Sporty, elegant and stylish, the Mercedes-Benz SL has a lot of appeal. Then again, there are hardly any shrinking violets in this sector. Rivals include the Porsche 911 Cabriolet, the BMW 6 Series Convertible and the Jaguar XK Convertible. So what to do? In a bid to keep the pressure on, Mercedes-Benz has put the SL on a diet. Every version has shed up to 140kgs, and now comes with a new range of cleaner and more powerful BlueDIRECT engines featuring stop/start technology to make life more uncomfortable for rivals.

Now largely made of aluminium, the car is lighter than the previous generation and feels more agile as a result. That weight loss has also made the car more efficient and it emits less CO2 than the older models. In terms of handling the SL is still second-best when compared to the Porsche 911, but it is a dramatic improvement over the previous car.