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Walkaround
The Mercedes-Benz CL is a coupe with fluid, graceful lines and an aggressive stance that suggests an iron fist in a velvet glove. It used to be that full-size Mercedes coupes were basically two-door versions of the company's flagship sedans. No more. While this latest-generation CL is based on the S-Class sedan platform, its chassis is heavily revised for coupe duty. And it gets a unique body style.
Interior Features
Doors on coupes are usually long, massive and unwieldy. To address this, Mercedes uses lightweight magnesium for the door frames, and mounts the doors on articulating hinges that slide them forward as they open. So ingress and egress is much easier than in comparable cars.Front seats slide up automatically when the seat back is folded forward, providing easier access to the back seat; that adds to the practicality of this coupe. Despite the rakish styling, the CL maintains adequate rear headroom, in part because of the low rear seat bottoms. Crisply lighted electro-luminescent gauges anchor the sweeping instrument panel. At the center of the dash is a wood-trimmed stack that includes the COMAND display, which manages the navigation system, stereo and cellular telephone systems. Steering wheel-mounted buttons control some COMAND functions. A small panel in the center of the speedometer displays some of the COMAND information. CL packs all of the features Mercedes buyers expect, such as multiple air bags, stability control, on-board navigation, and Tele-Aid emergency response. But it offers even more: Distronic adaptive cruise control ($2,875) uses radar to automatically maintain a safe distance from other cars. Standard Xenon lights are used for high beams as well as for the usual low beams. Keyless Go ($995) lets drivers open locked doors and start the car when carrying the card key, without getting the card out of their pocket. Parktronic ($1,015) warns of objects below the line of vision to ease parking maneuvers.
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