It's almost spring, a time when a young man's fancy turns to, well, convertibles and cabriolets, among other things.
Which brings me to the new Mercedes-Benz CLK 350 Cabriolet. Gosh, where to start? That's the problem with writing about any new Mercedes - they're so loaded with technology that sometimes I think a modern Merc is just a life-support system for about 900 electronic gizmos.
The new CLK 350 Coupe and Cabriolets replace the previous CLK 320 models and come with a new 3.5-litre V6, Mercedes' amazing 7G-Tronic seven-speed automatic gearbox and a new safety system called Neck Pro that can detect a rear-end collision and, in a split-second, move the head restraints up and forward to minimise whiplash.
It didn't take much time behind the wheel of the CLK 350 Cabriolet for something to become obvious. The CLK may have only two doors and a drop top but it's not a sports car. It's a full four-seater with enough interior space for four full-grown adults, although I wouldn't like to be the guy in the back on a trip between Jozi and Cape Town.
Moreover, the new bodyshell is so strong - Mercedes says it's around 12 percent more torsionally rigid than its predecessor - that it's just like driving a sedan.
In fact, that's pretty much what the CLK Cabrio is - a sedan with two doors and a drop top. That impression is heightened by the fact the the canvas top adds no noise to the driving experience. On some cabrios the canvas top creates huge wind roar but the CLK has nary a whisper.
You can cruise at a hundred and plenty and still play the radio without having to constantly adjust the volume.
The heart of the CLK 350 is its new V6, also found in the latest C-class. Mercedes refers to it as a four-fold camshaft engine, meaning its has four camshafts that offer provide camshaft adjustment on intake and exhaust valves.
It's the first time the company has used such technology on a V6 and the result is an engine that runs unbelieveably sweetly. Power output is 200kW at 6000rpm, torque 350Nm from 2400 to 5000rpm. The result is strong pulling power, wonderful mid-range acceleration and relaxed crusing in seventh.
The CLK's new 7G-Tronic seven-speed autobox is a truly remarkable piece of equipment. The changes are so gentle and seamless as to be almost imperceptible and, combined with the engine's silky smoothness, give a ride that's like floating on a cloud.
7G-Tronic has a manual/sequential option but the car has so much torque that I played with it for about 10 minutes before popping the shifter into drive and leaving it there for the rest of my time with the car.
Governed top speed
The gearbox also has sport and comfort modes at the touch of a button but once again the car's gentle nature means you leave it in comfort for most of the time.
The car isn't an out-and out sportscar but it's no slowcoach. Top speed is governed to 250km/h while 0-100km/h comes up in a not-too-shabby 8.5 sec even up on the Reef.
Dropping the soft top is simplicity itself. No clips or buttons to release, just push a button on the centre console and see the windows drop and the roof disappear into a recess behind the rear seats in a matter of seconds. What's nice, too, is that there's still plenty of boot space left, unlike some of the steel-topped coupe-cabriolets where the top fills up most of the trunk.
Two pop-up safety roll bars lurk the rear seats. They are fitted with sensors to deploy them automatically when they believe the car might flip. They work, too, not that we had to roll the car to find out. At our test session at Gerotek colleague Denis Droppa was giving the car a bit of welly with the top down on the handling course when the sensors went into panic mode and up popped these beautifully upholstered roll bars.
We were very impresssed, until we had to reset them. That involved fiddling with Allen keys in dark recesses in the boot lid - very low-rent compared to the ultra-sophisticated electronic systems on the rest of the car.
Another problem is that the rollover bars have to be recessed before you can put the roof up again. Back to the drawing board on this one, Wolfgang.
It's loaded
The more gripes: the air-con controls are extremely finicky and difficult to read and - a bit more serious - the R577 000 price that doesn't include expensive options such as:
- Distronic cruise control with following distance settings - R17 200.
- Parktronic parking radar - R6 500.
- TV tuner - R7 800.
Certainly the car is loaded with sophisticated technology but 577K still seems an awful lot of money.
SUMMARY
The Mercedes-Benz CLK 350 Cabriolet offers a practical combination of weekend wind-in-your-hair motoring and weekeday commuter. It's expensive but beautifully assembled and drives like a dream.
The engine and gearbox are magnificent and the car comes with every safety device known to man. DaimlerChrysler can rightly be proud of their achievement.