Sporty Elegance

Sure, the third-generation MercedesBenz CLS looks the part – but can it justify its hefty price tag?

- Jared Solomon

It was 1886 when Karl Benz developed the first gasoline-powered automobile. Since then, the German manufacturer with the three-pointed star has been at the forefront of innovation in terms of engineering and design.

In fact, Mercedes Benz has a lot of firsts to its credit – the first diesel-powered passenger car, first production car with a fuel-injection system, first vehicle with ABS, and the list goes on-and-on. But technology is not the only field in which Mercedes Benz has made its presence felt. You see, Mercedes not only revolutionised the automobile industry in terms of technology but also design – and the CLS is the perfect example of this.

With the launch of the CLS in 2004, Mercedes became the first manufacturer to conceptualise the idea of the four-door coupe. The idea was to combine the sporty profile of a coupe with the four-door convenience of a sedan. Suffice to say, the launch of the CLS heralded a whole new segment. Now, almost fourteen years later, the CLS is now in its third generation.

Seductive design

While driving the CLS, you can’t help but notice that it turns a lot of heads. I wouldn’t say that it’s a particularly beautiful car, I’d rather describe it as a sporty amalgamation of elegance and seductiveness. The new car’s design, however, still has a few familiar hallmarks of previous CLS generations – an arching waistline, a sloping roof and a lack of hard edges.