I drove a pair of Z3s recently, and even the base model was a blast. To give Mercedes a fair shot at my aspirations, I ventured over to the MB dealer to check out the SLK. Knowing what tends to make me happy, I asked if they had a 3.2 liter, 6-speed available to drive. Well, all they had that day were a bunch of the supercharged fours. I’ve read enough about the nasty noises this engine makes, and passed. My ears prefer six cylinders. So the guy checked on what was coming in. No manual 3.2s were expected ever, unless a customer ordered one. It seems your typical MB customer isn’t your typical BMW customer. BMW dealers tend to have plenty of manuals in stock. But a 3.2 automatic was due the following Monday. As luck would have it, my father would be in town that day, and I was already planning to drive an S-Class with him. So it was a date.

The SLK has been available for a few years now. You are probably familiar with this car. It resembles nothing more both inside and out than a Mercedes SL shrunken down to the size of a Miata, for a price about half the former but double the latter.

Aside from being two-thirds of an SL for half the price, the SLK’s claim to fame has been its top, which wowed everyone by being a fully automatic retractable steel roof instead of traditional soft top. (Mitsubishi sold a similarly configured 3000GT a few years ago, but it was nearly twice the price of the coupe so few were sold and no one noticed.) This has the advantage of providing the solidity and quietness of a coupe whenever the top is up. Some people also get their jollies just watching all those little motors go to work to put the thing up and down. The major downside is that trunk space is cut in half when the top is down, to the same five cubic feet possessed by the Miata and Z3, and these are hard to access.

Until this year, the SLK was only available with a supercharged 2.3 liter four. For 2001, a 3.2 liter six is also available. Aside from providing another thirty horsepower, for a total of 215, this six should be much smoother and make nicer noises than the four. It will also set you back another four grand over a comparably equipped 230. The car I ended up driving stickered for $47,000 with no options other than the automatic, Xenon lights, and heated seats. (The white paint avoided the $625 charged for metallics.) You can easily run one of these over fifty.

Mercedes-Benz SLK320 Reliability

People often email me asking about the reliability of the cars and trucks they are considering. Existing sources of reliability information just aren't helpful enough.

In response, my website, truedelta.com, will more clearly identify what difference it will make if you buy an SLK320 rather than something else by providing "times in the shop" and "days in the shop" stats (among others). Those who help provide the data--which will require just a few minutes a year--will earn free access to the site's reliability information. To encourage participation, this access will otherwise cost $24.95.

For the details, and to sign up, visit www.truedelta.com.

Styling and Accomodations

There’s not much more to say about the exterior other than the size says “cute sports car” while the styling itself says “rakish grand tourer.” The driving experience would bear this split personality out. Before moving on to that, though, let’s drop into the seat. It’s a big drop. You sit very low in this car, considerably lower than in the Z3. So when you get in, be prepared to drop way down.

Once in, you’ll find that the dash is quite tall. If you’ve read many of my reviews you’ll know I strongly prefer a low cowl, so the SLK is already losing points with me. The doors are not quite as tall as the dash, but they still bury you a bit in this car. But then so do those in the SL. So I guess it’s the whole “shrunken SL” thing. As for the seats themselves, my immediate impression was that they were very firm but supportive, in the traditional Mercedes fashion.

Though this is a very small car, there is considerably more room inside than in a Miata or Z3. I drove those cars with the seat all the way back, and suspect taller people must be quite cramped in them. Those six feet and over will be much happier in the SLK. There is much more room for legs and heads. For people of any size the cabin is significantly less claustrophobic with the top up.

Perhaps the best thing about the interior is that Mercedes current battery of stylists haven’t gotten to the instruments in the SLK yet. It’s thankfully bereft of the awful gauges that afflict the current S-Class and C-Class. Instead, it has classic, round, easy-to-read gauges. To add some style, they have pleasant-looking cream faces.

On the road

Starting a Mercedes is a bit unique. You turn the key for an instant, and the car does the rest. No need to hold the key till the engine starts. Once started, I paid attention to the sound and feel of the engine. Mercedes’ sixes used to be inline designs, which are inherently smoother and tend to sound better, but a few years ago they switched to V designs because these are more compact. So it came as no real surprise that the SLK320’s engine, while certainly fairly smooth and decent to listen to, was neither as smooth nor as stirring in note as the inline sixes in the BMWs. The note didn’t dissuade me from heading for the redline, but it didn’t provoke me to, either.

In a 3100 lbs. car, 215 horsepower is more than enough, but far from overkill. The SLK320 is very quick, but never “Oh my God!” powerful. The engine lacks the torque to give you a solid punch in the lower back. I suspect the manual would help here. The supercharged six in the upcoming CLK32, which should produce roughly 300 horsepower and a hefty amount of low-end torque, certainly will. But at what price?

The transmission shifts smoothly. A manumatic function is provided by moving the lever laterally in “D,” left for down and right for up. This doesn’t so much select the gear as select the highest possible gear, much like the system in the Lexus GS. For example, in ׁ” the transmission will use the first three gears. To return to regular operation tap the lever to the right till you’re back to ׃.” This is not as easy as having a dedicated lever position for manumatic operation, but it works fine as long as you understand how it operates. Just be warned that downshifts are far from immediate. More than once the transmission downshifted halfway through the turn even though I called for it to in advance. Finally, no manumatic is a real substitute for a manual, at least not for me. I vastly prefer the fine control and detailed feedback you get with the real thing.

The steering, though a bit lacking in feel, is quite quick and precise. It lends the car a zippy feel through turns. Even with the standard 205/55VR16 tires the chassis sticks very well. With the 225/45ZR17 front and 245/40ZR17 rear tires in the mighty pricey $4,135 Sport Package (the Z3’s Sport Package is $600) this chassis must be next to impossible to unstick. And no matter what you throw at it, the SLK never fails to feel as rock-solid as closed-roof Mercedes.

But sometimes a chassis can be too balanced. The SLK’s chassis is very competent but not nearly as delightful as the objectively less advanced Z3 chassis. It quickly goes wherever you point it, but in such a flat-footed fashion it lacks joy. It feels very much like a large, heavy car, just smaller. (That mini-SL thing yet again?) It lacks the subtle motions here and there and the twitchy rear that make the Z3 such a ball to drive. (OK, such behavior in the Z3 used to border on unsafe, but the stability control that is now standard keeps this behavior from getting literally out of hand.) The SLK certainly scoots, but it doesn't dance.

I do wonder what the Sport Package does to the ride. Even with the standard tires it’s pretty flinty. Maybe it’s because the rest of the car aspires to a higher level of civilization, but I noticed the harshness of the ride much more in the SLK than in the Z3. What really got me, though, was the seats. Most and maybe all Mercedes seats use mattress-like springs rather than the much more common foam. To compensate for the stiff ride, it seems someone at Mercedes had the brainstorm to make the springs that support the seat cushions fairly soft underneath your butt. As a result, I felt like I never stopped bouncing while driving this car aggressively. Boing, boing, boing, boing… This may be Tigger’s idea of a great ride, but not mine.

Last words

My father was no more impressed with the SLK320 than I was. To show him a truly good time, I took him over to the BMW place immediately afterwards for a round in the Z3 3.0. He agreed that the Z3 was far more fun to drive.

So who is the SLK320 for? Well, it is a more serious, everyday car, as tiny convertibles go. It’ll hold larger people more comfortably, and it just seems more adult. Bouncy seats notwithstanding, the Mercedes should be more comfortable on long trips. The steel roof will make it a better car when the top is up.

But what are you buying one of these cars for? Maybe you just want to look good. I guess this'll do it, but it's not what cars are about for me. I cannot imagine having any of these as my only car. The trunks are all small, the rides too busy. These make the most sense as a second car, for occasional use on nice days. Above all, they should be about driving enjoyment. By these criteria, the Z3, even in base form, is the easy choice.

Note on rating: I'd give the SLK320 only three stars, but that top is nifty enough to earn it another.