MotorMouths

Mercedes has managed to improve the SL’s comfort, its dynamics, its safety and its performance, while also increasing its efficiency. This really is grand touring at its best.

With the 2013 SL, we’re back to added muscles, broader shoulders and a more forceful face. Needless to say, the SL is comfortable with the top up, but the surprise is how cozy it is with the top down.

The Mercedes-Benz SL has come to represent style and luxury. The 2013 edition continues in that fine tradition, with excellent performance and a first-class interior. If you’re a big shot and want to show it, the SL is a fine choice that’s impeccably finished and delightful to drive.

The SL550 earns its price tag. Top down on a sunny day, it feels like a rich man’s Miata: top up, carving through stop-and-go traffic, it’s as luxurious as an S-class. Add in superior build quality and a hewn-from-a-block solidity, and it remains the gold standard in this class.

Extravagant in performance, appointments and price, the 2012 Mercedes-Benz SL-Class is a worthy icon, even if it’s aging and about to be redesigned.

It’s hard to find fault with a solidly built, comprehensively equipped luxury convertible such as the SL. With plenty of space inside, the car provides a welcome sense of privilege along with a palpable impression of mechanical sophistication.

The 2012 SL Class is still every bit as lovely and talented as when it made its debut almost a decade ago. Yes, the SL has a timeless design that will likely ensure it turns heads even well into the next model’s run.

A sports car it most certainly is not, but if you need to cover huge amounts of ground quickly, comfortably, safely, and in grand style, the SL remains a remarkably comfortable and capable, if not rewarding, grand tourer in a class of one.

Fast, elegant, swimming in technical comforts and refinements, the SL is a world-class piece of machinery. It would be nice if the outside reflected the soulful beauties inside.