Mercedes Benz CL500Rich but not yet over the hill? Never fear, Mercedes has designed the CL-Class just for you. Michael McAleer, Motoring Editor reports
It's a dilemma the rest of us can only dream of: you find yourself with the requisite resources to opt for the Mercedes S-Class, but you are under-50 and feel the flagship Merc would be better suited to your father. What to do?
Fear not, for help is at hand. You could, of course, opt for a Porsche, Ferrari or one of the myriad of sports cars on the market these days.
However, you're not a premiership footballer and you don't need a personality transplant. You are looking for something that's stylish, if just a little more discrete than the flash sports cars. Welcome to the CL.
Mercedes realised back in the early 1980s that big money was no longer the preserve of the ageing motorist. Young tycoons were starting to earn the sort of money that would seat them in an S-Class, but the four-door saloon didn't suit their style. They were offered sports cars like the rest, but there's a discernable audience out there for cars that offer a compromise between spaciousness, coupé lines and also don't desire the "in your face" bragging rights of a low-set sports car.
So roll up the equivalent of the S-Class coupé. For a car of that type, there is little direct competition. It sounds like something conceived by a seven-year-old on the back of his copybook.
While it doesn't seem that strange now that it's here, try imagining BMW turning its 7-Series into a two-door coupé and you start to get the picture. Yet Mercedes have never been shy to give life to what others may perceive to be outlandish concepts. Think, for example, of the recent CLS, a four-door coupé - seemingly a motoring oxymoron.
As with that design, here againMercedes excelled. They've created a car that offers the luxury and refinement of its four-door sibling but with performance appeal.
It's spacious yet sporting, the perfect combination and once again something that seemed barely credible until it took to the road. What's more, it looks fantastic. Hints of the CLS feature in the front nose and the sleek side profile and even the rear-end has a look that's vastly improved on previous versions.
Sweeping lines is a term used by every car company for everything from an SUV to a people carrier, but this is a car that does justice to the claim. When the new S-Class arrived last year, the improvements were evident to all. But while we were excited by the S-Class, that little petrolhead in the back of our mind kept musing on what the next generation CL would be like. So here it is and it's fantastic. Motoring hacks are prone to hyperbole, so any time we use words like that, they're taken by readers with 15 tonnes of cynicism and understandably so. Yet, for once, this is a car that deserves such accolades.
The interior has all the qualities of the S-Class, from the metal switchgear to the digital dash and "Comand" control knob, that's easy to use and is only beaten in terms of practicality by Jaguar's touchscreen system on the XJ. As we've repeatedly written, the S-Class manages to mix luxury refinement with new technology in a way that others must envy. Little touches like the discrete inset dash lighting, that runs around the car, add to the quality feel while the new night vision system really does work a treat on dark back roads (though it comes at a hefty €3,671 optional extra).
Admittedly, from behind the wheel, there's not enough to distinguish it from the S-Class and that's not quite good enough when you consider the attention to detail in some of its rivals.
What the CL lacks in individual character inside, it makes up for in exterior design and performance. Cocooned in the cabin, the only sound that breaks through is the meaty grind of the V8 engine when pushed.
It's a wonderful hum and the seven-speed automatic transmission is well-suited to the 5.5-litre engine. Its silky smooth changes and the ability to keep its power on tap at all times, means that while you can manually flick between gears courtesy of buttons on the back of the steering wheel, there's little need to do it.
The only reason we tried it was to test just how far we could push the system and true to form it managed to slip down a gear and into very high revs that jolted the car. That means that unlike the other "semi-automatic" modes on offer, this actually does give the driver some control.
Ignore those buttons and the engine powers away smoothly. Thanks to its 380bhp and 530Nm of torque, the kick down in most instances isn't accompanied by a change in gears; the power is there. Even if it does change, you'll need a very deft right foot to notice the difference.
With a 0-100km/h time of 5.4 seconds, that puts this five metre behemoth in the same league as a Porsche 911 Carrera Tiptronic and ahead of the hot hatch brigade of Ford Focus ST or VW Golf GTi. With this sort of power, it clearly deserves its coupé sports car credentials.
You may feel you're in a great big S-Class but it has the performance of a proper racer.
It doesn't take an engineer to work out that 5.5-litres and 380bhp is going to be pretty fast in a straight line, but one of the biggest surprises we had with the CL came when we took the car along some of our more testing country roads. For a car that has roughly the same footprint on the road as a Range Rover, it has gravity-defying ability to corner.
That's partly down to the new Active Body Control (ABC) system employed in the CL as standard - and on the high-end S-Class versions. The CL engineers match this with a standard hydraulic suspension, passing up the opportunity to add air suspension as in the S-Class. The end result is a car that corners with 60 per cent less bodyroll than its predecessors. Somehow, the boffins have created a car that's as smooth as a Citroën over our worst roads and yet as solid in corners as a taut racer.
We had come to accept the handling limitations of a big Mercedes. Despite challenging its fellow Germans in terms of prestige and range, the steering in particular has always felt too imprecise and woolly for our tastes, certainly in comparison to rivals like BMW. Even in the CLS, a car we loved for the look as much as the drive, the steering never lived up to rivals and felt too light to really test the car's chassis. That's not the case with the CL. For a Mercedes, it handles like a BMW. That's serious praise indeed, if not quite what Mercedes would want to read.
And this is only the entry-level version. Also on offer are the CL600 and CL63 AMG versions, all of which have 0-100km/h times below five seconds.
Given the CL's stealth-like acceleration, you will be well over the legal limits of any Irish roads before you ever notice your speed, so unless you plan regular visits to the autobahns, it's hard to justify the extra cost - nearly €60,000 - of the more powerful versions.
For us, the CL500 is the best buy, mixing thundering performance with the new stylish look and you can even show your frugal nature to your accountant by explaining the savings you are making by opting for the €163,500 "entry-level" model.
Besides, there's a list of extras that will easily see you dip into that €60,000 without even considering a different engine option. Along with the night view assist, our test car had: 18" alloys, a wood/leather steering-wheel; phone kit; Sat-Nav; and ventilated front seats that can cool as well as heat; bringing our test car to over €175,000 to drive away.
The downside to the CL is that many in the general public don't know where the CL sits in the market, they don't equate it with S-Class prices and consider it some form of fat C-Class derivative. Others think it's too big and wallowing to be anything other than another executive barge. Neither idea could be further from the truth, but for some that perception will turn them off the car.
If you've bought the leather jacket and have achieved the ultimate comb-over, then the CL may well be too discrete for your tastes. Ferrari and Porsche are better suited to feeding the ego.
Yet there's an air of grace and majesty about the way the CL devours motorway miles, wafting along serenely while at the same time capable of turning in on a tight bend as if on rails. Forget about the A-Class or B-Class - this car is where Mercedes engineers have shown their true worth.
As a lifelong Porsche fan - yes, in need of a personality transplant - it's hard to imagine turning down the chance of owning a 911 and opting for something this size. Yet after a week behind the wheel we could see why many would.
If you want the space to carry four adults, a 490-litre boot - big enough to incorporate three golf bags - and the performance to equal anything that comes your way, then the CL is the one for you. So long as you have €160,000-plus burning a hole in your pocket. Time for me to talk to the bank manager again.
ENGINE:5,461cc V8 petrol with four valves per
cylinder and a seven-speed automatic transmission. It puts out
388bhp @ 6,000rpm and 530Nm of torque between 2,800-4,800rpm
SPECIFICATION:Standard features include: ABS;
brake assist; ESP stability control; adaptive brakes; crash sensors
for airbag deployment; front and rear foglights; Mercedes pre-safe
anticipatory safety system; alarm; COMAND central control knob with
Harmon Kardon stereo system, 8-inch colour display, DVD player with
six disc changer; multifunctional steering wheel; Active Body
Control (ABC) on suspension; automatic climate control; 17" alloys;
leather upholstery; cruise control.
L/100KM (MPG)Urban: 18.1 (15.6) Extra urban: 8.5
(33.2) Combined: 23.3 (12.1)
CO2 EMISSIONS:288
ANNUAL ROAD TAX:€1,343
PRICE:€163,385 (€163,385223,330)