While the interior is standard Mercedes – comfortable, efficient and conservatively styled, it lacks the special feel you’d expect in a high performance car. Apart from some AMG badging and unique dials it’s not much different. The wing mirrors are quite small and on both coupe and convertible versions the roof line further compromises rear visibility – the optional parking sensors are recommended.

The steering wheel features paddles for manually controlling the gear changes, but in practice, the automatic gearbox’s comfort and sport shift-modes rarely need any assistance.

As with other CLKs there’s just about enough space for four adults, although those in the back don’t get much room for their legs and very few rear passengers will get in or out with any sort of elegance. Even the convertible is very well insulated from road and wind noise (roof up), but the AMG adds V8 thunder under hard acceleration and the sportier suspension set-up means lumps and bumps are more noticeable.

When driven smoothly it delivers a ride that remains comfortable in most situations.