Road Test: Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake

Price as tested: €192,000 (approx)

+ Gorgeous but practical, explosive but smooth
– Thirsty and expensive. Do you care?
= Awesome performance matched with everyday usability




It’s all too temping to describe the Mercedes-Benz CLS AMG with the same terminology that you’d use for armaments and munitions. The artillery barrage of noise from the engine, the machine-gun speed of the gearchange, the sheer weapons-grade explosiveness of the performance. A great wall of Prussian might (Swabian might, actually, but Swabia never had Prussia’s PR machine), a steel hand in a steel glove with some small velvet edging.

But it’s not really like that at all. You see, AMG is in some ways a both a victim of its own publicity and a cunning usurper of its own image. The once independent tuner, now long since an official, fully-owned subsidiary of Daimler-Benz, is happy to project an image of tyre-smoking lunacy, V8-powered bombast and a general mien of being the chief of staff car for the Autobahn Aggressor Corps. And if you were to pick one of the more deliberately lairy AMG models, a Black Series C63 Coupe for example, that’s what you’d have.

This, the CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake is rather a different kettle of seafood, and in many ways a much more pleasing one. One of the nice things about all but the most hardcore AMG models is that, long ago, Mercedes laid down a diktat that no matter how much AMG DNA is injected, the core genes must always be those of Mercedes. So comfort, usability, practicality and refinement are at least as high up the list as sideways shenanigans.

Let’s deal with the CLS Shooting Brake in isolation for a moment. An oddball idea, to take a four-door coupe, itself closely mechanically related to the saloon and estate E-Class, and turn it into an estate, but Mercedes, like so many car makers, is using its manufacturing power and its scales of economy to explore niches in the market that no-one previously knew existed. The original CLS itself was just such an odd idea, and one that proved massively successful. So who knows, maybe there are people out there who want a car with CLS looks and B&Q practicality. Certainly, I can see the appeal myself and that lushly carpeted (or American cherry wood trimmed) load bay is actually quite practical – the 590-litre luggage capacity easily matches the supposedly more upright and practical BMW 5 Series Touring or Audi A6 Avant.

Back to the AMG, and it’s hard not the feel a touch intimidated when you climb aboard first. I recently drove the new 560bhp BMW M5 and pronounced it glorious, but almost impossible to drive legally on the public road. The CLS, with 525bhp, is giving away a touch of power but with 700Nm of torque and a fast-acting twin-clutch seven-speed paddle-shift gearbox, it sure isn’t going to be hanging around.

Like the M5, you can use a series of buttons on the centre console, adjoining the stubby gear selector, to tune the suspension, gearbox and throttle response to your liking. Or you can simply jab a finger at the button marked AMG and get the full-on, full noise performance.

Do so and... and the CLS still feels remarkably docile. Oh, the 5.5-litre twin-turbo V8 still snarls and barks as you’d want it to, and the horizon is reeling in towards you at a massive rate, but it never feels intimidating or overwhelming. The power seems to be delivered at a more steady rate than the all-of-a-sudden thump of the M5. The CLS just feels like it leaves a tiny cushion between you and the serious end of the performance spectrum, and that is all to the good when it comes to driving on the road with some level of sanity.

Of course, start to push a little harder, build up your confidence and things really start to come to life. Suddenly, the scenery is flashing by, the steering, accessed through a small, squared-off, suede-wrapped wheel, is alive with information and devilishly quick at getting the CLS’ snub nose pointed into an apex. The whole car feels delightfully slim-hipped and agile, seeming almost to hang weightless between movements, never exhibiting slack yet also never feeling as if it’s going to turn and bite. Add in some wet surfaces or slippery autumnal leaves, and that may change but the CLS’ demeanour is mostly that of a pussycat.

All of which makes it one of the most bewitching performance cars I have ever sampled. Beautiful, practical, comfortable, refined and yet with the kind of rocket-assisted sledgehammer performance that you subliminally expect from an AMG, all wrapped in a delightfully unusual package. It won’t be to all tastes, and certainly won’t be within the reaches of many pockets (235g/km and 10-litres per 100km how are you?) but as an icon of what can be done with modern high performance technology, it is little short of ballistic.

Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake
Price as tested: €192,000 (approx)
Range price: €70,000 (approx) to €192,000 (approx)
Capacity: 5,461cc
Power: 525bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Top speed: 250kmh
0-100kmh: 4.4sec
Economy: 10.1-100km (27.9mpg)
CO2 emissions: 235g/km
Tax Band: G. €2,258 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: Not yet tested