Relax, it’s just a rendering.

Mercedes isn’t going to give any of its SUV models a haircut anytime soon (we’ll overlook the megadollar Maybach G 650 Landaulet, given there was more custom engineering in that one than an entire season of Pimp My Ride), so the Mercedes GLC Cabriolet we’ve concocted here is likely the closest thing you’ll see to one. Ever.

There are a few good reasons for that.

For one, Benz’s exterior design director Robert Lesnik has a personal dislike of convertibles. For him tin-top cars express greater purity of design, unspoiled by the unique packaging needs of modern convertibles. For another, he reckons the market for convertible soft-roaders is incredibly limited.

“To sell 500 cars or whatever?”

“If it’s easy to do, then why not, you could have nothing to lose. But to do a whole car for it – for an idea that nobody really asked for – well there’s a reason there’s only one car on the market,” he said, referring to Range Rover’s ragtop Evoque.

“It’s very easy to do a convertible out of a two-door car, because you have the structure,” Lesnik explained.

“The Evoque, for example, there is a five-door and a three-door. So it’s easy to do, it does not cost much.

“If you have a GLC, for example, you have to change the whole structure to do a convertible, like what Nissan did with the Murano.”

“We should not do everything,” Lesnik said.