It’s had a good run.
It was the year 1996 when German luxury marque Mercedes-Benz debuted an amazing new innovation called the ‘folding metal hard-top’ on its new SLK-Class small sports car, effectively giving owners the best of the roadster experience with none of the drawbacks. The SLK went on to be a popular model for the brand and its folding hard-top design was widely imitated by competitors, but in recent years, the SLC (renamed to fall in line with the current naming conventions) have been less warmly received.
And with 8-years on it already and no plans to replace it, the SLC is expected to gracefully bow out of existence, with the SLC Final Edition aptly named to mark the event.
This writer remembers the SLK fondly as it was the more attainable Mercedes-Benz cabriolet to aspire to, and the Sun Yellow that the Final Edition wears is a happy throwback to the original yellow hue that the SLK wore at its debut. The Final Edition also comes in AMG Line trim as standard, so in addition to the yellow paint, you also get sharper front & rear treatments, and 18-inch AMG alloys with a dual-tone contrast finish.
The AMG Line trim also includes sports suspension, dropping the ride height by 10mm, and it also sports larger brakes with branded callipers. If you go for a light colour (yellow, flat-white, or pearl-white), you get contrasting black finishes on the front spoiler, exterior mirrors, door handles and rear diffuser, while there’s a generous helping of ‘SLC Final Edition’ badges throughout.
The interior features Nappa leather upholstery in black & pearl-silver, as well as contrasting ‘Alpaca grey’ stitching & seatbelts. There’s also carbon-fibre-esque leather on the headrests, seat backs (who will ever see those), steering wheel and gear shifter. There are also bright aluminium trim panels, sports seats, a D-shaped performance steering wheel, and badged floor mats. Oh, there’s also the neck-level AirScarf warmers. Obviously.
The SLC Final Edition is available as a 180, 200, and 300 in various markets, though the highlight of the range is the AMG SLC43. So specified, the SLC Final Edition will be motivated by a 290kW twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 motor, and it’ll gain (more) gloss black exterior highlights, matte-black alloy wheels with a yellow line around the edge, and an AMG Performance steering wheel.
It’s certainly the end of an era for the compact Mercedes drop-top, but with sales in this part of the market falling off a cliff and major resources demanded for the advancement of zero-emissions products, it’s understandable how Stuttgart arrived at the decision to pull the plug. Guess we’ll all have to buy Audi TTs now, then. Oh hang on…
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