Full Test: 2006 Mercedes-Benz CLS500
Coupe Class
By Kevin Smith, Editorial Director | Published Apr 20, 2005
0 Ratings
Say this out loud: "I just got a new Mercedes." Rolls off the tongue pretty nicely, doesn't it? But here's a line that will taste even sweeter: "I just got a 2006 Mercedes-Benz CLS500." The fortunate buyers of this rakish new four-door Mercedes coupe are going to be paying $65,620 or more to feel special. To stand out from the herd. To puff their chests just a little more when they announce the acquisition. This car is all about self-indulgence, and let's just embrace that.
The CLS's coupelike roofline says what the car is about. Coupes are sporty. They look fast. They are personal, meant to flatter the driver even at the expense of the passengers' comfort if necessary. They imply a more lithe and responsive demeanor on the road. Coupes are cool. Exclusive. Sexy.
But the Mercedes CLS500 is not really a coupe. It has four doors, a decent backseat and all the comforts of, say, an E500 sedan. In fact, it has most of the hardware, underpinnings and equipment of an E500 as well, since it is built on a development of that midsize sedan platform.
So there's the strategy: To offer a luxury-performance automobile that identifies its owner as a racy, devil-may-care, coupe kind of person, without asking that he or she actually get along without all the comforts and convenience of a friendly four-door sedan. Clever. And perfectly targeted at baby boomers — the "me" generation that wants to have it all — now spending their way through those peak earning years.
Putting It Out There
How does this idea pan out in execution? Superbly, especially if you like how an E500 works, and how the CLS500 looks. As for the latter, opinion is never unanimous, but consensus around our office is that this new Mercedes is absolutely gorgeous. The long, arcing roofline and edgy details give it real personality, and accurately reflect its athleticism.
Some eyes find the CLS' sheet metal a little too busy, some see an unfortunate resemblance to the Toyota Camry Solara in its profile, and some don't quite know what to make of it. Yes, the chopped-top effect and tall beltline combine to squeeze the side windows down into mere slits. But forceful designs are always polarizing, especially at first. On balance, based on our own critical review and on the public's reaction to our test car, we score the CLS500 styling a solid hit.
Inevitably, the coupelike contours force tradeoffs inside, especially in back, but there are compensations. From the driver seat, you can see and feel the windshield's fast rake, and trim and detailing are a good notch and a half above normal E-Class fare. There are sweeping wood inlays (glossy or matte, to taste) and lovely chrome rings around gauges, controls, cupholders, everything. As a Mercedes official pointed out to us, using existing E-Class equipment let them spend money on the CLS' presentation and finish, like using real stitching on the dash covering.
The rear seat (actually two buckets flanking an extended center console) is well shaped and even full-size occupants have adequate space for knees. But 6-footers are a light press fit between the seat cushion and headliner. It's also pretty dark back there, since the side glass ends well forward of an occupant's vantage point. Still, that's not much of a giveback in order to get the lean, fast-looking shape of a sexy coupe.
Running Against the Clock
And the car is not only fast-looking. It really does run pretty well. Ed Hellwig describes its road manners well in our First Drive: 2006 Mercedes-Benz CLS500, and now that we've had a car for full testing, we can fill in some blanks.
Again, the E500 sedan supplies all the major componentry, including the 302-horsepower, 5.0-liter, three-valve-per-cylinder aluminum V8 and terribly slick seven-speed automatic transmission. The CLS weighs over 200 pounds more than the E500 we last tested (4,050 versus 3,815), which probably explains the couple extra tenths that crept into the 0-60 time.
We logged a 6.2-second run in the CLS compared to the E500's best of 5.8. Quarter-mile performance slipped a little as well: 14.7 seconds at 96.8 mph for the CLS, compared to the E's 14.24 at 99.55.
Not spectacular numbers, perhaps, but in truth, the new coupe leaves little to complain about when you call up maximum thrust on the road. It launches hard, shifts crisply and feels strong. (And you can spring for the 469-hp CLS55 AMG for about $90,000, if you simply must have more.) The engine is always smooth and serene, and it gave us decent fuel economy: about 15 mpg with no babying, against an EPA rating of 16/22.
Accelerating from a standstill, or in stop-and-go city traffic, you may notice a slight throttle imprecision, common to many German electronic throttle systems. You don't get a reaction right away, so you feed in more pedal, then finally get a bigger lunge than you wanted.
We can pick a similar nit with the brake pedal, whose faintly wooden, not-quite-linear feel again suggests electronics that aren't completely natural in their feedback. But neither of these impressions affects the way the CLS works (the big 13-inch front discs helped pull our test car to a halt from 60 mph in just 116 feet), and an owner driving the car every day will adjust to the quirks.
Doing It Right
One example of advanced electronics we have no qualms about at all is Mercedes' Airmatic Dual Control air suspension with Adaptive Damping System. This design incorporates semiactive, electronically controlled pneumatic spring struts to assist the conventional coil springs and variable-rate dampers. The system continually adjusts spring and damping rates to reduce pitch, dive and roll, while affording a comfortable, compliant ride. The driver can firm things up with two selectable Sport modes.
It all works beautifully, giving the CLS a serene and polished feel on the road as well as surprising agility for its size and weight. Probably thanks to the grippy short-sidewall 275/35 tires on 18-inch alloys, the CLS wiggled through our 600-foot slalom at an average speed of 62.1 mph, topping the E500's 59.9.
As a new CLS500 owner is enjoying his or her car's power to perform, to impress and to flatter, Mercedes must be hoping the car will also prove capable of something else: helping to turn around a suddenly shaky reputation for quality and reliability. Owners' ratings and reports have dinged Mercedes products for not living up to expectations, and that is obviously a trend the company has to reverse immediately. If the racy CLS four-door coupe can manage to start that turnaround, the manufacturer should be at least as pleased as the buyers are with this indulgent new car.
The CLS's coupelike roofline says what the car is about. Coupes are sporty. They look fast. They are personal, meant to flatter the driver even at the expense of the passengers' comfort if necessary. They imply a more lithe and responsive demeanor on the road. Coupes are cool. Exclusive. Sexy.
But the Mercedes CLS500 is not really a coupe. It has four doors, a decent backseat and all the comforts of, say, an E500 sedan. In fact, it has most of the hardware, underpinnings and equipment of an E500 as well, since it is built on a development of that midsize sedan platform.
So there's the strategy: To offer a luxury-performance automobile that identifies its owner as a racy, devil-may-care, coupe kind of person, without asking that he or she actually get along without all the comforts and convenience of a friendly four-door sedan. Clever. And perfectly targeted at baby boomers — the "me" generation that wants to have it all — now spending their way through those peak earning years.
Putting It Out There
How does this idea pan out in execution? Superbly, especially if you like how an E500 works, and how the CLS500 looks. As for the latter, opinion is never unanimous, but consensus around our office is that this new Mercedes is absolutely gorgeous. The long, arcing roofline and edgy details give it real personality, and accurately reflect its athleticism.
Some eyes find the CLS' sheet metal a little too busy, some see an unfortunate resemblance to the Toyota Camry Solara in its profile, and some don't quite know what to make of it. Yes, the chopped-top effect and tall beltline combine to squeeze the side windows down into mere slits. But forceful designs are always polarizing, especially at first. On balance, based on our own critical review and on the public's reaction to our test car, we score the CLS500 styling a solid hit.
Inevitably, the coupelike contours force tradeoffs inside, especially in back, but there are compensations. From the driver seat, you can see and feel the windshield's fast rake, and trim and detailing are a good notch and a half above normal E-Class fare. There are sweeping wood inlays (glossy or matte, to taste) and lovely chrome rings around gauges, controls, cupholders, everything. As a Mercedes official pointed out to us, using existing E-Class equipment let them spend money on the CLS' presentation and finish, like using real stitching on the dash covering.
The rear seat (actually two buckets flanking an extended center console) is well shaped and even full-size occupants have adequate space for knees. But 6-footers are a light press fit between the seat cushion and headliner. It's also pretty dark back there, since the side glass ends well forward of an occupant's vantage point. Still, that's not much of a giveback in order to get the lean, fast-looking shape of a sexy coupe.
Running Against the Clock
And the car is not only fast-looking. It really does run pretty well. Ed Hellwig describes its road manners well in our First Drive: 2006 Mercedes-Benz CLS500, and now that we've had a car for full testing, we can fill in some blanks.
Again, the E500 sedan supplies all the major componentry, including the 302-horsepower, 5.0-liter, three-valve-per-cylinder aluminum V8 and terribly slick seven-speed automatic transmission. The CLS weighs over 200 pounds more than the E500 we last tested (4,050 versus 3,815), which probably explains the couple extra tenths that crept into the 0-60 time.
We logged a 6.2-second run in the CLS compared to the E500's best of 5.8. Quarter-mile performance slipped a little as well: 14.7 seconds at 96.8 mph for the CLS, compared to the E's 14.24 at 99.55.
Not spectacular numbers, perhaps, but in truth, the new coupe leaves little to complain about when you call up maximum thrust on the road. It launches hard, shifts crisply and feels strong. (And you can spring for the 469-hp CLS55 AMG for about $90,000, if you simply must have more.) The engine is always smooth and serene, and it gave us decent fuel economy: about 15 mpg with no babying, against an EPA rating of 16/22.
Accelerating from a standstill, or in stop-and-go city traffic, you may notice a slight throttle imprecision, common to many German electronic throttle systems. You don't get a reaction right away, so you feed in more pedal, then finally get a bigger lunge than you wanted.
We can pick a similar nit with the brake pedal, whose faintly wooden, not-quite-linear feel again suggests electronics that aren't completely natural in their feedback. But neither of these impressions affects the way the CLS works (the big 13-inch front discs helped pull our test car to a halt from 60 mph in just 116 feet), and an owner driving the car every day will adjust to the quirks.
Doing It Right
One example of advanced electronics we have no qualms about at all is Mercedes' Airmatic Dual Control air suspension with Adaptive Damping System. This design incorporates semiactive, electronically controlled pneumatic spring struts to assist the conventional coil springs and variable-rate dampers. The system continually adjusts spring and damping rates to reduce pitch, dive and roll, while affording a comfortable, compliant ride. The driver can firm things up with two selectable Sport modes.
It all works beautifully, giving the CLS a serene and polished feel on the road as well as surprising agility for its size and weight. Probably thanks to the grippy short-sidewall 275/35 tires on 18-inch alloys, the CLS wiggled through our 600-foot slalom at an average speed of 62.1 mph, topping the E500's 59.9.
As a new CLS500 owner is enjoying his or her car's power to perform, to impress and to flatter, Mercedes must be hoping the car will also prove capable of something else: helping to turn around a suddenly shaky reputation for quality and reliability. Owners' ratings and reports have dinged Mercedes products for not living up to expectations, and that is obviously a trend the company has to reverse immediately. If the racy CLS four-door coupe can manage to start that turnaround, the manufacturer should be at least as pleased as the buyers are with this indulgent new car.