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Walkaround
Even without the three-pointed star badges, it would be difficult to mistake the SLK for anything but a Mercedes-Benz. It is short but sleek, with a chunky, puroposeful look to it. Nice touches include the faired-in aerodynamic headlights, steeply raked windshield, large rear light clusters and bumpers tucked tightly against the body. Seven-spoke aluminum alloy wheels--carrying different-size tires front and rear--fill the wheel openings, contributing to the SLK's purposeful appearance. But the SLK's most obvious and unusual exterior feature is its power-operated hardtop. It is standard equipment and, being integrated into the car, eliminates the need for a soft top. Five hydraulic cylinders fed from a trunk-mounted pump raise and lower the lid when the driver operates a single switch. When the top is being lowered, side windows retract, latches on the windshield header are released, the trunk lid is raised (backwards), the roof folds into two halves and slides into its bay, and the trunk lid closes. Naturally, raising the top involves the same steps in reverse. That's a pretty clever piece of engineering. What makes it more impressive is the fact that there is still some usable trunk space when the lid is lowered--not much, but still about as much as a Miata. Although there are engine options in Europe, the SLK is available in the U.S. as a single model, fully equipped, and offers a mere handful of options, most desirable among them washers for the headlights. Nothing else is necessary.
Interior Features
Suddenly it's 1955. Mercedes-Benz interior stylists have unabashedly opted for a retro look to the SLK's cozy cockpit. The three circular instruments--one a speedometer, one a tachometer, and the other a combination fuel level/coolant temperature dial--have chrome rings around ivory faces with black numerals and red needles. Shiny accents are applied in numerous places, and a two-tone effect combines black dashboard top, door panels, seat sides, glovebox lid and center console with contrasting trim in the buyer's choice of red, blue, dark gray or light gray. Our only quibble with this blend of old and new is the carbon fiber insert panel in the dash. We have nothing against carbon fiber, but in a Mercedes it should be the real thing, rather than simulated. But there is nothing old-fashioned about the SLK's safety features, Beyond the dual airbags, Mercedes has opted to include separate rollover bars behind driver and passenger, as well as adding a circuit to the airbag system that detects a child's seat mounted in the passenger side and disables the dash-mounted bag in front of it. The seats, too, are modern as can be. No vintage sports car ever had such comfortable and supportive chairs. And no open car of the past protected its occupants from the wind as well as does the SLK's mesh wind deflector, which fits over the rollover bars. All controls are located in clusters for easy use, air conditioning and a fine Bose six-speaker sound system are standard, and the whole is finished off to the high quality level you'd expect to find in a Mercedes.
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