Considering it’s a car with a 5.5-litre V8 engine, Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG running costs could be a lot worse than they are. Sure, they’re not what you’d call cheap, but thanks to fuel-saving tech such as stop/start, cylinder management and brake energy regeneration they’re considerably lower than the previous version of the car.

With a claimed average fuel economy of 33.6mpg you can expect a range of up to 584 miles per tank of fuel. We saw closer to 25mpg over mixed driving, with means a range of around 435 miles between trips to the petrol station.

With CO2 emissions of 195g/km, road tax isn’t cheap but it’s not ruinous either.

Insurance group 47A means that aspect of the car’s running costs is going to be pretty expensive.

In terms of CO2, Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG emissions are quite competitive considering its performance credentials at 195g/km. That’s thanks to a whole host of efficiency boosting features such as the car’s ability to shut down four of its eight cylinders when not required. It also has a quick stop/start system and a set-up which harvests energy when you brake in a similar way to the KERS technology used in Formula 1 cars.

We don’t expect you’ll have many problems with Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG reliability. The car uses many tried and tested parts and the previous model didn’t suffer any major recalls. The normal SLK is also very reliable.