Mercedes-Benz CLS 500 (C219) | The Brave Pill

Successful pioneers are all the time fast to find that imitation follows exhausting on the heels of flattery. These days the concept of giving one thing with greater than two doorways a lowered roofline after which claiming it’s a coupe isn’t any extra radical or unique than becoming it with a wiper stalk. It’s a pattern that has impressed some actually horrendous-looking vehicles, a number of of which have worn Mercedes badges. Yet one look on the first-gen CLS which kicked the factor off exhibits simply how good the chop prime can look on one thing lengthy, low and modern. It’s a real shock to grasp that such a fresh-looking piece of design is on the cusp of its 20th anniversary.

Before anyone will get too het up, I admire that Mercedes didn’t pioneer this a part of the market. At the unique CLS press launch a number of British journalists demanded to understand how Merc’s claims to be breaching a brand new phase squared with the actual fact Rover had accomplished a lot the identical factor with the P5B Coupe almost 40 years earlier. The clean expressions on the faces of the Merc execs recommended they have been completely unaware of the Rover’s existence. But it’s truthful to say that, till Merc reanimated it, the concept had been in long-term hibernation.

While its revolutionary styling offers loads of alternative for black polo neck nerding, our Pill has been rigorously chosen for one more very apparent level of attraction. It dates from the joyful time when Merc was nonetheless placing massive engines into vehicles with out demanding patrons additionally went for an AMG model. So whereas most British CLS patrons opted for the V6 diesel, our Pill is packing the rather more compelling choice of the 5.0-litre ‘M113’ V8. This is in a comparatively relaxed state of tune – making 302hp, and sure some muscular noises because it does so – and all the time suited the CLS particularly properly. Even after 18 years and 112,000 miles this one ought to nonetheless have most of that muscle left. For £4,500 it seems to be like glorious worth in comparison with the dowdier Merc V8 options for a similar or much less.

While the fashionable exterior is completely totally different, the C219 CLS has a really shut relationship with the W211 E-Class below the floor. Mechanically they’re just about an identical, with the CLS sharing its dowdier sister’s wheelbase and sitting on the identical floorpan, with frequent suspension parts, engines and transmissions. So the excellent news is that components provide for the oily bits is each bit nearly as good as it’s for the up to date E-Class.

But there’s a damaging facet to the shared heritage as properly. Like the E-Class, the CLS is a product of Mercedes’s lengthy period of shonkiness, the interval all through the late nineties and noughties when the model gave up on solidity and reliability and to prioritize snazzy new expertise, the ambition to suit this typically operating far upfront of the company skill to make it work.

Being a well-equipped CLS 500 our Pill goes to characteristic a lot of the accessible failure factors, together with each the Sensotronic electrical brake booster that’s notorious for costly borkage in addition to height variable AIRMATIC suspension. On the plus facet, that is undoubtedly working at current, the seller demonstrating its efficiency by having chosen the raised experience height setting, which is why there appears to be about two inches an excessive amount of area on the prime of the wheelarches. But AIRMATIC can also be well-known for expensive pump failures. Squinting on the inside pictures additionally suggests our Pill has the radar cruise management which might have been one other £££ choice on the time, in addition to the bi-xenon headlights. It appears absolutely laden for a non-AMG model.

While the CLS was given keener chassis settings than these of the E-Class it was nonetheless rather more of a cruiser than a bruiser, particularly on air suspension. The driver’s seat place is certainly low and coupe-like, and from reminiscence the C219 steered fairly properly. Less spectacular is visibility – hindered by the entrance pillars and just about worn out rearwards by the letterbox rear display screen. Legroom is respectable, just about an identical to that of the E-Class, however the trendy roofline implies that taller occupants battle to suit comfortably within the again. Which should have been inconvenient to any of the Russian gangsters drawn by the automobile’s visible menace and wanting to move a full cargo of hefty henchmen.

Our Pill’s MOT historical past resembles the flag of Burkina Faso – close to equal quantities of pink and inexperienced. The excellent news for a Merc of this period is that there’s just one reference to any form of structural corrosion, which is reassuring given the C219 shares the tendency to rust as its much less snazzy contemporaries. The single point out was an advisory for a grotty entrance sub-frame in 2020, this of the milder ‘not seriously weakened variety.’ Apart from that the one use of the c phrase within the on-line historical past has been in reference to brake pipes and exhaust brackets.

More regarding is a fail with an airbag warning mild illuminated in 2017, one which hasn’t returned since, plus a ‘fuel system component leaking’ in 2020. Aside from these there have been a number of different flunks for worn suspension parts – the C219 being well-known for the rapacious consumption of bushes and management arms – in addition to mis-aligned and nonfunctioning lights. Keeping the suspension in fettle is more likely to be akin to portray the Forth Bridge – as quickly as you’ve changed every part will probably be time to begin once more.

Yet that want for care and a focus is unquestionably priced into our Pill, which is simply an ageless registration away from fooling Daily Mail caption writers into pondering it is price at the very least thrice as a lot as it’s. It actually seems to be a lot more energizing than any of the opposite Mercs you would purchase wrapped across the similar engine. In brief, a really trendy solution to get a dose of valedictory worth enjoyable.