Mercedes CLE 200 review: More glam than slam
Looking at the Mercedes CLE makes the heart beat a little faster. Driving it, less so
IT WASN’T just posters of Ferraris, Porches and Christie Brinkley that adorned my bedroom wall in the go-getting ’80s, but glossy shots of Mercedes coupes, too. In fact, if any brand is the king of elegant two-door cars, it’s Merc, which has a habit of selling more coupes and cabriolets here than any other car maker. That gives the CLE 200 huge shoes to fill, even if it’s only Mercedes’ new entry-level coupe.
The brand’s model names have an alphabet soup quality to them now, so it’s worth decoding what a CLE actually is. At a glance it’s a gorgeously slinky, medium-sized coupe with four seats (think BMW 4 Series rival). But in a wider context the CLE replaces two cars at once, as Mercedes uses it to retire both the C-Class Coupe and E-Class Coupe. I guess too many coupes spoil the broth.
With typical German logic, Mercedes decided it could prune those two cars from its lineup by giving the CLE a mix of their characteristics. It’s meant to be more upscale than the C-Class, and more athletic than the E-Class.
Elsewhere you can have it with a variety of engines, including a silky six-cylinder that turns petrol into music, but for now the solo option here is the CLE 200, which packs a relatively humble 204 horsepower under its lengthy bonnet.
That means the CLE is going to have to sell more on looks than performance, but somehow I don’t think that’s going to be a problem for Mercedes. If Margot Robbie herself stood next to this thing, the comparison would make her look like me in a gunny sack.
It has all the features of Mercedes’ more muscular models, such as a star-studded front grille flanked by headlights that form an intense stare, along with a sharknose prow, the kind that BMWs used to have. Then there are the slender domes on the bonnet, an iconic styling flourish that goes back 70 years.
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Mind you, the CLE does have some phoney air vents (and fake tailpipes at the back to match), but its overall shape is so perfect that I’m inclined to forgive them. Yet, here’s a point of contention: Like every coupe should, the CLE has frameless windows, but it still has B-pillars, which Mercedes purists don’t expect to see.
Those pillars are a hint that things are generally less glamorous inside the car than out. It gets the cheaper dashboard of the C-Class rather than the more sophisticated one from the E-Class, and there’s a hectare of shiny plastic that lowers the overall tone of the cabin, although not enough to cancel out the gorgeous ambient lighting and comfy seats.
Despite the CLE’s tiny glass area, it somehow manages to avoid feeling claustrophobic inside, even in the back. Instead, it feels intimate and cosy, and there’s a sense of occasion simply from climbing aboard and being handed the seatbelt by a mechanical arm (another classic Mercedes coupe thing).
Just don’t expect that occasion to be accompanied by fireworks. The CLE 200 stomps along energetically, and you can feel its mild hybrid system’s motor boosting the acceleration, but it’s not powerful enough to feel exciting. In a similar vein, there’s a tautness to the handling and the quick steering makes it feel agile, but it doesn’t deliver the grip to build up big G-forces through corners, so it’s not going to take your breath away on a twisty road.
Instead, the Mercedes feels like something made to munch kilometres for hours, while you sit back in the supportive seats and crank up the killer sound system. It’s even decently practical up to a point. The rear seats are easy to access, and having to sit in them would only make you resentful if you were, say, 180 centimetres or taller.
The boot has a high sill to clear when you heave stuff in and out of it, but it’s deep and measures 420 litres. For what it’s worth, that’s slightly more than what the old E-Class Coupe offered. I do miss the voluptuous elegance of that car and its higher-quality interior, but I can see how Mercedes nailed its goal with the CLE. It does have more presence than a C-Class Coupe, and a bit more sharpness than an E-Class Coupe.
Its chassis and body would pair beautifully with Mercedes’ musical six-cylinder engine, so let’s hope the CLE 450 4Matic version becomes available here in time. Conversely, the CLE is so glamorous it could be powered by three hamsters in a running wheel and I would still want one. I have no idea if teens still put posters of cars on their bedroom walls, but if they did, I’m sure the CLE is up there with the Ferraris and Porsches.
Mercedes-Benz CLE 200 AMG Line Engine 1,999 cc, 16-valve, turbocharged in-line four Power 204 hp from 5,800 rpm Torque 320 Nm from 1,600 to 4,000 rpm Gearbox Nine-speed automatic 0-100kmh 7.4 seconds Top speed 240 kmh Fuel efficiency 7.1 L/100 km Agent Cycle & Carriage Singapore Price S$367,888 with COE Available Now
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