SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVsand LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Most, but not all, the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live. 

My most recent drive is on the home page. Archived reviews and opinion pieces are in the active menu down the left side. Hover your cursor over a heading or manufacturer's name and follow the drop-down.

Mercedes-Benz SLC 200: Renamed, re-sculpted and refreshed for 2016

Just indulge

Posted: 10 September 2016

The numbers

Base price including CO2 tax and automatic: R703 476

Engine: 1991 cc, DOHC, 16-valve, inline four, turbopetrol

Power: 135 kW at 5500 rpm

Maximum torque: 300 Nm between 1200 and 4000 rpm

Zero to 100 km/h: 7.0 seconds

Maximum speed: 240 km/h

Real life fuel consumption: About 8.5 l/100 km

Tank: 60 litresBoot: 174 – 284 litres

Warranty and maintenance: 6 years / 100 000 km

Apart from new looks front and rear, subtle revisions in the cabin, new engine andgearboxes and a new name, M-B’s entry-level convertible is pretty much as it was in 2012. The grille, headlamps, lower air intake and fog light surrounds all changed and it gained air extractors on the front wings. The curvier boot lid sports a high-level brake light strip in its mini-spoiler, tail lamps are bigger and its lower bumper and exhaust outlets are different.

On the inside, the central control tower looks more vertical, the console-mounted shift lever is shorter and buttons on the steering wheel have changed. The 1800 cc turbopetrol motor made way for a 2-litre. Power output is still 135 kW, although at slightly higher revs (5500 vs. 5250), but maximum torque is up by 11 percent from 270 Nm to 300 and kicks in slightly earlier than before. Performance and real life fuel consumption remains much as it was, but the new motor runs cleaner; 133 gm/km of CO2 vs. 151 grams from the old engine.

Its standard six-speed manual gearbox was updated and the automatic option morphed from seven speeds to nine.

Then they changed its name from SLK to SLC. SLK stood for sportlich, leicht und Kurtz (sporty, light and short) whereas SLC means sportlich, leicht, C-Klasse. My 2012 review of the SLK 200 centred on its being a fine little mid-life crisis machine, so I can’t do that again. Let’s look at some practical issues instead.

This year’s car struck me as being refreshingly straightforward because it wasn’t loaded with options to the extent that the 2012 test unit was. Both seats rely on mechanical adjusters that enable the passenger to raise and lower his or her chair too. Unlike other sporty cabriolets, the fully lowered driving seat allowed a decent four finger-widths of headroom; not quite ideal, but better than at least one Ferrari I could name. 

One fires up the engine the traditional way - twisting M-B’s familiar black plastic fob in a square slot. No optional skyroof was fitted either, although such apparent shortcomings can be rectified in exchange for various sums of money.

With enough power to charge from zero to 100 km/h in seven seconds and plenty of accelerative thrust at all times, the SLC 200 hustles along at (at least) a smile a minute. Being almost option-free, the car felt stripped down and purer than the last one did.

The new nine-speed automatic, one of very few options fitted, shows which gear it is in at all times. That means you can watch it change, despite not feeling a thing, and be reassured that it’s doing its job more efficiently than you could. Unlike some others, it doesn’t shift up unnecessarily and it holds the most suitable gear down hills. If you must give in to boy- or girl-racer impulses, manual override engages by pushing a button at the back of the gear quadrant and using the paddles. Another button selects Park and the relevant brake is controlled by means of the now-familiar tab - although both functions engage automatically as the ignition is switched off.

The car’s basic body shape hasn’t changed with the new name, unfortunately, so driving at any speed above about 70 km/h, with the top down, is still a hair-blowing adventure. In case you forgot, the lid lowers or lifts in somewhere between 18 and 20 seconds.

Although the car comes with run-flat tyres, it’s supplied with an inflatable mini spare and pump. The price of this peace of mind is about 51 litres of packing space, so the boot is quite small - between 174 and 284 litres. But I have done the homework for you: The loading lip is at 63 centimetres and the sill is 16 cm deep, while the space below the stored roof hardware measures 95 cm wide, 58 cm long and 30 cm deep. I’ll leave you to work out what you could fit in there.

Feeling much the same despite notable differences, the Mercedes-Benz SLC 200 is still everything a prowling bachelor or bachelorette, or simply a pair of empty-nesters, really wants. Not “needs”, possibly, but you live only once. So indulge yourself.

Test unit from MBSA press fleet


What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.

Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

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