The Germans have completely lost it. In yet another strange case of badge engineering, Mercedes-Benz has discontinued the drop-top CLK to make way for this car - the new E-Class Cabriolet.
An E-Class convertible? But the E is a mid-sized executive sedan with four doors that can take you and three colleagues to midday meetings in comfort and style. It's been that way since the first Merc wore an "E" badge (114 Series) in the early 1970's and I, for one, thought it always would be.
Putting an E badge on a two-door convertible is like calling a Jack Russell a boerboel just because the pet shop wants the image of selling big dogs at higher prices.
It seems the Stuttgart marketing guys have pulled rank on the family lineage department and deduced that a seemingly more upmarket convertible would make more money.
In reality, however, the E-Class Cabriolet, launched in South Africa in April 2010, is more an evolution of the C-Class-based CLK. If you were to draw a Mercedes family tree using underpinnings and mechanical components as reference, the E-Class pictured here would be more closely related to the current C-Class than the new E sedan with which it shares badges.
Genealogy aside, we're talking about a really great car and an even better convertible regardless of what it's called. Our test unit was the top-spec E500 with a five-litre V8 and, although I haven't experienced the lesser V6-powered E350 model in ragtop guise, I think it's safe to say the 500 is the more desirable of the two variants available in South Africa.
Power is simply outrageous - so much so that I question Mercedes' claimed outputs of 285kW and 530Nm as being too low. Our test equipment revealed a best 0-100km/h time of 5.9sec at altitude, putting it into contention with AMG's heavy-hitters.
And that typical V8 backing track has been tuned to perfection to give this V8 the bark to match its bite. Pity about the 19.1 litres/100km average fuel consumption.
The retractable roof is fabric but bolstered by fancy materials such as neoprene and butyl that insulate the cabin from noise and climate. Up, it really is hard to tell you're not sitting inside a hard-roofed coupe.
OUTWITTING THE LAWS OF AERODYNAMICS
The E-Class Cabriolet's real party trick is a development called Aircap that's designed to keep wind turbulence out of the cabin when driving top-down.
There's a panel atop the windscreen, unnoticeable when not in operation, but which rises like an aerofoil by about 15cm to redirect airflow over the cabin and not into it. It works in conjunction with another retractable baffle between the rear head restraints to outwit the laws of aerodynamics.
Does it work? Yes, but not well enough to justify the tumour-like growth that extends from the car's otherwise sexy lines. You can't see it from the driver's seat but passers-by will raise an eyebrow at the spoiler that Mercedes "mistakenly" attached to the windscreen frame and not the boot lid.
Another big flaw is the screen-like device between the rear seats that, even retracted, severely obstructs rear visibility.
Aircap is standard in the E500, an R8200 option on the E350.
NO COMPROMISE
Aircap and Airscarf (the latter introduced in 2006 on SLK models as a ventilation system that blows warm air on to the back of your neck) will most likely take up the most space in Merc's sales literature but it's the E Cabrio's chassis that will be of most value to motoring purists. This is best roof-less chassis I've yet driven in terms of rigidity and sporting ability.
Terms such as "scuttle shake" and "compromise" are commonplace in convertible road tests but Mercedes has eliminated chassis flex almost completely here.
Even the old Hennops road near our performance testing facility west of Pretoria, that undulates like a Himalayan soccer pitch, failed to provoke any windscreen wobble. I'm sure Mercedes' engineers have added extra bracing and anti-flex measures to the chassis and the the 125kg weight gain over the E500 Coupe model is well worth it.
VERDICT
A worthy successor to the familiar CLK even though, at R900 000, it's nearly a hundred grand more expensive than the outgoing CLK500.
The extra cash gets you lots of modern Mercedes accoutrements and it's these little details that make it such a pleasure to drive.
Oodles of power in E500 trim makes it even better, stunning lines make it better still, but the claim-to-fame Aircap device is a poor execution of form and function.
Leave it disengaged in E500 models and delete it from the options list in the E350. - INL Motoring