It is surprising as you say, plus when it does its party trick of wriggling and squiggling down the road you think to yourself 'will this car kill me on the first wet day going around a tight A road bend faster than you should?' I was pleasantly surprised, my last car a Boxster S was so composed around bends like a scalpel whereas the SL 63 is an executioners axe but a bloody sharp one nonetheless. I still really like the car which I've named George because it drinks so much, I still can't quite get out of the hooligan stage with it though so 13 MPG seems to always be on the computer. What are you replacing yours with?