Now I visit my local Mercedes agent fairly frequently, and when the service manager sees me, his face takes on that defensive 'what now' look. It is my fault, for I chew his ear off and won't let him escape easily my victimization. Poor man. My problem is a rather special vehicle. Yes, yes, I hear you thinking, everyone heralds their car as something differently noteworthy.

But mine may well make the exclusive club. Its left hand drive, for starters. A 1985 280SL. Now am lead to believe that it may be an AMG. But Wiki will have none of such pretentions. Yet the car has lowered suspension, some seriously wide wheels and mags with which it came when it crawled off the ship some 23 years back, and a deepened front spoiler. A spoiler I have yet to see on another example, and which alters the face into something quite sinsiter. She becomes a Lucrecia Borgia of the automotive world and  wouldn't look out of  place as the star in Quentin Tarantino's 'Deathproof'. 

And of course, like any Courtesan, she's troublesome and demands her diamonds and pearls.  That's why the servive manager rolls his eyes upon her entrance. He has to call in a long retired mechanic to attend for the young crop have no idea. And you really do need to have some idea with this one.  

But let's get to the minute. I often have time to cast around the dealer forecourt. And three things do I notice:

 1/ The face-lift applied to the C class is spot on. The headlight treatment gives it more purpose, the previously slightly 'Aunty Vera' rear lamp cluster has been to Audi lectures. Lectures the BMW's 3 series has been attending for some time already. 

2/ The E class, studied at close range compared with the new BMW 5 series stood outside, is daintier than the 5 yet still purposeful. The cabin is certainly  more airy and less of a cave, and the external proportions make it look smaller than it is against the 5 series which gives off the exact opposite.      

3/ Oh dear. The SLK is again pretending to be what it isn't. No longer beholden to the now gone SLR, it's decided to 'pilot fish' tag onto the SLS. I speak here of that front end, not the tail which is plenty sorted. In the metal, the nose looks like, well, a nose cone grafted on, particularly from the side.

Call me a pariah, for I surely know I will be drowned out, particularly by the likely 60 to 70 % female buyers of the SLK. Still, here I am, awaiting those arrows. Mr Service Manager certainly doesn't  agree with me.