Review: Mercedes-Benz strikes it ritzy with SL63 roadster
What pleasure it is waking up to a Mercedes-Benz in each garage bay, two identical black and chrome keys resting on the kitchen counter. They are a breakfast of champions: A sky blue E350 sedan on one side, a stormy blue SL63 roadster on the other. The roadster is on loan; the other one is owned.
My mother feels funny calling the E-class sedan her own, though it was the SL tugging her heart all throughout the 1970s. I helped buy the E350 for her as a surprise last year, it being the only Quartz Blue Metallic E-class sedan in the Northeast.
My first Mercedes press car was an E350 sedan in this exact shade, and while my mom dismissed most of the cars I have driven over the past five years, she never forgot that one. Mercedes dropped the color after 2012 for more boring shades, and hunting for this blue with a light gray interior was like asking Ben Affleck to act. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Mercedes makes a lot of two-door cars these days, but only the SL can trace an uninterrupted lineage to 1954, when Mercedes sales were miniscule—crushed by the postwar German economy and tarnished by ties to the Third Reich. Its cars were ignored by Americans. That didn’t stop Max Hoffman, a Jewish car importer in Manhattan, from unveiling the first 300SL at the New York Auto Show that year. Mercedes didn’t want to build it. The 300SL had gull wing doors and a ferocious inline-six that had no business on public roads, but Hoffman demanded 1,000 cars. Mercedes obliged and he ended up selling more than 1,400 by 1958, at which point the SL had become a global legend on roads and race circuits alike.
Today’s SL cannot be called light, not as its “Sportlich Leicht’’ initials once proclaimed. At 4,100 pounds, the AMG SL63 is a bruiser of a car—wide, long, and totally self-absorbed. Sportlich it certainly is.
MAGIC WITH THE TOP UP OR DOWN: In addition to a stylish interior, Mercedes offers Magic Sky Control, a $2,500 sunroof that employs the same electro-chromic tint you’ll find in auto-dimming rearview mirrors.
The AMG version has a 5.5-liter V-8 with two turbochargers forcing 577 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque through a seven-speed automatic. Whiff on the aluminum-plated gas pedal and the SL63 surges with silent authority, a faint, deep grumble exhaling from quad exhaust tips. In Comfort mode, the car is only half-asleep, like a German Shepherd resting with one eye open. Sport and Sport+ modes let it pounce, with snappier shifts you can feel through the generously padded, massaging, ventilated, neck-warming seats. On wide stretches, the SL63 is devastating, locked dead on target, the thick steering wheel never wavering. I miss the old SL63’s roaring crackle from its naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V-8. The smaller turbo engine is softer to start yet totally savage in full attack. It drinks less fuel, though, at an indicated 17 mpg versus the 11 mpg I saw in the 2011 model. Guess that’s pretty good when you’re flat-footing the thing for 530 miles.
Now, about the all-new AMG GTS. That coupe has fewer horsepower (503), torque (479), and weight (400 pounds). Numerically, this makes it phenomenal. I tore through Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont with one last October, and was exhausted by the end of the week. That’s an unyieldingly stiff sports car designed for a smooth track. On anything else, the driver absorbs every weak spot in the pavement, hunkered down in a cramped cabin that requires an arm twist every 15 minutes just to adjust the suspension or change a radio station. It’s concrete evidence that Mercedes is still a racing company with scores of victories, and that it knows how to engineer a top-flight supercar. It’s fun in bursts but not comfortable on longer trips. That’s the SL63’s job; this is the supercar my mom would drive.
Indeed, the SL63’s cabin is just as friendly as the E350. Same controls, similar screens, switches and stalks in all the familiar places. There’s room galore, and with the power folding hardtop in place, magic. That would be what Mercedes calls Magic Sky Control, a $2,500 sunroof that employs the same electro-chromic tint you’ll find in auto-dimming rearview mirrors, only deployed across a huge span of glass. A button darkens the mood within seconds. It’s more than charming—it works. Does the SL have street presence? You can drop or stow the top without starting the car or being inside. Just hold the key fob near the door handle while pressing the lock or unlock button. Flash the LED hazard lights as you approach and two white arcs pierce the darkness—and that’s before the main headlights cast their incredible beam. This is a class-conscious automobile, no matter how conspicuous it may seem for its as-tested $174,000 price.
But it’s a little too much. The transmission uses a wet clutch instead of a torque converter, so it slips unnervingly at low speeds and can’t match the response of the dual-clutch unit in the GTS. The suspension kills all G-forces—that’s the miracle of Active Body Control, which leans the car like a motorcycle into turns—but it’s all a bit brittle and thwacks over bumps. And the brakes, while carbon ceramic and fabulous, are every bit unnecessary. The regular SL550 is a cushier rocket that makes it my preferred grand touring Benz. Four summers ago, I put 1000 miles on an SL550 from Boston to Quebec City and back. It’s an E-class with an enormous engine and a get-the-hell-out-of-my-way grille. It’s my mom’s next Mercedes, if I can only find the right color.
[You can find local deals on Mercedes-Benzes here].
2016 Mercedes-AMG SL63
THE BASICS
Price, base/as tested (with destination): $150,625/$174,405. Fuel economy, EPA estimated: 16 city/25 highway. Fuel economy, Globe observed: 16.6. Drivetrain: 5.5-liter twin-turbo V-8, 7-speed automatic, rear-wheel-drive. Body: 2-seat convertible.
THE SPECIFICS
Horsepower: 577 at 5,500 rpm. Torque: 664 lb.-ft. at 2,250 rpm. Overall length: 182.4 in. Wheelbase: 101.8 in. Height: 51.2 in. Width: 76.7 in. Curb weight: 4,101 lbs.
THE GOOD
Timeless styling, comfort, exotic-level performance.
THE BAD
Stiff suspension, some jerky shifting.
THE BOTTOM LINE
While slightly overkill in AMG trim, the SL impresses where few dare to try.
ALSO CONSIDER
Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet, BMW M6 Convertible, Jaguar F-Type R.
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