SEVEN generations and almost 180,000 vehicles later, we have the Mercedes-Benz C216 CL-class – the company’s large two-door coupe that is meant to be its luxury, technological and style flagship. Derived from the W211 S-class sedan, the latest version certainly has an extremely strong base from which to mount a credible challenge to more expensive rivals from Bentley, Ferrari and Maserati. Does it succeed? We test the ‘entry level’ CL500 to find out.
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Mercedes-Benz C215 CL500
Released: March 2000
Ended: March 2007
Family Tree: CL-classThe sixth-generation CL Coupe was a sleek and inspired improvement over its bloated C140 predecessor, with striking lines (from Australian designer Peter Arcadipane), a truly sumptuous interior, plenty of gadgets both useful and gimmicky, and a powerful 225kW/460Nm 5.0-litre V8 engine, tied initially to a five-speed automatic gearbox. In early 2004 Mercedes introduced a facelift, which included one of the first applications of its 7G-Tronic seven-speed automatic transmissions.
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