Category: Convertibles 
Price Range: £59,975 to £153,050
Excellent ride; smooth, quiet V8; effortless acceleration.
Jerky brakes; over-light steering; fiddly Comand control system; sheer size and weight.
The consummate cruising convertible.
The Mercedes-Benz SL-Class has faded from fickle fashion a little in recent years: the footballers and their wives have preferred to splash their cash on flash Aston Martins, Bentleys, Maseratis, Lamborghinis and Ferraris, not to mention huge SUVs like the Porsche Cayenne and the near default-option Range Rover Sport.
This two-seat roadster is no less an ultimate aspiration than it has been in the past, however; it remains the blue-chip luxury sports car, bought by top-ranking professionals, more conservative City types and senior merchant bankers, or so we're told.
Often, it's an everyday road car for those who have a vintage Bugatti or similar in the garage, or a second car in an S-Class saloon-owning partnership. As indeed you'd expect - with prices for this SL 500 from £75,880, upper tax-bracket earners only need apply.
The SL 500 ranks between the six-cylinder SL 350 (316bhp, £62,885) and the V12-engined, biturbo SL 600 (517bhp, £101,520) and it doesn't pretend to be an all-out super-sports car - that's the prerogative of the harder-edged 518bhp SL 63 AMG (£101,965) and 612bhp SL 65 AMG (£150,079). Instead, it's impressively refined and sophisticated, offering its supersonically-quick acceleration in an immensely civilised manner.
And despite barely managing 20mpg, the SL 500 is not seen as a profligate gas-guzzler, nor does it come across as a gratuitously ostentatious status symbol. Let's make it clear: this car, restyled in early 2008 to closer resemble the 1954 'Gullwing' original, has class.
