No matter what Mercedes-Benz marketing tries to impose these days, the rather sexy first iteration of the CLS was not the original four-door coupe. That title should go to the Rover P5 Coupe, which incidentally had the same number of doors as its sedan counterpart.
Getting back to the CLS, the third generation of the swoopy Mercedes has finally been unveiled ahead of the 2017 Los Angele Auto Show. That's all well and all, but it seems that its exterior designed is even more of the polarizing variety than before.
Especially when it comes to the rear end, or its odd-looking taillights to be more exact, the number of contradicting opinions has been growing substantially since the vehicle's reveal.
We are a bit divided as well, especially since we find the 2018 Mercedes-Benz CLS (C257) simply gorgeous when painted red, no matter the angle from which it is viewed. The otherwise cool Designo matte gray paint and black wheels don't really do the model justice, though.
The interior isn't making thing more comfortable for critics since the center console is largely identical to that in the E-Class Coupe (C238), but the quality seems to be abundant.
That said, the engine lineup definitely takes no prisoners, since every powerplant is brand new and class leader in almost every respect. For the time being, the third CLS will only come with a choice of three engines in Europe, two diesels and a gasoline one, all of them sporting inline-six cylinders.
On the diesel front, the CLS 350 d 4Matic delivers a healthy 286 hp and 600 Nm (442.5 lb-ft) of torque, while the CLS 400 d 4Matic comes with 340 hp and no less than 700 Nm (516.3 lb-ft) of torque.
The only gasoline version available at first is the CLS 450 4Matic, whose mild-hybrid inline-six delivers 367 hp and 500 Nm (388.8 lb-ft) of torque, but gets an additional 22 hp and 250 Nm (184.4 lb-ft) of torque thanks to a small electric motor.
As their names suggest, all engine versions have 4Matic all-wheel-drive as standard, and all are paired with the 9G-Tronic automatic transmission. A 300 horsepower, twin-turbocharged four-cylinder with an electric compressor and a regular turbo is said to arrive in 2018, and so is a CLS 50 version, powered by a more powerful version of the gasoline inline-six.
Sadly, the CLS Shooting Brake will not make a return, which is why the regular CLS has also lost its 2+2 seating, with the rear passengers now having bench-style seating like in any other sedan. The U.S. is not expected to get any diesel version, but the yanks will also have to wait until the fall of 2018 to see a CLS III on the road anyway.
Alex handled his first real steering wheel at the age of five (on a field) and started practicing "Scandinavian Flicks" at 14 (on non-public gravel roads). Following his time at the University of Journalism, he landed his first real job at the local franchise of Top Gear magazine a few years before Mircea (Panait). Not long after, Alex entered the New Media realm with the autoevolution.com project. Full profile
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