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LETTER OF THE WEEK
WRITE TO autocar@haymarket.com
Convertible conundrum
I’ve run a convertible car for more than 10 years now. Three Jaguar XKRs, the last being an XKR-S that I hung onto for nearly six years in the hope of a successor coming out. When it finally dawned on me that Jaguar would not produce anything suitable, I was forced to look around and found the Mercedes-AMG S63 fitted the bill: it had a reasonable boot and my golf bag went on the back seats.
What a car in many ways. It had a superb V8 and the AMG Speedshift gearbox was great once it warmed up. The seats were most comfortable and functional, although the control layout’s ergonomics were surprisingly poor.
After two years, I decided it was time to upgrade ahead of the warranty running out. But when I saw the new S-Class announcement, there it was in black and white: no convertible. I started to look for a late dealer car with the V8 and auto ’box, but they were as rare as hen’s teeth and selling faster than I could get to them. The Mercedes E-Class and Audi A5 were too small, so the only option was the Bentley Continental GT Convertible.
I went to have a look and was smitten. It’s a decent size and, as Andrew Frankel said (‘Southern comfort’, 17 November), superb. I couldn’t resist the W12 engine, despite its lack of character. It’s quick, but not in the exciting way the S63 or XKRs were. The seats aren’t quite as good as the AMG’s, but everything you touch or look at has an intrinsic pleasure. I never intended to spend that much on a car, but being a Bentley driver might grow on me.