2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS550 - Short Take Road Test

Highs and Lows

Highs: Good power, great visibility, newly richened interior.
Lows: Chassis pitches and bobs over uneven surfaces, styling doesn’t advance the game.

Specifications

VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 4-door sedan

PRICE AS TESTED: $83,095 (base price: $72,175)

ENGINE TYPE: twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection

Displacement: 285 cu in, 4663 cc
Power (SAE net): 402 hp @ 5000 rpm
Torque (SAE net): 443 lb-ft @ 1600 rpm

TRANSMISSION: 7-speed automatic with manual shifting mode

DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 113.2 in Length: 194.5 in
Width: 74.1 in Height: 55.8 in
Curb weight: 4158 lb

C/D TEST RESULTS:
Zero to 60 mph: 4.2 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 10.2 sec
Zero to 130 mph: 17.6 sec
Street start, 5–60 mph: 4.7 sec
Top gear, 30–50 mph: 2.3 sec
Top gear, 50–70 mph: 2.8 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 12.8 sec @ 112 mph
Top speed (governor limited): 134 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 163 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.89 g

FUEL ECONOMY:
EPA city/highway driving: 18/26 mpg
C/D observed: 18 mpg

It's an age-old automotive-design problem—how do you fix what isn't broken? How do you update a timeless shape?
There are two possible answers: One, you tweak it a little, à la Mini Cooper, until your shape is neither new nor old. Or two, you start over, Jaguar XJ–style, throwing everything out the window and starting fresh. Best case, you end up with something revolutionary. Worst case, you get a hacked-up rehash that just reminds you of what you've lost.
Bigger and More Muscular
Well, there is a third possibility: somewhere in between, and that’s what we have here. When it was launched in the United States in 2005, the Mercedes-Benz CLS turned heads; the "four-door coupe" oxymoron suddenly made some sense. Even though the car was little more than a rebodied E-class, 40,000 examples whizzed out of American dealers in five years. Now we have a new CLS for 2012.
Meet the new oxymoron, not quite the old. You will note that it looks different. Kind of. Also note that it’s still fundamentally an E-class. Wheelbase is up, from 112.4 inches to 113.2, and overall length has jumped by nearly an inch. Height and width increase too, as do the front and rear tracks. The biggest difference is the lack of a naturally aspirated powerplant. In place of the old car's 5.5-liter V-8, the CLS550 now sports a 4.7-liter, direct-injection, twin-turbo V-8, the same engine used in the humongous 2011 CL550 4MATIC coupe and proliferating throughout the Merc lineup in the coming years.
Power is down from the CL—402 versus 429—as is torque, from 516 lb-ft to 443. This is still 20 hp and 52 lb-ft more than the last-gen CLS550 offered, and the 4.7-liter goes like the clappers: Hitting 60 mph requires just 4.2 seconds and the quarter passes in 12.8 at 112 mph. Even so, we can’t help missing the CL's extra bit of shove. (Disclaimer: The CL550 thumps its way across the landscape with the kind of seamless urge usually found in booster rockets. We miss its shove in everything.) A smooth-shifting seven-speed automatic is the only transmission available in the CLS550. If you're absolutely desperate for more grunt, a 518- or 550-hp, 5.5-liter twin-turbo V-8 can be found in the CLS63 AMG. And no, we don't understand the naming scheme, either.
Capable but Cautious
This is a big car—it tipped our scales at more than 4100 pounds—and it drives like one. The plushly appointed cabin is comfortable, the heavily bolstered seats seemingly good for thousand-mile days. But the low roofline lends a small-car feel, and you end up tossing the CLS around like you would a much smaller machine.
Chassis behavior is predictable and entertaining but won't surprise anyone. The standard Airmatic air suspension works well enough on winding pavement but doesn’t like being rushed; you spend a lot of time waiting for the nose to take a set, for the back end to settle down, for the rest of the car to make it through the corner. Grip on a smooth skidpad is a commendable 0.89 g, but truly crazed asphalt can bind things up to the point where the car simply gives up and throws in a stability-controlled brake application to yank everything back down again.
The brakes are simply unflappable, with short pedal travel and surprising fade resistance in hard street driving, and they turned in an impressive 163-foot stop from 70 mph. The electric power steering is accurate and possessed of classic Mercedes heft. All in all, it’s a nice, quick package, if not an overly sporty or aggressive one.

Okay, so the styling occasionally seems forced, with too many angry-face fillips and none of the previous CLS’s elegance. But the 2012 CLS550 is still more stylish than the E-class sedan, and if you’re not enamored of the new sheetmetal, consider this: From the driver’s seat, all you see is the road.
source : Caranddriver.com