But the old one looked fine, so save yourself a few bob.What’s good about it? It looks great The Coup?as turned heads since it was launched in 1996 Overall, the interior is well finished. The driving experience isn’t bad: it’s not a hardcore racer, but handles well enough Go for the 2.0 engine. There’s a club ( info) and a five-year warranty.What’s bad about it? The lack of an iconic badge. Some people find the handling and the engines underwhelming.How much?£14,500 to £18,500 is the official price range, and Hyundai has been offering a year’s free insurance.
Dealer SG Petch (01325 488886) has a 2004-registered 1.6 at £11,995. Probably better would be a 2.5 V6 with delivery miles at £14,995, a special edition down from £18,795. For me, this is only the second most impressive thing because, due to a combination of sheer terror and the law relating to speed limits, I only got close to sampling a small slice of the performance pie. Despite all the sophisti-cated electronic stability controls you could still quite easily get yourself into a little bit of trouble in this car. A bargain, especially if you asked someone who was handy with a screwdriver to fit it with some of the bodykit addenda from its more expensive siblings.Well, those are the sort of thoughts that go through my mind, and that would explain why I find myself at the wheel of an SL65 AMG for only a few days rather than as an everyday motor. Michael Holick, a professor of dermatology, lost his post at Boston University for saying as much in a book, The UV Advantage, published last year.In the UK, Dr Neil Walker, chairman of the UK Skin Cancer Prevention Working Party, ruffled feathers when he described warnings to avoid the sun entirely as “draconian and unnecessary”.
His view was backed by Professor Brian Wharton, chairman of the British Nutrition Foundation, who said: “We do need some sensible use of the sun and we have been swinging too strongly against it.” Oliver Gillie, author of Sunlight Robbery, which spells out the dangers of insufficient vitamin D, has asked the government and Cancer Research UK to alter the offiical SunSmart message in the UK. They won’t all be tasteful choices, because there are limits to what money can buy. But they won’t be purchased with too close an eye on the list price.Which leaves me to mention the second most impressive thing about an SL65 AMG; the way it goes. For the folk who run these sort of cars don’t have to have those sort of thoughts.They don’t have to think those sort of thoughts because they can afford an SL65 and any other combo of car, house and boat they like without even thinking about thinking about it They don’t have to choose. If they’re into cars, they’ll have a little fleet of indulgences. Plus a few options; keyless-go (£860, fun); Linguatronic voice activation of phone and audio (£310, couldn’t fathom); panoramic vario-glass sunroof (£1,390, very nice) and tyre pressure monitor (£470, handy).
It’s easy to say what the most impressive thing about the Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG is It’s the price tag. The car DaimlerChryslerlent me for a few days of plutocracy by proxy would cost £149,000, on the road, including VAT, delivery, plates and road tax. Even one with a V12 twin-turbocharged, hand-assembled, AMG-tuned engine, developing 612bhp and capable of taking you to more than twice the legal speed limit, with 60 mph coming up in 4 seconds. You might even be thinking that it’s an awful lot of money, especially seeing as, for about £50,000 less, you could buy a SL55 AMG with a V8 engine that gives you almost as much fun. You might be thinking that you could spend the money you’ve saved on an M class 4×4 and a little A class too. Then you’d have a Merc for every occasion.If you’re really into saving cash, you’d be thinking, why not buy an SL350? That’s not much more than £60,000.
Big manufacturers have got better at making cars that share lots of parts feel and look different from one another. The term “small Cadillac” is no longer an oxymoron; perhaps the company has the Cimarron to thank for that, if for nothing else. And the rest of Cadillac’s cars are sharper and more “European” than they were, meaning that the BLS will fit in to the range more easily.. A year or two previously, Chrysler and Ford had learnt much the same lesson with the US and European versions of the Horizon and Escort respectively.The BLS looks a lot more promising than its Cimarron J-car predecessor.
