Canada has a big birthday coming up on July 1, when we turn 150 years old. That’s a great excuse for a road trip! It’s even better when it includes driving Mercedes-Benz’s lineup of convertible cars and visiting the capitals of all 10 Canadian provinces. We only had six days to do it, so we flew across large areas of this huge country, but along the way, we drove everything from a tiny Smart Cabrio to this SL 550 and a $170,000 S 550 Cabriolet.
By Mark Richardson
All Mercedes convertibles sold in Canada include heated seats as standard, but there are many other optional features to help expand the topless season: a heated steering wheel, an AirScarf that blows hot air from beneath the headrest onto the back of your neck, and an AirCap system that raises a screen behind the passengers and a flap above the windshield, to keep cold air out of the cabin.
We started in St. John’s, Newfoundland. There aren’t many convertibles on The Rock because the summer is usually short and unpredictable, but we drove around the block in a C300 Cabriolet, just to say we did.
The temperature was at freezing and there was snow in the wind in Newfoundland. We turned on the AirScarf for the brief drive in town, then went off to get screeched-in at a local pub. The next morning, we flew to Nova Scotia, hoping the weather would improve.
In Halifax, we collected a sporty SLC 300 roadster and headed north. It was a lot warmer than Newfoundland, but we still needed to wind up the windows to keep most of the cold wind out.
We drove to the ferry at Pictou, stopping along the way to dip the wheels into the Atlantic Ocean at the harbour. The SLC is rear-wheel drive so I dipped the front wheels into the water. Capable as the car might be, there was no way I wanted to put the rear driving wheels on the slippery underwater surface of the boat ramp.
There were four cars available for us to swap around, all of them convertibles, and we arranged the various swaps while we waited for the ferry to take us over to Prince Edward Island.
On Prince Edward Island, on the Victoria Day long weekend, the potato fields were just starting to be prepared for planting.
We swapped in Charlottetown for a larger and more powerful C43 AMG, then drove up to Confederation Bridge to cross over to New Brunswick. The bridge is PEI’s only physical connection to the rest of Canada and it’s a marvel to experience.
The route past Moncton and through New Brunswick was a bit monotonous, with forest on each side and fences on the edge of the highway to keep moose off the road. We branched south through Sussex to the Bay of Fundy at Saint Martins, which was a quick and curvy drive past well-kept farms.
The next day, we flew from Fredericton to Ottawa, where the temperature was finally hot enough to turn off the added heat. We drove an SL550 this time and headed east beside the Ottawa River and over into Quebec at Hawkesbury.
Sadly, the power of the SL was wasted in the traffic around Montreal, and we changed over to a little Smart car. This is one of the least expensive convertibles available in Canada. We took it off the main highway to avoid the traffic and found a lovely covered bridge that reminded us of New Brunswick.
We returned the Smart car to the dealership in Quebec City and flew the greatest distance of the trip, west to Toronto and then northwest to Winnipeg, avoiding the long drive through northwest Ontario. This misses the beautiful northern shoreline of Lake Superior, but there just wasn’t time to experience it. Next time.
In Winnipeg, home of the new Museum of Human Rights, we claimed the most expensive car of the journey, the S 550 Cabriolet. It was spacious and luxurious, and even its leather armrests were heated, but we set the seats to cool from the Manitoba sun. Fans suck the hot air away from the leather for eight minutes before they start blowing refrigerated air through the seat.
Those seats even have massage functions, which were welcome on the long, straight drive across the prairie. The Manitoba and Saskatchewan sky was huge, and it was wonderful to open up the roof to it.
The Canadian prairie is most impressive seen from a convertible. The horizon is a very long way away – in Saskatchewan, they say that if your dog runs off, you can watch it running for three days.
To stay on schedule, we flew from Regina to Calgary, saving eight hours on the highway, and then claimed an AMG SLC 43 to drive into the mountains at Canmore. The weather closed in and we finally put up the hard roof; at one point, there was hail coming from the clouds and making the highway slippery.
The storm didn’t last long, and the sun came out above the Three Sisters mountains, giving us a taste of the Rockies.
Our route didn’t have time for the full day’s drive west to the ocean through the mountains, so we turned back north and headed up through Alberta oil country and ranchland to Edmonton. The storms came back and threw down more rain, but they never lasted long and the sun quickly steamed the water from the road.
A final flight over the Rockies and we landed in Vancouver and then drove to the ferry for the Island. This time, we were in the most powerful Mercedes of the journey – a 505-hp AMG C 63.
Again, though, the extra power of the AMG was wasted in the traffic on Vancouver Island. Cars were stop-and-go in construction on the road over the Malahat Summit. The road west to Sooke was less busy though, and the big Benz swung through the curves with the agility of a much smaller car.
There was no chance of rain here on the west coast, and the convertible let us appreciate the tall trees and the salty smell of the air next to the ocean.
We dipped the wheels of the C 63 into the Pacific Ocean at a boat ramp near Sooke. It just seemed the right thing to do, but there was a final place to visit before the cross-Canada road trip could end …
In Victoria, at a park near the ocean, is the official western end of the Trans-Canada Highway. It stretches 7,700 kilometres across the country, from our start in St. John’s to our end here in B.C.’s capital. We only drove a portion of it this time, but it was enough to want to drive more.
Of course, it helps when you’re driving a comfortable and capable convertible, too, to make the most of a Canadian summer.
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