You don't have to have an AMG to get a fast, six-cylinder CLE - so is the 53 worth its premium?
At the moment, it can feel all too easy to focus on what Mercedes isn’t doing for fast cars rather than what it is. You know the complaints: V8s missing from C-Classes and E-Classes, joy absent from the AMG EVs, too many weird SUVs and so on. But that’s to ignore some of the really good stuff that’s out there right now with a three-pointed star on the bonnet. than expected. And our hopes were particularly high. Probably a 4.
Perhaps surprisingly for a comparison of a proper AMG offering against standard Benz - or maybe reflecting the nature of combustion power in 2024 - but there isn’t a great deal of difference between two flavours of the same powertrain. There’s a little more commotion to the 53, a louder growl and a bigger thump on upchanges, though fundamentally they feel pretty similar.
The AMG version is full of those details, in fact, little improvements that add up to make a much more satisfying, engaging Mercedes Benz. The gearbox may be carried over, complete with the selector wand that eventually makes some sense, but manual control is from a pair of proper metallic paddles rather than the slightly apologetic switches in the 450.
All CLEs come as standard 15mm lower than a C-Class and with Agility Control sports suspension. The 450 makes good use of it, too, with a level of precision that belies a pretty chubby kerbweight. There’ll be no complaints from any seat about how it goes down a road, let's put it that way. By the same token, however, there isn’t likely to be any rousing praise or adulation either. The cooking model is fine, but nothing more.
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