Mercedes-Benz CLK Cabriolet spied
October 28, 2008 by George Skentzos
While at first this may appear to be the new CLK Coupe, a second glance reveals this latest prototype from Mercedes boasts a folding hard top roof.
While the camouflage for the most part disguises the roofline, a joint between the windshield and roof clearly indicates this is the next-generation CLK Cabriolet.
Other subtle revisions support this inference such as the heavily disguised C-pillar and longer boot lid.
The new CLK twins will be based on the current C-Class saloon, with predictable revisions to the chassis in order to meet its performance expectations.
The engine line-up will be largely carried over from the C-Class range, including a V8 power plant for the CLK 500.
The CLK Coupe version is expected to arrive in Europe by summer 2009, with the Cabriolet version following a few months later.
Print it: 
it’s gonna be a hardtop! nooo!
one of the things i love about the current model is the fabric roof!
I have read other articles and they said that this is going to be re-named the E-Class coupe and that they were scraping the CLK name and in the future mercedes is going to make a proper C-class coupe to rival the 3-series.
Also i thought that mercedes said they were going to have a soft top CLK/E-class coupe. I have a feeling that this is a soft top, but in the picture it is just a removable hard top like the 1989-2001 SL (they have just disguised it as a folding hard top by putting lines across the top). Because if you look closely at the 3rd picture the boot doesnt quite go to the bottom of the rear window so the area between the huge crack and the window must be where the soft top is stored.
Yeah i was right, mercedes did say they were going to have a soft top rather than move to a hard top as there was some customer research conducted which showed that buyers of the CLK-cabriolet would less likely park their cars on the street than midsized coupe or sedan drivers and that they prefer the extra cabin and luggage space which a soft top would provide rather than the extra security of a hard top. It was on carpoint.
Is today Germany’s Spy Pic release day or something? I haven’t seen this many spy pics in the last 3 months, let alone in one day.
Jase, you have photographic proof that it will be hard top. A fake hard top would defeat the purpose of prototype testing, especially so close to its release. Maybe its time to realise that not everything you read on other sites is true.
it wont be a fake hard topits a removable one, so you can have both soft or hard like on the 90’s SL. Look at the lines on the roof, they dont continue to the arch of the window
Ah now I get it, actually does make sense…
I dont want a hardtop so I’m quite glad that the Audi A5 Cabriolet is going to have a fabric roof. I think that the Hardtop-Convertibles will go eventually, I hope so anyway. Roadsters perform better without them, Convertibles look better without them and they add an awful lot of weight. It’s safe to say I dont like them.
In the economic maelstrom we’re heading into, it’s yet another irrelevance, so who’s going to care whether it’s a hard or soft top?
Look out Captain Mainwaring, you’ll get shot down by Alex for wondering what the relevance is of such cars. Apparently he can afford them in spades and doesn’t appreciate others yearning for a nice releatively affordable car.
Maybe I’ll just have to shrink my privates and buy one of these puppies just to prove how big I am to everyone :-)