Mercedes SLK250 CDI: a subtle knife?
Turns out the quieter the car the faster you may be able to go...
The mention of the Porsche Boxster in the entry below has reminded me that I haven’t yet clarified the statement at the end of the previous blog I wrote about it. When I said that my girlfriend hated it, I may have been over-exaggerating slightly.
But of the two, she still preferred passengering in the diesel-powered Mercedes SLK250 CDI…
Which I found pretty interesting, since from the driver’s seat the Porsche seemed to have everything going for it – including better ride quality. Going directly from the Boxster to the SLK, for a little while I was stunned that the two were even supposed to competing for the same ground, the Benz being so comparatively inert.
But Mercedes knows its target audience. This is fuss free performance – the SLK goes where you point it, has plenty of poke and a fancy roof. It also makes a remarkable amount of use out of each gallon of fuel. The interior feels rock solid, and of course it has the added bonus of the Airscarf. Jen will barely travel anywhere top down without this now.
Yet even more significant is the noise – or rather the absence of it. The Boxster is a loud “angry sounding” car, as Jen put it, and this is enough to make her feel unsafe. The SLK by contrast, though sounding like a van at idle (it’s not the most inobvious Mercedes diesel implementation, that’s for sure…), is quiet at speed.
And with the roof stowed you’ll barely hear the muted growl it makes under acceleration due to the rush of wind round the windscreen, whereas the Boxster delights in shrieks and howls. Including those of its passenger.
The practical upshot – ugh, and there’s a phrase one of my university tutors always hated, c’est la vie – of this is that I could cover ground almost as quickly in the Mercedes as I could in the Porsche, only without getting any disapproving looks.
Which may or may not prove to be useful intelligence for some of you…
Richard AucockSo committed to car journalism he is Guild Chairman of the Guild of Motoring Writers. He has been writing about cars since he was 15 and is living the dream.
CJ HubbardCJ is thoroughly enjoying fulfilling the ambition he's always had to become a motoring writer. Don't ask him about working in retail, though, or he may start to twitch...
Ian DicksonIan is the senior editor on MSN Cars, a job that involves planning, writing and editing content and generally keeping the site ticking over day-to-day.
