Category: Large Executive 
Price Range: £45,950 to £74,555
A style sensation, with the added benefit of extra doors and a spacious boot.
Relatively cramped rear seat. And you'd better be ready for lots of attention.
Bold looks with significant practicality, although it's no family car.
Point the CLS at a twisting mountain road and you'll discover an extremely capable chassis. Central to its on-road manners is the optional Airmatic DC, an air suspension system with the computing ability to respond to the way the car is being driven, so if you are pressing on the suspension automatically stiffens to reduce roll and pitch motions. This also contributes to a smooth and compliant ride quality when the driver is just cruising. It can, though, be caught out on occasion by nasty potholes, sending a shiver through the body. The standard suspension is a conventional steel set-up.
The rack-and-pinion steering also works well, feeding back information about the available levels of grip and weighting up nicely with speed. It's a speed-sensitive system, which gets lighter at low speeds to aid parking and other manoeuvres.
Overall, the CLS delivers a good compromise between ride and handling, and that includes the 63 AMG. Like the 55 AMG before it, it's a fine meeting of engine, chassis and gearbox, emphasising the car's potential for tackling bends as well as motorways, but without losing much comfort or refinement. It's a Mercedes as much as it's an AMG, in the same way that the equally dignified Audi S8 has added performance to the A8 rather than taken anything away.
The entry-level CLS sports a 3.5-litre V6 that develops 288bhp. It's a CGI unit, which is extremely clean when run on zero-sulphur fuel, but that won't be widely available in British petrol stations until 2008. The CLS is, at 1,730kg, a heavy car. And while the 350's 0-62mph figure of 6.7sec is impressive on paper, it doesn't feel particularly swift. On the positive side, the seven-speed automatic transmission is very responsive, and has a manual mode that allows drivers to sequentially shift between gears. There is also a sport mode for the transmission, which gives sharper throttle response; gearshift paddles are an option.
If the V6 doesn't have quite as much grunt as you'd like, Mercedes offers the CLS500, with a 5.5-litre 383bhp V8. That lowers the 0-62mph sprint to 5.4 seconds, and overall fuel consumption to 24.4mpg compared with the V6's 31.0mpg. The V8 does, though, suit the sharky personality of the CLS, accompanying all of that styling attitude with a suitably guttural woof when the transmission kicks down.
The 221bhp diesel is the least rapid CLS from a standing start, taking 7.0 seconds to reach 62mph, but its 376lb-ft of torque, delivered from as low as 1,800, provides a lot of useful grunt. The top speed of 153mph is just 2mph shy of all the other CLSs (which are electronically limited), and it's very refined for a diesel, as well as being by far the most economical, returning 37.2mpg on the combined cycle.
The range-topping CLS63 AMG uses the very fine 6.2-litre V8 that's the first engine built from scratch by Merc's performance division. It produces 507bhp and hurtles to 62mph in just 4.5 seconds, with a more sporting exhaust note to go with the lower ride height, revised steering and firmer suspension. If the other CLSs are refined, stylish cruisers, the 63 AMG is a refined, stylish, very fast cruiser.
