What is it?
Ten years after the CLS made its world premiere, the car has matured from an oddity in the motoring landscape to an accepted, albeit unconventional, four-door coupe that combines sporty with luxury travel. With new suitors forever in tow, the CLS has been revised and updated with intelligent technology that should ensure it remains as beguiling as it was all those years ago. The footnotes to these updates fall under a new nine-speed gearbox, a broader engine range and Multibeam light technology.
What’s it like?
A pleasant reminder of how composed and flawless a car this is. Here is a car that hides its weight impressively well and steers crisply, following the road’s contours with wonderful pliancy. A cabin constructed from supple leather, contrasting materials and keen driving position.
Performance is sensational and it’s not only reserved for the AMG tier models; shrewd buyers will revel in the new-to-CLS, 4-cylinder C250 CDI diesel while the new petrol engine in the range is a 3.0-litre V6 turbo in the CLS 400. Arguably the best inbetweener is the CLS 350 CDI. To give you some idea of how widespread the power is, you can have anything from 150kW/500Nm to 430kW/800Nm.
Then there’s the nine-speed gearbox available on the CLS 350 CDI and the CLS 500 with the focus primarily on consumption and carbon emissions. I would be lying if I told you that I was aware of what two extra gears do to the drive, such is the hassle-free shifting and voluptuous power. Those with models stuck with the 7G gearbox do benefit from quicker shift times.
A night drive purposefully demonstrated the new light technology which encompasses 24-LEDs which can adjust their position 100 times a second. This means no more worrying about blinding oncoming traffic or the car ahead, yet getting the optimum light distribution.
So advanced are the lights that they can now (in conjunction with the navigation) anticipate the road direction and swivel to give the driver the clearest and earliest view. A new ‘roundabout’ function (we call them circles) sees the cornering lights illuminate both sides upon entry. While the LED technology is standard, the Multibeam function is a cost option.
Should I buy One?
To get the best from the CLS experience you must be prepared to generously add a few options. It is worth noting that every car we jumped into on the day came with no less than R100 000 heaped to its base price. Suffice to say, choose the smaller engines and then with the money saved specify the wider alloys, Multibeam lights, multimedia systems and comfort items.
The CLS range, as with all Mercedes-Benz passenger cars come standard with the class-leading 6-years/100 000 km PremiumDrive maintenance plan.
Pricing
CLS 250 CDI R 760,000.00 (138 CO2 R 1,847)
CLS 350 BlueTec R 893,000.00 (142 CO2 R 2258)
CLS 400 R 888,000.00 (179 CO2 R 6 054)
CLS 500 R 1,120,000.00 (199 CO2 R 8,106.00)
CLS 63 AMG S R 1,600,000.00 (231 CO2 R 11,389.00)
