090 with all of them (the V-6 E350 starts at a slightly more reasonable $57,725).
Top up or down, the E550 has giggle-making acceleration—4.6 seconds to 60 mph, maybe a headlamp behind the Aston Martin V-8 Vantage roadster we tested in March ’09 (4.5 seconds), though that Vantage had 420 horsepower to this car’s 382 and was 318 pounds slimmer, to boot. This open-air Mercedes gets to 100 mph in 11.5 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 13.2 at 107 mph, with a top speed governed at 130. For a convertible, the ride verges on perfection—it’s inappropriate to even bring up the term cowl shake. On a good road, it’s like riding on glass.
One of three stylish switches in the center armrest lowers the softtop in 20 seconds (22 to close). The top has a thickness about it of a permanent roof. Another switch raises all four windows at once, avoiding the drudgery of doing the same thing two at a time with the window buttons on the armrest. The third switch raises a wind deflector that’s integrated with the rear headrests. Another new deflector—Mercedes calls it Aircap—above the header rises when the roof is trunked, and two fair-size suitcases, or one really big one, will fit back there when the top’s up.
Speaking of perfection, there are the seats, which move in 14 directions and will lumbar you four ways, too. Not much can be said for the industrial green and beige color of the dash, but the interior chrome and wood pieces and the stylish six-gauge instrument panel get your mind off that. Back seats can be comfortable if front occupants sacrifice a little of their space, and the seats slide forward so you can get back there.
Solidity is the omnipresent virtue—in the thunk of its heavy doors, in the way it muffles otherwise jangling roads, never a jarring moment. The steering wheel—leather-wrapped and air-holed—is as thick as a young Aspen, with a heaviness that is welcome as speed increases (go ahead, take your hands off for a moment—it won’t move a dime off the line).
The options keep coming, like lemmings: Parktronic and Distronic Plus ($2650, pass), a $6450 double-throwdown Premium 2 package (necks get heated via vents in the headrests!), but seven items can thankfully be added without “package” purchases, things like leather, rear airbags, heated seats.
The sensational, thrilling sound this car makes as the tach rushes headlong toward red will make up for a lot of purchase pain. So will your tan.
