Fast, Fun Flashy SL550

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Up Front

"Whoa, now that's a beautiful car," was my reaction when I first saw the new Mercedes SL550 sitting in my driveway. It's a gorgeous, speedy two-seater sports car with a distinctive sculpted body and an ingenious retractable hardtop roof. The previous SL-Class Mercedes, the SL500, was a knockout, but the upgraded '07 version is even better-looking, especially in the elegant Aegean blue my test car came in.



DaimlerChrysler (DCX) engineers have given the SL550 much bolder styling than the old version of the car. The front end is more aggressive, with a bigger grill and a lower air dam. From the side, the car has the long, sleek, low-slung look of a classic sports car.



It also has a 382-horsepower V8 that's significantly more powerful than the 302-horsepower V8 in the previous model, and comes standard with Mercedes' smooth new seven-speed automatic transmission.



Of course, this being a Mercedes, you pay a price for all that power and class. The SL550 starts at $95,575, not including a $1,700 gas guzzler tax. The Power Information Network of J.D. Power -- which, like BusinessWeek and BusinessWeek.com, is owned by The McGraw-Hill Cos. (MHP) -- figures the average purchase price of the SL550 is $100,384, far more than competing models such as Ford's (F) Jaguar XK Convertible [$85,077], the BMW 650i [$81,275], the General Motors (GM) Cadillac XLR [$77,866, or close to $100,000 for the faster XLR-V] [see BusinessWeek.com, 6/26/06, "$100,000 Cadillac"] and Chevy Corvette [$55,650], and the Lexus SC 430 [$62,034] from Toyota (TM).



Plus -- and this is the hard part for an average wage-earner to fathom -- the 550 is the entry-level model in Mercedes' SL lineup, the only one that starts at [barely] under a hundred grand. If you really want to spend the big bucks, you can always opt for one of three even-speedier models: the $129,575 SL55 AMG with a supercharged 510-horsepower engine, the SL600 [$132,775] and SL65 AMG [$186,775], both of which have an unearthly powerful 12-cylinder engine that delivers 510 and 603 horsepower, respectively.



No need to get carried away, though. The SL550 is one heck of a car. I like it as well, maybe even better, than the BMW 650i [see BusinessWeek.com, 6/21/06, "Bimmer Winner"], which is one of my all-time favorite cars.



Behind the Wheel

Driving enthusiasts will complain that the SL550 doesn't have the road feel and crisp handling of, say, a Porsche 911. It also isn't available with a manual transmission, which is what most enthusiasts prefer. And it's more than 1,000 lbs. heavier than a Porsche 911 or a Corvette [see BusinessWeek.com, 7/6/06, "The No-Sweat 'Vette"], which makes it feel a bit sluggish by comparison.



But I suspect that the vast majority of buyers will find that the SL550 strikes a very nice balance between comfort and sportiness. The car is very quick, for starters. The 461-cc DOHC 32-valve V-8 packs 382 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 391 lb.-ft. of torque at 2,800. It's rated to jump from zero to sixty in 5.3 seconds. My times ranged between 5.2 and 5.6 seconds, depending on whether the top was up or down, whether the car was in "sport" mode or not, and whether I did the shifting myself or let the car do it for me. That's plenty fast for most people. And the extra weight gives the car a solid, safe feeling at high speeds.



The interior of the car is as beautiful as the exterior. It has the feel of an elegant cockpit, with Mercedes' usual impeccable leather and burl walnut appointments but also well-bolstered, sports car-style seats. As in any sports car, space is tight, but the car's designers have done a marvelous job of using what little there is. Each of the doors has big, handy storage bins with closable tops. There are also storage bins in the fronts of the two seats, as well as behind the seats. The cupholders pop out from the center of the dash on little stalks and are designed to tightly clutch different-size cups.



Numerous thoughtful design touches make the SL550 more comfortable and convenient to drive than most sports cars. For instance, you can start and turn off the engine by pushing a button on the top of the gearshift lever. There are buttons on the seat backs that automatically move the seats forward and back again so you can easily get at the storage space behind the seats.



The navigation system is controlled by numerous intuitive-to-use buttons. As in other Mercedes, the main seat controls are on the doors, where they're easy to see. And, of course, the power seats are almost infinitely adjustable and have an optional massage function for working out the kinks during long drives.



Remarkably, considering that this car has a convertible top, there's also an optional sunroof [a "Panorama roof" in Mercedes parlance]. It costs an extra $1,920, but it's worth considering because it makes the cabin seem roomy and airy when the top is up. There's even a retractable sunshade to keep the cabin from overheating when the sun is beating down.



Luggage space is tight, but adequate for weekend jaunts. That's because the hard top is an engineering marvel that folds back into the top of the trunk [in a mere 16 seconds] while still leaving 7.3 cubic feet of space underneath [luggage space with the top up is 10.2 cubic feet].



Like other Mercedes, the SL550 is jam-packed with safety and performance enhancements. Front, knee, and head/thorax airbags are all standard, as is a popup roll bar. Braking assist [to help with you make emergency stops] and Electronic Stability Control and Traction Control are also standard.



However, you have a lot of discretion in choosing how performance-oriented you want the car to be. During hard driving, you can turn off the stability and traction control, for instance. And you can choose a comfort mode [rather than the sport mode] in which the car takes off in second gear for smooth starts and upshifts earlier, even when you punch the gas.



There's also an "ABC" [for Automatic Body Control] system that makes the suspension tuning sportier, reducing body roll during hard turns and keeping the car from "squatting" during rapid acceleration and "diving" when you slam on the brakes. The system automatically lowers the entire car by a half-inch to hug the road during fast driving, and there's another switch to raise the car up slightly when you're navigating bumpy roads.



As in most sporty cars these days, the automatic transmission has a manual mode that allows you to do the shifting yourself if you prefer. If you let the car do the work itself, the seven-speed automatic shifts quicker at higher rates of speed, smoothing out the car's acceleration when you move into the passing lane.



The SL550 even gets halfway decent gas mileage: It's rated to get 14 mpg in the city and 21 mpg on the highway. In a stretch of 344 miles of largely highway driving, I got 22.1 mpg, one of the few times a test car has done better than the government rating. Fuel efficiency is relatively high partly because the SL550 has a coefficient of drag, a measure of how slippery a car's exterior is, of just 0.29 -- rivaling most Lexus models. [Then again, it goes almost without saying that the SL550 uses expensive premium gas.]



Buy It Or Bag It?

Like other Mercedes, the SL550 costs considerably more than its main rivals. And there are always nagging doubts that quality and reliability aren't quite as high as with, say, a Lexus.



Nearly all the competing models listed above offer better value. If you can live with a two-seater, you can get a Corvette for half the price -- and the new Corvettes are marvelous cars. If you need rear seats, a Porsche 911 costs less, if you don't load it up with options, and comes with small but handy rear seats. If you want luxury plus real back seats, the BMW 650i has them and costs 20 grand less than the SL550.



On the other hand, most shoppers can probably get by without adding tons of pricey options to the SL550. A $3,150 premium package adds ventilation and the massage function to the seats, Xenon headlamps, extra fog lamps, and the push-button starter. For $6,650, you get all that plus parking assist and adaptive cruise control. In addition to the Panorama roof, the main a la carte options are voice control [$500], an automatic trunk closer [$510], and run-flat tires [$210].



In the end, though, buying a car like this isn't a financial decision. What Mercedes does in the SL550 is combine all the best elements of a sports car and a luxury car in one absolutely gorgeous package. This is the kind of car that makes you a minor celebrity when you pull into the gas station. Everyone starts asking about it. In August, Mercedes only sold 713 SL-Class cars of all types in the U.S. It's a niche model, designed for people who want to stand out from the crowd.



So, the bottom line is this: If the high cost of the Mercedes bothers you, buy something else. But if you do go with the SL550, be prepared to flaunt it.



To see more of the SL550, click here.