[0:09] [music]
[0:09] >> The Mercedes-Benz CLE 53, needless to
[0:12] say, a lot of European manufacturers
[0:14] have really been struggling recently due
[0:16] to some decisions made, let's call it a
[0:18] long time ago. A lot of their current
[0:21] product portfolio, whether it be in the
[0:22] EV space, has not been particularly well
[0:24] received by Americans, and some of their
[0:26] internal combustion vehicles are very
[0:28] compromised due to the emissions laws
[0:30] they're trying to navigate.
[0:32] This vehicle, the 53 AMG CLE, is not
[0:36] that. It knows exactly what it needs to
[0:38] be and is much better for it. Unlike the
[0:41] E53 we recently drove as a wagon, which
[0:44] was not well done, this is the opposite
[0:46] of that. It is a honest-to-goodness
[0:48] luxury GT coupe or convertible with some
[0:53] sporting pretensions. Now, let's talk
[0:55] about what this car is and how much it
[0:57] costs. It's about 84,000
[1:00] dollars in the mid-80s starting.
[1:02] Reasonably well equipped, it's in the
[1:04] mid-90s, though honestly it's going to
[1:05] push nearly 100 or over that depending
[1:07] how you option one of these things out.
[1:09] It is a 2+2, meaning it is a coupe with
[1:12] rear seats. So, the rear seats are not
[1:14] large, and if you are a full-size adult,
[1:16] you will not fit back there. You can get
[1:18] this as a standard coupe, a which Mark
[1:20] reviewed the CLE 450 in the past, or you
[1:23] can get this as a drop top, which this
[1:24] is. The trunk space is quite large as a
[1:27] standard coupe. However, once you add
[1:28] the convertible top, it highly
[1:30] compromises what this car is when it
[1:32] comes to cargo capacity. That said, the
[1:35] top in this car is excellently designed.
[1:37] It's easy up, easy down, you can do it
[1:40] at relatively high speeds, well past 30
[1:42] miles an hour. And with the top down,
[1:43] there is a no wind buffeting whatsoever
[1:46] up to like 80 miles an hour. They've
[1:48] done a very, very good job, and with the
[1:50] top up, it is easily the quietest soft
[1:52] top convertible I've ever been in. They
[1:54] have nailed the luxury element of what
[1:56] this car is supposed to be, and if you
[1:58] want to drive this in colder weather,
[2:00] there is a heated neck scarf that comes
[2:02] out of both of the seats, essentially
[2:04] hot air blown on your neck, and they've
[2:06] managed the internal volume of the world
[2:09] around you quite well in this cabin even
[2:11] with the top down. And the seating
[2:12] options for this car, while they look
[2:14] sporty, they are not. They're definitely
[2:16] on the comfort side. You can option
[2:17] either a sportier seat option, which I
[2:19] wouldn't, or these massaging seats. And
[2:22] when it comes to exterior colors,
[2:24] Mercedes has done a very good job with
[2:26] giving you a very large color palette,
[2:28] and I do think compared to the BMW
[2:30] rivals, this is a good-looking vehicle.
[2:32] And when it comes to interior
[2:33] technology, we beat this
[2:35] horse to death at this point. Mercedes'
[2:37] current generation is all touch, all
[2:39] haptic. It is fast-acting, though not
[2:42] that intuitive to use.
[2:44] So, with that, let's head to the shop
[2:45] and put this thing up on the lift.
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[4:04] >> In the shop with the CLE 53 AMG. So,
[4:07] what does that mean? Well, this is the
[4:09] AMG-ified variant of the CLE 450.
[4:12] Essentially, they took their inline-six
[4:15] luxury coupe or convertible and they
[4:18] gave it the AMG treatment. So, on the
[4:19] outside, you get a widebody. It's like
[4:21] 2.3 in wider in the front and over 3 in
[4:23] wider in the rear. You get bigger
[4:25] brakes, bigger wheels, and a far more
[4:27] aggressive stance. I will say right off
[4:29] the bat that, as I mentioned in the
[4:30] beginning of this video, the BMW M4
[4:32] convertible or coupe has nothing to
[4:35] worry about. There is no track
[4:36] pretension despite some of the marketing
[4:38] behind this vehicle. It is a luxury
[4:39] coupe, not a sports car luxury coupe. I
[4:42] think that is a very important
[4:44] distinction in the way of they've tuned
[4:46] everything in the way this car drives.
[4:47] So, from a drivetrain side of things,
[4:49] yes, you can still get a CLE with a
[4:50] four-cylinder. In the future, you'll be
[4:52] able to get the much-loved twin-turbo
[4:54] V8. Mercedes is bringing that back. But,
[4:57] for the CLE 53, they took their M256
[5:01] turbocharged inline-six. They made some
[5:03] changes. It's still a 3-liter, however,
[5:05] they've added a new turbocharger, which
[5:07] now puts out more overall boost. They've
[5:09] changed the intake and exhaust valves,
[5:11] the fueling system, and basically the
[5:13] entire cowl of the motor. It now makes
[5:16] 444 horsepower and an overboost function
[5:19] 444 foot-pounds of torque. It still has
[5:22] an electric motor that lives between the
[5:24] gearbox and the engine. They call it the
[5:25] ISG or integrated or integrated starter
[5:28] generator unit. It's good for 20-30
[5:31] horsepower, more importantly over 150
[5:33] foot-pounds of torque. Helps this car
[5:35] get off the line. It blends in to act
[5:38] act as some torque fill. And really, in
[5:40] the real world, what you notice is the
[5:41] stop-start function is essentially
[5:42] seamless. It allows this car to
[5:44] basically kick on and kick off whenever
[5:46] you need it to, and you're never waiting
[5:47] for the drivetrain. It is a very good
[5:50] implementation of stop-start. You can't
[5:52] say that about all of its rivals. And
[5:54] thankfully, unlike the E53 we just
[5:56] drove, there's no Phat function in this
[5:58] car, so there's no blending between the
[6:00] full electric motor or a full electric
[6:02] drive and the internal combustion side
[6:03] of things. This is a 9-speed automatic
[6:06] gearbox. It's torque converted. It's
[6:08] plenty quick, but not sporty. And the
[6:11] all-wheel drive system, which is the AMG
[6:12] sport version of this, is rear-biased
[6:15] most of the time in eco mode or when
[6:17] you're cruising, will disconnect the
[6:18] front axle. It'll cruise in rear-wheel
[6:20] drive. It is very fuel-efficient. At
[6:23] 75-80 mph, you can return over 30 mpg,
[6:27] which is impressive for a car like this.
[6:29] And if you have the correct options
[6:31] enabled and you have the right
[6:32] performance package, it will go into
[6:34] drift mode, not that you'll ever be
[6:35] doing that, but you can shred the rear
[6:37] tires. When it comes to braking, it is a
[6:39] four-piston front, single-piston rear.
[6:42] Again, not a track car. And it does come
[6:44] on fairly nerve, but wide tires. These
[6:47] are definitely more geared at at least
[6:49] in this car in specification for, let's
[6:52] call it, cruising in all-weather
[6:54] conditions than all-out lap time. Last
[6:57] thing to talk about is the architecture.
[6:58] It is multi-link front and rear, which
[7:00] goes a long way. That's not something
[7:01] you can say about a 3 or 4 series. This
[7:04] is more in line with, say, a 5 series
[7:05] architecture or an E-Class than a
[7:08] C-Class. So, that, let's go take this
[7:10] for a quick
[7:12] This is more in line with a
[7:14] more premium platform vehicle like a 5
[7:17] series or what you traditionally think
[7:18] of an E-Class competitor than the 3
[7:20] series, which is a strut-based car. So,
[7:22] that, I'm going to go take this for a
[7:23] quick drive.
[7:28] >> [music]
[7:32] >> Setting off in the CLE 53 in full fully
[7:36] divorced specification, top down, race
[7:39] start,
[7:41] matte black,
[7:44] but right.
[7:46] First things first, let's talk about the
[7:47] drivetrain.
[7:49] This is a inline six turbocharged mild
[7:52] hybrid and
[7:54] it delivers upon the idea that this is
[7:56] supposed to be a sporty luxury coupe.
[7:59] This is not an M car or an M4
[8:01] competitor. What this is is it needs to
[8:03] be fast enough to have some factor of
[8:06] wow when merging on the highway. You can
[8:08] use launch control, not that many owners
[8:10] will, it will get you to zero to 60 in
[8:11] under four, but more importantly, in any
[8:14] gear, at any time, you can just tip into
[8:17] it and there's a ton of low-down torque
[8:19] primarily that pulls you through the
[8:22] gears. It is not an engine that
[8:25] particularly rewards being wound out and
[8:27] on top of that, to be honest, despite
[8:29] being an inline six, you can sort of
[8:30] remove that idea of like BMW inline
[8:34] sixes or old-school, you know, Mercedes
[8:37] V8 or six-cylinder AMG noise. It's very
[8:41] muted and it very much so sounds like a
[8:43] digitally augmented active exhaust. All
[8:47] you primarily hear is
[8:49] a kind of fake whooshing noise through
[8:51] the speakers along with a crackle and
[8:53] pop out the exhaust. It's not the most
[8:56] audibly rewarding engine, but compared
[9:00] to some of the other more recent
[9:02] Mercedes drivetrains we've experienced,
[9:04] namely the PHEV variants, there's a
[9:07] level of honesty to this thing. It's far
[9:09] more refined. When it comes down to
[9:10] gearbox calibration,
[9:13] it's not a ZF eight-speed. I'm going to
[9:15] say that. I mean, not that that is the
[9:16] world's quickest fast shifting gearbox
[9:18] by any means,
[9:20] but it's not that fast to downshift and
[9:23] if you ever get to the point where you
[9:24] hit fuel cut off or redline,
[9:26] as I'm about to demonstrate, it takes a
[9:28] second. Wait, wait, wait, wait for it.
[9:33] Uh, in this case, it auto upshifted, but
[9:35] But you are in manual mode and you don't
[9:36] let it auto-upshift,
[9:38] it won't let you shift hard. Sorry, it
[9:41] basically lags. You hear where we go
[9:43] back down to second.
[9:45] And on the gas, hit fuel cut off. Now
[9:47] you shift, it takes a full, maybe half a
[9:50] second for it to get back in the power.
[9:52] It seems to stutter fairly hard in that
[9:54] regards. But if you just leave it in
[9:56] drive, you let it do auto-up shift, you
[9:57] let it figure what gear it's in, it's
[9:59] plenty quick. Now the driving dynamics,
[10:02] again, this is a
[10:03] more luxury than sporty coupe. Does a
[10:06] good job. When you put it in a comfort,
[10:08] it absorbs all the bumps you want it to.
[10:10] It feels very solid despite this being a
[10:12] convertible, there's zero cowl shake.
[10:14] And at a higher speed, sort of that GT
[10:16] cruising speed,
[10:18] you have no idea what speed you're going
[10:21] at all. It basically becomes a very good
[10:23] isolation chamber. And when you put the
[10:25] top up, it's very, very quiet for a soft
[10:28] top. This has to be one of the most uh
[10:31] isolated soft top convertibles I've been
[10:33] in in recent memory. They do an
[10:34] excellent job when you have the top up
[10:37] of like basically isolating you from the
[10:39] world around you. And then with the top
[10:41] down like I currently have it, they do a
[10:43] very good job managing wind on the
[10:45] inside and it still feels like a luxury
[10:47] car. The at-limit driving dynamics,
[10:49] again, this is not a track car. If you
[10:52] want a actually sporty 2+2
[10:56] uh
[10:57] convertible,
[10:58] you're much better off with
[11:01] like an M4 if I'm being honest, or even
[11:03] a Mustang in many regards. This is
[11:06] basically a default light understeer.
[11:08] And then if you go past that, it goes in
[11:10] an oversteer moment. I will say it's
[11:12] very confidence-inspiring.
[11:14] And despite this being a big, big, heavy
[11:16] car, the rear steer
[11:18] does a good job masking some of its
[11:20] initial size and turn-in. And it's a
[11:23] little bit more naturally calibrated
[11:25] than the rear steer has been in some
[11:26] other Mercedes products. I think
[11:28] cohesively, this is a very good luxury
[11:32] coupe. And in recent memory of a lot of
[11:34] Mercedes I've driven, I think it's the
[11:35] most honest in what it is, right?
[11:37] Despite some of the AMG branding, you
[11:39] know when you look at this car, you look
[11:40] at the specs, you within 2 seconds of
[11:42] driving it, you understand that they
[11:44] knew that this had to be an isolated,
[11:46] sporty, luxury coupe. And I think in
[11:49] that specific
[11:51] guys, it does an excellent job. And as I
[11:53] mentioned in the show, right? The
[11:54] drivetrain's quick, it gets good fuel
[11:56] economy, it rides well. I think
[11:58] visually, and that's a big part of
[12:00] luxury coupes, I think it looks really
[12:02] good for what it is. They knew exactly
[12:05] what they needed to do with this car.
[12:06] Doesn't have the awkwardness of the the
[12:09] G cars that I can think of, like it's
[12:11] far better looking in my eyes than an
[12:13] M4.
[12:14] And from a usability side of things, as
[12:16] much as it pains me to admit, outside of
[12:18] the lack of charisma from this
[12:20] drivetrain compared to say the 5 L in an
[12:21] LC 500, at many things, it does a better
[12:25] job than the LC. So that, and before
[12:28] Mark kills me for uh
[12:29] speaking ill of his baby, the LC 500,
[12:32] it's time for me to head into the final
[12:33] thoughts.
[12:35] >> [music]
[12:41] [music]
[12:41] >> Final thoughts on the CLE 53 AMG. What I
[12:44] think this car is is a very
[12:45] well-executed Mercedes convertible. It's
[12:47] a 2 + 2, but the back seat isn't huge,
[12:49] it has some of that flexibility, and it
[12:52] knows what it needs to be, which is a
[12:53] comfortable, quick, luxury GT car with
[12:56] reasonable driving dynamics. Everything
[12:59] from the steering to the brakes, to the
[13:01] ride quality, the drivetrain
[13:02] integration, to the rear steer is all
[13:04] done fairly cohesively. Nothing stands
[13:06] out as being a problem. It is very quick
[13:09] from a straight line, it returns good
[13:10] fuel efficiency. While it doesn't sound
[13:12] the best, it is a very quiet and very
[13:14] comfortable for long periods of time on
[13:15] the highway. And I think if you're
[13:17] looking for that car that you want to
[13:19] cruise for long distances in, or take
[13:21] the top down when you're around town, or
[13:23] up to say 70 mph, I think it delivers
[13:25] upon its mission. And more importantly
[13:27] to me, I think it looks the part. While
[13:29] I'm not a matte black paint person, I
[13:32] think if you pick some of the different
[13:33] color options, this car is quite
[13:35] attractive looking, particularly
[13:37] compared to something like a BMW M4 or
[13:39] M440i.
[13:40] So that, thanks for watching. Hope to
[13:41] see you again soon.