Express Serve

Mercedes-Benz created an exotic niche many years ago. “The limo in the shape of a coupe” has come a long way since. And climbed higher

- Girish Karkera

Blink and you could miss that this is no ordinary Mercedes barge. Maybe it is the colour – grey, black or whatever fancy name its marketeers would have come up with but stare at it a few seconds more and the differences start being obvious. The all-new CLS is now in this third generation and interestingly, India has seen it all. The first one was a milestone model as it created an all-new segment, giving Mercedes-Benz the first-mover advantage. Its success spurred on rivals such as Audi, first and then BMW to follow with their versions of a limo within a coupe design and all of them did reasonably well.

The last time we drove a CLS was in 2014. It was the facelifted version of the second-generation. It looked smashing for its time, came with a big V6 engine and was pretty much on its own. A lot has changed since then with the advent of more like it both in a similar price bracket and even a segment higher (for eg. Porsche Panamera). The new car looks significantly leaner, sharper and more importantly, gets a diesel engine which it so missed in its previous avatars, here in India.