MERCEDES-BENZ

MASTER BLASTER Big coupes don’t get much more accomplished than the astonishing Mercedes CL 63 AMG. Andy Enright reports

There’s a case for the big CL coupes to be recognised as the most fascinating cars Mercedes-Benz make. Granted, they don’t seem the most immediately relevant - especially this CL 63 AMG hot rod, carrying as it does a list price of over £100,000 and expected sales that are modest to say the least. Where the CL is most intriguing is that because of its smaller sales footprint than the S-Class saloon from which it’s loosely derived, it can act as the test bed for the latest technological features.

What appears on a CL may or may not eventually filter down to the sorts of C or E Class models many of us can aspire to. Sometimes the technology proves a dead end. At other times it’s a revelation. The CL 63 AMG might just have a claim on being – at launch at least – the most thoroughly engineered car on sale. The 6,208cc V8 engine is no blood and thunder piece of ironmongery. Some previous CL models have resorted to the blunt implement of forced induction to make the headline power figures but this one utilises the world’s most powerful naturally-aspirated production V8 to serve up 525 screaming horsepower. Get in and expect the usual CL low end surge and you may come away surprised. This is an engine that demands to be taken by the scruff of the neck and revved, making its peak power at a heady 6,800rpm. The 7G-Tronic automatic gearbox and clever traction and stability control software makes clean getaways simple, the car punching through 60mph in 4.5 seconds on the way to a limited top speed of 155mph. An optional AMG Drivers’ Package removes the limiter and 186mph is then attainable. A day’s advanced training at a major European race circuit is also wisely included in the package. A second generation Active Body Control (ABC) system offers flatter cornering and the steering serves up more feel than you would anticipate. The AMG spring struts provide firmer dynamics when the gearbox is switched into Sport/Manual modes. It’s amazingly lithe for such a hefty car and the engine’s soundtrack at the top end could easily lead you into temptation.

"The CL 63 AMG might just have a claim on being the most thoroughly engineered car on sale"

The aggressive front spoiler, ribbed rear diffuser, tarmac-skimming stance and huge 19-inch AMG alloys instantly mark the CL 63 AMG down as something quite different to the usual CL norm. Where the standard CL models are smooth, relatively low key and ineffably discreet, this AMG model has a lot more front. The interior is beautifully styled with a move away from the confusing spray of buttons that has plagued some Mercedes models. I remember sitting in an SL65AMG and counting over 70 buttons and switches on the dashboard. The CL adopts a wholly cleaner look with many of the functions marshalled by the COMAND control system. The latest generation CL is more elegant in its proportions than its predecessor, a car that could look awkward from some angles thanks to its sharply tapered C-pillars. While the latest car is less extreme in its styling, it’s undeniably handsome. It’s also big, expanding in every dimension to add not only gravitas, but also some welcome room in the rear seats and the boot as well. At 5,065mm from stem to stern, it’s 75mm longer than the old car as well as 14mm wider and 20mm higher. This is a serious piece of automotive real estate, the range-topping car tipping the scales at 2,085kg. That’s 375kg heavier than a BMW M6 so you can excuse it for not playing the track day warrior too convincingly. The CL range consists of three other models alongside this £103,450 CL 63 AMG. You’ll pay a fraction more for the luxury V12 CL 600 and quite a bit less for the entry level V8 CL 500 but the CL 65 AMG is in a league of its own at around £150,000. There’s no doubt that the CL 63 AMG is a seriously expensive car but its key rival, the Bentley Continental GT, is a good deal dearer, not as quick off the mark and has become tarnished with a rather Premiership image. Despite this, it was enough to nail down the coffin on the old CL model and together with the Aston Martin DB9, it reduced CL sales to a trickle. The latest model counters with more attitude and some incredibly smart technology. I could write 1,000 words on how smart the headlights are. Then there’s the brilliant adaptive cruise control that can handle the worst the M25 can throw at it without a murmur of complaint, the Advanced Parking Guidance system and the Night View Assist, an infra-red system that transmits images to the instrument panel so the car can literally see in the dark. Economy isn’t stellar. Despite the engine being one of the most efficient units of its type, it’s still a 6.2-litre V8. Mercedes proudly proclaim its 19.0mpg combined economy figure and in comparison with similar cars, that’s impressive but it still means that a ‘real world’ figure will likely hover somewhere around 12 or 13mpg. Ouch. Insurance is also hefty, the CL 63 AMG rated at a tip top Group 20. Put bluntly, you’ll be hard pressed to find a car this side of genuine exotica that costs more to run. Still, there are few more genuinely impressive cars for sale than the Mercedes CL 63 AMG. Perhaps part of its charm is that it delivers so much more than anticipated, offering a great engine, a very composed chassis and more ‘surprise and delight’ functions in the interior than in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Yes, it is savagely expensive to run and will probably have its trousers taken down by a MINI Cooper on a typical B-road but get it on home turf and I’m struggling to think of anything I’d rather be in. There’s a completeness, an integrity of engineering, a reassuring feeling that this CL 63 AMG has your back in any given circumstance that’s wholly endearing. Some will see it as a profligate irrelevance. Look below the surface and you’ll find a car that fulfils its remit as capably as a Porsche 911 or Ford Focus discharge theirs. The bar has been raised again.

Facts At A Glance CAR: Mercedes-Benz CL 63 AMG PRICE: £103,450 - on the road INSURANCE GROUP: 20 CO2 EMISSIONS: 355g/km PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph 4.5s / Max Speed 155mph (restricted) 186mph (derestricted) FUEL CONSUMPTION: (urban) 12.2mpg / (extra urban) 27.7mpg / (combined) 19.0mpg STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: traction and ESP stability control. ABC suspension, PRE-SFAE, twin front and side airbags WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: length/width/heightmm 5084/1871/1418mm

COUPE DE GRACE The big CL coupe remains one of the less prominent stars in the Mercedes-Benz firmament. Andy Enright takes a look at the tech-fest that is the latest version

I’ll understand if the first time you see the current generation Mercedes CL, it doesn’t instantly register. It may well slip by without drawing any undue attention to itself. Even if you’re a car enthusiast, you could well mistake it for the CLS, the saloon with the coupe-like profile. Only upon closer inspection will you spot the lack of rear doors and the larger all round proportions. Low key? Typical CL owners would have it no other way.

If they wanted the eyes of the world staring at them, there are plenty of showier ways to blow their money. While a Porsche 911, a Maserati Coupe or a BMW M6 may well turn more heads, the Mercedes is the car you’d choose if all-out luxury and continent crushing ability were the key buying criteria. There’s something very imperious about a CL of any generation, and it acts as a pioneer for all sorts of new technologies that Mercedes are keen to showcase on a car that’s never going to sell in the same numbers as the S-Class. The latest generation car is more elegant in its proportions than its predecessor, a car that could look awkward from some angles thanks to its sharply tapered C-pillars. While the latest car is less extreme in its styling, it’s undeniably handsome. It’s also big, expanding in every dimension to add not only gravitas, but also some welcome room in the rear seats and the boot as well. At 5065mm from stem to stern, it’s 75mm longer than the old car as well as 14mm wider and 20mm higher. This is a serious piece of automotive real estate, the range-topping car tipping the scales at 2,185kg. That’s 400kg heavier than the BMW.

"Even through a set of tight corners, the CL will stay in touch with all but the most manically piloted supercar…"

Still, it’s not hard to see why the car weighs this much. It’s absolutely stuffed with technology. Just when Mercedes thought no more technology would fit, they levered in some more. The press release accompanying the initial press photos of the CL featured a four page glossary of comfort, safety and technical features that journalists may not have stumbled across. Some are self explanatory. Others, such as the ‘Country Mode’ require a little explanation, which is just as well as I at first thought this was a function that ensured the CL would drive into the oncoming carriageway of the roads when in Turkey, stay six inches from the bumper of the car in front when in France, accelerate to top speed and stay there when in Germany and sit in the middle lane of motorways in the UK. As it happens, it was a function in the ‘Intelligent Light System’ (another glossary entry) that replaces low beam with a beam that illuminates the left-hand edge of the road more brightly. Rabbits will no longer be caught in the headlights, they’ll be x-rayed by them. Leaving the CL’s prodigious gadgetry quota aside for a moment, four engines are at present offered. At the top of the range, in typical Mercedes style, sit two AMG versions with more power than Kim Jong Il. The CL 63 AMG has 518bhp and the CL 65 AMG has a gargantuan 612bhp which should tell you all you need to know. The other tow engines are hardly lacking in clout themselves. We get the CL500, the entry level car, which is propelled forth by a 5.5-litre V8 good for 388bhp. Need more power? Step up in that case to the CL600 which tacks on another quartet of cylinders and a pair of turbochargers. This V12, again of 5.5-litre capacity, develops a seismic 517bhp. Needless to say, neither hangs around when put up against a stopwatch. The CL500 will step off the line to 60mph in just 5.1 seconds while the CL600 takes a mere 4.3 seconds to demolish the benchmark sprint. With an enormous 830Nm of torque at its disposal, the CL600 is one of those cars that ticks the "Unrelenting Acceleration" box, pulling hard right up to its electronically limited 155mph top speed. Mercedes seems quite proud of the fact that this car will eke another 850 metres of travel out of a gallon of fuel, although if you can replicate the 19.8mpg combined fuel figure, you must have the self control of a Trappist monk. The CL has been designed as a proper four seater and the additional length built into this car’s wheelbase gives it decent rear seat provision for adults. It’s the front seats that are the real showstoppers though. Opt for the CL600 and instead of just the usual heated sports seats, customers get what can only be described as the last word in car seats. All the seatbelt function is inbuilt, pneumatic lumbar supports and four-way electric adjustment allow for a prefect driving position while active ventilation helps cool your back and posterior on hot days. The best part is the dynamic multicontour facility with massage function that gently mobilises your lumbar vertebrae to prevent lumbago setting in on long journeys. Active Body Control (ABC) is another system that’s been carried over but improved for the latest generation CL. In any car that weighs this much, body control while cornering is bound to be an issue but ABC is a stunning riposte. Using sensors mounted in the air suspension system, ABC uses hydraulic cylinders on each axle to ensure that cornering is divested of the typical roll and lurch of many big cars. The effect is uncanny. Pitch a CL into a corner and it just grips and goes with the minimum of fuss. Above 60mph, ABC lowers the body by up to 10mm to reduce drag, diminish the amount of air running under the car and thus improve high-speed handling stability. The CL’s handbook is like a telephone directory and it would take a review of similar length to fully explain all of the technological features built into this incredible car. Suffice to say if you want a coupe that wants for nothing, bar perhaps a certain ostentation or sense of occasion (call it what you will), here’s where to shop. The CL is a car with few natural rivals. It’ll remain unobtrusive and, for many, a tough car to understand but there’s a loyal bunch of followers. Drive one and you’ll probably see why.

Facts At A Glance CAR: Mercedes-Benz CL range PRICES: £79,652 - £149,565 – on the road INSURANCE GROUP: 20 CO2 EMISSIONS: 288-355g/km PERFORMANCE: [CL600] 0-60mph 4.3s / Max Speed 155mph FUEL CONSUMPTION: [CL600] (combined) 19.8mpg STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Driver, passenger & side airbags / ABS / ABC /Pre-Safe WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE: (length/width/height) 5065/1871/1418mm

THEY THINK IT’S ALL OVERKILL! If you value a healthily overstuffed surplus of power, look no further than the Mercedes-Benz CL 65 AMG. Andy Enright reports

For those who feel that the 525bhp CL 63 AMG V8 is a bit limp wristed, Mercedes has the answer. With 604bhp from its twin-turbocharged 6-litre V12, the CL 65 AMG does excess like few others. It’s incredibly relaxing over long distances but is destined to remain a curious niche item.

I have a friend called Stuart. He’s done rather well for himself in the IT industry and it’s always fun to go shopping with him. When he’s after, say, a fridge/freezer, he’ll walk into the shop, ask what’s the most expensive item they have and order it. He’s not interested in the best value or the item that has garnered the best reviews. It’s a low involvement purchase that will see him nerding out with an obese instruction manual into the wee small hours. The same buyer behaviour would seem to be the raison d’etre for the car we examine here, Mercedes-Benz’s mighty, and some might add mighty profligate, CL 65 AMG. This is not a car that, on paper, seems to make any sense whatsoever. Still, if you’re intent on having the top of the range model with scant regard to the merits of ‘lesser’ variants, it’s unlikely you’ll emerge from the CL 65 AMG disappointed. The reason why the CL 65 AMG is such an idiosyncratic choice is that there already exists a 525bhp CL model, the CL 63 AMG, that has a 6.3-litre engine and a seven-speed automatic gearbox and is really rather magnificent. Independent tests have shown that the V12-engined AMG cars are slower around a test circuit than their V8 counterparts, they sound far less dramatic and because of the massive 1,000Nm torque figure, they need a more agricultural five-speed auto to deploy the power. So what’s the attraction? In short, it’s the effortless straight line speed, the undemanding engine response and the sheer refinement. Whereas you’d need to rev a CL 63 AMG to a nosebleed 6,800rpm to tap into its peak power, the CL 65 AMG demands just 4,800rpm to be making its full quota. In short, it’s a lazy man’s way of going incredibly quickly. The sprint to 60mph flashes by in 4.1 seconds but it’s not a whole lot quicker or easier to drive than the CL 600 (0-60 in 4.3s) which costs over £40,000 less. A second generation Active Body Control (ABC) system offers flatter cornering and the steering serves up more feel than you would anticipate. The AMG spring struts provide firmer dynamics when the gearbox is switched into Sport/Manual modes. It’s amazingly lithe for such a hefty car.

"Taken in isolation, it’s a brilliant technical achievement…."

The aggressive front spoiler, ribbed rear diffuser, tarmac-skimming stance and huge AMG alloys instantly mark the CL 65 AMG down as something quite different to the usual CL norm. This model also gets innovative twin floating calliper brakes that are hugely expensive but devastatingly effective. The interior is beautifully styled with a move away from the confusing spray of buttons that has plagued some Mercedes models. I remember sitting in an SL 65 AMG and counting over 70 buttons and switches on the dashboard. The CL adopts a wholly cleaner look with many of the functions marshalled by the COMAND control system. The latest generation CL is more elegant in its proportions than its predecessor, a car that could look awkward from some angles thanks to its sharply tapered C-pillars. While the latest car is less extreme in its styling, it’s undeniably handsome. It’s also big, expanding in every dimension to add not only gravitas, but also some welcome room in the rear seats and the boot as well. At 5,065mm from stem to stern, it’s 75mm longer than the old car as well as 14mm wider and 20mm higher. This is a serious piece of automotive real estate, tipping the scales at 2,240kg. That’s 530kg heavier than a BMW M6, so you can excuse it for feeling a little less puppyish. The CL 65 AMG’s value proposition is a tough one to pin down. It costs £149,565 which is serious money, even when compared to the £103,450 CL 63 AMG or the £107,095 CL 600. By contrast, the CL 500 offers as much power as most normal people would want from a luxury GT coupe (388bhp), looks a steal at just £79,652 and by most normal frames of reference is by far the best buy in the CL line up. The problem is the select group of CL 65 AMG buyers do not possess the sort of frame of reference most of us are used to. They want the top of the range Mercedes CL coupe and they buy it. Rivals like the Bentley Continental GT and the Aston Martin DB9 decimated sales of the old Mercedes CL and the CL 65 AMG operates in a different realm to these cars. It plays by a different set of rules and faces rivals like the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti and Aston Martin DBS instead. The latest model counters with more attitude and some incredibly smart technology. I could write 1,000 words on how smart the headlights are. Then there’s the brilliant adaptive cruise control that can handle the worst the M25 can throw at it without a murmur of complaint, the Advanced Parking Guidance system and the Night View Assist, an infra-red system that transmits images to the instrument panel so the car can literally see in the dark. Although it seems vaguely irrelevant to witter on about ownership costs to somebody who is prepared to blow £70,000 more on a car that’s a bit quicker and a bit quieter than the otherwise brilliant CL 500, I’ll humour you and put some meat on the bones. Insurance is, predictably, a top of the shop Group 20. Fuel economy is quoted at 19.1mpg although if you can get more than 12mpg out of the CL 65 AMG on a day-in, day-out basis, you’re doing better than me. The big sting with Mercedes CL ownership comes in terms of depreciation. What seems the latest must-have can quickly be overtaken by automotive fashion. As a case study, let’s have a look at a 1999 example of the then range-topping Mercedes CL 600. Leafing through a used price guide reveals the horror that the trade will offer you £7,500 for that car. Hardly a museum piece but it’s worth remembering that this model retailed for £107,665 new. The CL depreciates savagely and it’s best to get comfortable with that fact before making a buying decision. It’s not easy to find more enigmatic vehicles than this Mercedes CL 65 AMG. By most normal measures, it’s a massively overpriced curio. Ninety per cent of what it does is accomplished by the CL 500 model which costs half as much. What store you place on that remaining ten per cent will determine whether you’re one of the few CL 65 AMG buyers who are genuinely attracted by the towering straightline speed or the massive torque. It’s a sad fact that most of these cars will be bought by the pornographically wealthy who possess an inability to buy anything but the range-topping version. Taken in isolation, it’s a brilliant technical achievement. It corners like no 2,240kg car has any right to, and lighting the burners on a deserted autobahn is otherworldly. Most of us, however, don’t buy cars in isolation. We compare and contrast and the CL 65 AMG remains a car that’s curiously unflattered by comparison.

Facts At A Glance CAR: Mercedes-Benz CL 65 AMG PRICE: £149,565 - on the road INSURANCE GROUP: 20 CO2 EMISSIONS: 355g/km PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph 4.1s / Max Speed 155mph (restricted) FUEL CONSUMPTION: (combined) 19.1mpg STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: traction and ESP stability control. ABC suspension, PRE-SFAE, twin front and side airbags WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: length/width/heightmm 5084/1871/1418mm