Interesting comments chaps and nice to have a virtual chat again
Funnily enough we did start out by looking at an older Merc 350 SL (a lovely example that's still for sale at the Bristol M-B agents, silver with red leather interior, and 16k miles) but it was just too big, both for SWMBO to feel confident driving it and to fit in our rather small garage space. We also looked at Z4s, but the boot was even smaller than the SLK and it's also a larger car, again making it very tight fit in the garage for SWMBO.
During the test drives phase I also tried a SLK350 with the V6 petrol motor, I didn't manage to get to 12mpg Asbo, I just mustn't have a heavy enough right foot
In truth, I/we expected the 350 to be the version of choice, but the 250 Cdi has just so much torque that it seemed effortless to drive by comparison. The twin Lanchester balance shafts keep things pretty smooth and the twin turbo set up means there is no apparent lag or sudden peak of torque. So, when combined with the lower running costs, the Cdi won the day. Nonetheless, you do have to watch the tail end on a damp or greasy surface. It's all too easy to break traction with 500Nm on tap at very low RPM
