Category: Compact Executive 
Price Range: £33,411 to £68,923
Svelte pillarless looks, ample equipment, refined performance, bulletproof quality.
Handling could be sharper, high-performance versions come at a high price.
Classy if dated and largely uninspiring, although AMG versions are in a different league.
Some Mercedes quality standards slipped with other C-Class cars of this generation, but they're fully up to scratch here. Where lesser versions have shiny, hard plastic mouldings the CLK uses soft-touch surfaces and sumptuous trim, and the whole car is beautifully detailed. Despite the absence of a pillar behind the doors, the body is solid and feels well able to last the 30 years that Mercedes bravely gives as its corrosion warranty limit.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Mercedes CLK-Class Cabriolet
wrote on 17 07 2006