Benz SL now grander

Mercedes-Benz has achieved an important milestone Down Under. Despite starting prices in the stratosphere, local deliveries of the German marque's current SL range of two-door two-passenger roadsters has topped the 1000 mark. Or to put it in other words, more than $200m worth of current shape SLs have found homes in Australia.

The current model SL-Class arrived in Australia mid-way through 2002. According to Mercedes, 2005 saw 189 delivered placing it well ahead of other soft-tops such as Porsche 911 Cabriolet (132 units), BMW 6 series convertible (47 units), Ferrari convertibles (41 units), Jaguar XK8 convertible (13 units), Maserati Spyder (seven units) and Aston Martin Convertible (six units).

The most popular engine variant is the V8-powered SL 500, which is priced from $299,900 and accounts for 43.5 per cent of SL-Class sales.

Last year also marked 50 years since the first standard production example of a roadster from Mercedes-Benz rolled off the production line in Stuttgart -- the 190 SL.

In other two-door Benz news, the 1000th Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren has rolled off the production line at the McLaren Technology Centre in the UK.

The car, which was launched at the Frankfurt motorshow in 2003 brought McLaren and Mercedes-Benz together to create a front-engined luxury supercar.