The Mercedes-AMG SL Is Everything We Love (and Hate) About Modern Cars

The Mercedes-AMG SL has been given too many jobs. It is the successor to the SL line, of course; that already means it is a follow-up to both the McLaren F1 of the 1950s and a long line of grand tourers that followed. It is also the replacement for the magnificent, dearly departed AMG GT roadster, a very different front-engined sports car that was built from the ground up for performance. With no S Class cabriolet coming this generation, it also serves as the brand's apex luxury convertible. Given that it is being asked to serve as a grand tourer, a front-engine performance car, and a luxury car for three separate sets of returning buyers, it is obvious that the SL will not better its predecessors at every possible job. What is so amazing about the car is how close it comes.

As the name suggests, the problem was handed over to the company's AMG performance division for a ground-up solution. It would be the company's fourth ground-up effort, after the limited-but-beloved SLS AMG supercar, the 911-fighting GT, and the inexplicably unrelated GT four-door. As that choice suggests, the resulting car is performance-oriented and far more aggressive than the SL it replaces.

Faced with the challenge of replacing both a brand’s performance and luxury cars with just one successor, AMG's solution is to throw every single modern car industry trick at the problem. Despite its name, the AMG GT was too harsh on normal roads for the average SL buyer; the GT buyer would in turn find the SL too soft to keep up with their desire for responsive performance. An AMG Active Ride Control suspension (standard on SL 63s, but optional on the less-powerful SL 55) solves that problem, both providing on-road comfort wanted by one group and accommodating the performance desires of the other with hydraulic anti-roll stabilization.

It is just one of many trendy choices made on the car. Not only is it the first all-wheel-drive SL, the AMG Performance 4Matic+ system features aggressive torque vectoring. The power being sent to the wheels comes from a turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 that will be familiar to almost every AMG owner of the past generation, an engine that was an early player in the push to replace displacement.

The interior is also defined by modern trends. No matter how badly you might want to, you cannot ignore the screen. All of the many luxuries in the SL's glorious cabin are controlled by a beautiful but terrifyingly unintuitive MBUX infotainment system split over a glass dashboard and a huge portrait-orientation tablet in front of the center console. Climate controls on a touchscreen will not be new to most buyers, but a convertible top accessed through a menu and operated by sliding a tab that looks like the early iPhone unlock screen will be. There will be times when you urgently need a feature and cannot find it on either of the two performance mode control knobs or any of the four densely-packed spokes of capacitive buttons on the steering wheel; when that happens, you will be resigned to asking the voice control system to open the right menu until you learn every corner of the interface.

This is a shame, because the SL excels in creature comforts. The interior is masterful, perfectly aligned for a comfortable driving experience and appointed with materials that just feel impressive. Noise is impressively quieted with the soft top up, the company's tradition of exceptional seat design continues with two massaging seats that look good standing still, and, in this SL 63's pleasant Sienna Brown and black two-tone, accents like the textures on the speaker jump out under sunlight. At night, they blend in well with the modern standard of just a-little-too-much ambient lighting.

That means a driver and one passenger will be in absolute comfort with the top up in any condition. I spent most of my week with the SL 63 experiencing hard rain during an unusually stormy week in San Diego. I decided to take the grand tourer on a grand tour. It was sunny in the desert, so I chose to head to Palm Springs for an overnight stay in town and a day on its most famous (and always dry) roads.

In 48 degrees and light rain, the first hour of driving was unremarkable. That changed quickly when I reached Anza. That, as it turns out, was the lone point on the route where the rain turned to snow. That light dusting had cleared off, but cold roads and a native Californian's inexperience with ice meant I was all too happy to turn on the car's low grip performance setting, slow my pace, and finally turn on a heater. Those few miles were a highlight, a chance to see California’s high deserts in the rarest of conditions with no concern about the road beneath.

But Anza comes just before the descent into the Coachella Valley on Highway 74, the stretch of road that brought me here. The storm had crashed along the top of the mountains, and the valley below remained completely dry and relatively warm. That meant it was time to put the roof back down. Here, the car's grand touring capabilities shine: The specific combination of such a wonderful cabin (now heated by the brand's Air Scarf neck warming system) and such a responsive car made for a blissful final few miles of driving, a great reminder of why cars like this exist in the first place.