Generally speaking, when an automaker builds a sports coupe that's based on a front-wheel drive mid-size sedan chassis, the outcome tends to be pretty uninspiring. Softly sprung and almost always equipped with an automatic transmission, these so-called sports coupes are usually little more than pretty commuter cars with very little real performance bred into them. And that's pretty much what I was expecting out of the Altima Coupe 3.5 SR, especially when I noticed the CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) badge on the trunk lid. But much to my surprise, the engineers at Nissan have injected some real sportiness into the 3.5 SR Coupe.

We're crawling, absolutely crawling on a stretch of highway just North of San Diego. This might be expected in Southern California during rush-hour, or any other time of day here for that matter, but the road is free of traffic. What we're trying to do is win Hyundai's Fuel Economy Challenge – an event organized as a part of the launch of the all-new 2011 Sonata.

To be brutally honest, I had no intention of liking the SLK55. Sure the standard versions of the car are ok... if you're a girl, but this is a pricey piece of machinery and goodness knows most folks can't tell the difference between a $45,000 Hello Kitty-cute convertible and this over $65,000 AMG version. At least Mercedes has beefed up the look of the car over the years since the second-generation model first debuted back in 2004.

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