Mercedes Benz has added to its luxury image with a super design CLS Class range. This combines coupe styling with more space, accessibility and a decent boot. Michael Moroney joined the coupe class recently with a test drive of the CLS and here’s his report.  

The attractions of the car are not simple or singular. It looks great, has fantastic road presence, is superb to drive and has the Mercedes Benz badge up on front. That’s an impressive CV in its own right and it was confirmed during my test drive.

The CLS is no ordinary car. Mercedes Benz aim was to produce a quality and spacious coupe with true four seat capacity, through four doors and with a combination of reasonable rear headroom and legroom. And it has an impressive boot for a coupe, designed for the full set of gold clubs no doubt.

But most of all the CLS is about looks. That coupe look is very impressive. Not many cars can match its lines, it style and the level of desire that it builds up in you.

The Mercedes Benz claim is that the CLS-Class is a unique vehicle concept. What makes it stand out is the way that it combines the elegance and dynamism of a coupe with the comfort and practicality of a saloon. And that plus styling gives the CLS the image that’s different.

The engine performance is impressively smooth. The acceleration is equally so delivering a 0 to 100km/hr rating of just 6.7 seconds. That acceleration figure has to be seen against the weight of the car, which is over 1.7 tonnes and that’s before you start loading.

With those credentials the fuel economy figures for the CLS are more impressive than you would think. And the automatic gearbox version, which I had on test, is marginally more economical than the manual version. The official consumptions figures for the petrol powered CLS 350 come in at 9.1 litres/100km (about 30mpg) which is better than I would have expected.