It's the end of the line for the Mercedes-Benz SLC, with the Final Edition being the swan song model. So will we miss it, or its exit well timed? Colin Goodwin finds out.

Twenty-three years ago I was in Wales with the then new Porsche Boxster and the equally new Mercedes-Benz SLK, putting the two newcomers against each other for a test in Autocar magazine. I don’t need to pull out an old copy of the magazine to check on the winner because the Porsche won. As it subsequently always did in shoot-outs against the SLK. The Porsche a proper sports car against Merc’s boulevardier. That didn’t stop the compact Merc roadster from selling in the tens of thousands; including three of them to my wife. She wasn’t over bothered by the SLK’s lack of sportiness compared with the Boxster; she loved her cars for their magical folding hard top roof, their compact dimensions and because they were so practical to live with.

Sadly, the bright yellow car that we have here is the last of the line. The SLC (Mercedes changed its name from SLK to SLC in 2016) is going out of production and I doubt we’ll ever see a replacement. Fittingly, our test car is called the Final Edition. There are badges on the bodywork to tell you that it is such and ‘SLC Final Edition’ embroidered onto the seat headrests. The colour is significant, too, for it’s the same yellow that was the launch colour for the  SLK in 1997. My wife has already shed a tear looking at it.

Mercedes-Benz hasn’t said how many Final Editions it has available but it’s not a limited edition so presumably there will be enough to go around. Our test car is a SLC 300 but the Final Edition is also available as a SLC 200 or more excitingly, as a Mercedes-AMG SLC 43. The first two are powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine producing 184bhp in the SLC 200 and 245bhp in our test car. The SLC 43 has a 3.0-litre V6 with 390bhp. Money? The SLK/SLC has always been keenly priced and our test car at £46,161 is not unreasonable. That’s cash price, the leasing deals that have been available for the SLC have often been amazing value: under £300 per month in some years. Deals that Porsche couldn’t get near with its Boxster.

So this is a nostalgic road test, saying goodbye to an old friend. I never did change my verdict on the original SLK and have always preferred the Boxster. But then what a critic says when his or her money isn’t being spent can be quite different to when it comes to handing over real money.

Our two SLKs and one SLC were all 200s. The version that raised my interest level was the AMG SLK 55 and I made several unsuccessful attempts to persuade my wife to upgrade to one of these. Again, the 55 wasn’t a particulary brilliant sports car but it had the appeal of a 5.4-litre naturally aspirated V8 engine. Small car, big engine: just my sort of car. I think they’ll become a sought after classic one day. But back to our test car.

Mercedes calls this yellow Sun Yellow and it looks terrific if a bit loud. It’s a colour that works well with the gloss black mirror caps and door handles that come standard on the Final Edition. Also standard in the Final Hurrah (which is what I’d have named it) is black and silver pearl leather and light carbon grain aluminium trim. The folding hard top roof, which on all of our cars never leaked a drop and was so well insulated that even on a motorway the car had no more interior noise than a coupe, can now be activated at speeds of up to 25mph. Very handy when you’ve made an ill-judged roof decision at traffic lights.

Not surprisingly, Mercedes knowing that the SLC was for the chop, hasn’t thrown all its latest technology at the car. Which in practice means that it still has the company’s fantastically usable and non-distracting early Command system featuring a proper rotary dial. So much safer and easier to use than the touchpads that have replaced it in almost all current Mercs.

How fortunate to have a roadster delivered on a September day on which 29 degrees has come up on the SLC’s outside temperature gauge with more sun to come for the rest of the week. The SLC 300 provides the perfect balance of power and economy. The four-cylinder engine doesn’t sound as good as the V6 in the SLC 43, let alone the old V8, but it’s a far cry from the coarse sounding motor that was fitted to the first entry-level SLKs (the car didn’t get the option of a V6 engine until the SLK 320 was launched in 2000). When the SLC was last facelifted it also acquired Merc’s excellent nine-speed automatic gearbox that’s smooth and always in the right ratio. If you want to tap into the 300’s perfectly respectable performance (0-62mph in 5.8sec and a top speed of 155mph certainly qualifies it as a sports car) then pressing the M for Manual button next to the gearlever and then using the steering wheel paddles is the way to go.

Mercedes-Benz will have killed the SLC because demand for cars like these has dropped over recent years. BMW has only built a new generation of its Z4 roadster (a direct rival to the SLC) because that car is joint project with Toyota. Mercedes, with no similar arrangement in place, is letting the SLC go. There is at least one black armband being worn in this household.

Model tested: Mercedes-Benz SLC 300 Final Edition

Price: £46,161

Engine: 2.0-litre four cylinder petrol 

Power: 245bhp 

0-62mph: 5.8 seconds

Max speed: 155mph

Mpg: 37.2-35.3mpg

Co2: 178g/km

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