Mercedes revamped the long-running SL roadster for 2022, with the R232 SL-Class perhaps embodying the model’s biggest transformation in the nameplate’s seven generations. Now sold under the Mercedes-AMG brand heading rather than its traditional Mercedes-Benz lineage, with this comes a deviation in the core of its existence in that the SL was co-developed to live on a shared platform with the confusingly-named, more hardcoe Mercedes-AMG GT. So is this new, more serious SL any good, with its extra weight, complexity, and, for the first time in decades, two extra seats on board? Our test car arrived with a sticker price of $209,535, so it had a lot of impressing to do.

A quick foreward: It’s worth noting that there’s an “entry” four-cylinder, hybridized SL available at around $110k and a mid-trim SL 55 at around $143k, but the $184k base price SL 63 gets all of the attention and rightfully so, so that’s what we’re focusing on here.

The SL has historically been, at least in road-going passenger car guise and race versions notwithstanding, a cruiser best suited to leisurely drives, short blasts of rapid acceleration, and under-stressed roof-down jaunts from place to place. It seems as if the dials were all turned a bit at Mercedes for the R232, this time throwing AMG-levels of power at it (577 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque, the same numbers as the hardtop AMG GT) as standard and what appears to be an attempt to make it not better to drive and not more comfortable, but faster and more aggressive at the expense of road compliance.

It’s not like the SL has ever been a lightweight, with prior generations carrying around 3,700-4,000 pounds of mass, but the R232 has ballooned to 4,300 pounds thanks to the extra driven wheels and all of the added tech on board. Sure, this makes it a truly year-round capable car for cold climates like an AWD Porsche 911 claims to be, but at what cost?

At the cost of its grand touring nature, that’s what. In an effort to be all things to all buyers, the SL now has to try harder than ever to straddle the line of being both a GT car and a performance-focused open-top sports car. The 9-speed gearbox does an admirable job of being capable of both, but even the car’s rear steer, active ride control suspension, can’t help mask its weight. Some of that weight is noticeable when putting around town, some more when you’re pushing the car. It feels insulated, which is good, but it also means it doesn’t feel as fast as it is. Maybe that’s what SL buyers want; if they desired hair-on-fire thrills above all else, they wouldn’t be shopping for this car.

The SL 63 experience is unquestionably better with the top down. The Airscarf works brilliantly even on a hot day, and though you can’t hear much of the exhaust with the roof stowed, it’s roofless that the SL is meant to be experienced. Having the open world and air around you at least takes away some of the pain of the impacts that the 21” ($3,300 option) wheels send through the cabin with the roof up, and with the roof down you don’t hear the point where it meets the A-pillars creaking and rattling as it likes to do over bigger bumps.

All of this could be forgiven if there was something remarkable about the SL, something that makes it deeply appealing in its class. But the 911 still exists, the AMG GT doesn’t have the roof-related fumbles, and even the Lexus LC500 convertible is a more appealing package. If you need a Merc convertible with a stonkin’ big V8 and all the glitz and glamor you can slap on it (at least until the Maybach version arrives), this is your car; if not, maybe shop around before settling on the SL 63 AMG Roadster.

Maybe my feelings towards the SL are such because I spent a week with it immediately after a week with the shockingly-good BMW Z4 M40i which drives better and costs a third of the price. Buyers will likely never cross-shop the two, yet it shows just how laterally the SL has moved while other cars have improved drastically.

Rant time, in which I inevitably sound old: Maybe it’s that the ubiquitousness of screens and screen-based functionality has drawn luxury cars in closer to their less luxurious counterparts. Screens have simply become so common that they’re nothing special in almost every case, and that the SL’s interior is dominated by screens makes it anything but unique. Maybe in 2015 this would have been a showstopper, but today it’s just another way in which design has stepped aside in the sake of tech. The SL needs to return to its roots; let’s see more actual metal and wood, or at least an interior that doesn’t feel like you’re staring at a computer any time you want to change the radio, control the roof, adjust the HVAC, or so on. True luxury would have you interacting with things that don’t feel the same as those you interact with in a $30k vehicle. Rant over.

In the end, the Mercedes-Benz SL-Class has always been a car that has presented as if it will age well, but that’s not the case with this new R232 car. It’s too tech-heavy, too reliant on its platform-mate, and too compromised to be the honest grand tourer it desires to be. This car very much feels like an AMG GT convertible, not a true SL, which is a shame. If nothing else, we can say the SL 63 AMG Roadster is an enormously pretty car that makes a great noise and has a presence, especially in a spec like our test car, among any company short of an exotic. Seriously, I could stare at it for hours on end, but that’s not all a car is about, but drive it in the snow and you’ll be a hero, regardless of how it is behind the wheel.

Yay

• Simply stunning, especially in the Hyper Blue Metallic MANUFAKTUR paint seen here
• Tons of power and torque at any rev range in any gear
• AWD makes it usable year-round in climates with winter weather

Nay

• Overly screen-reliant
• Overly stiff for a grand tourer
• Pricing is reaching for the sky when it should be more grounded

The Takeaway

Tasked for the first time with sharing a platform, the 2024 SL AMG 63 is a treat to look at yet under-delivers on the promises made by SLs of past and the model’s long-storied nameplate.