Mercedes-Benz CLS Shooting Brake CLS350 7G-Tronic Review: Shooting win

What we like:

Muscular

elegant design with the long sloping roofline. Inspiring exhaust note that tempts your right foot.

What we dislike:

The pause when engaging reverse gear.

Power is transferred quickly and smoothly by the now familiar 7G-tronic system though there’s a minor complaint with the annoying pause when ‘Reverse’ is selected. This isn’t usually a problem on a level road but it does pose a bit of a problem on gradients.

Being a naturally aspirated engine, power comes quickly in this CLS. Acceleration is brisk even though there’s a slight pause after mashing the throttle as the engine builds revs to overcome nearly 1.9 tons of inertia. Once the needle sweeps past 3500rpm, brute force takes over and the large beast accelerates quickly to 100kmh in just 6.7 seconds. It helps that the humble V6 produces a decent rumble when edged.

The Airmatic suspension is nothing sort of silky smooth in the way it cancels out bumps and undulations from getting to your bum. That’s not to say the CLS is hopeless in the bends.

Despite its large size and weight, the CLS is surprisingly agile in lock to lock scenarios. Granted there’s some inertia from the immense weight but body control is still excellent and although the steering is made unnecessarily lighter than needed, it is however a precise and fast rack.

It’s hard to fault something as elegant and beautiful as this Shooting Brake so I will not even try. Considering its delectable blend of comfort, driving dynamics and practicality, there isn’t much more that we could ask of it.

The only request we have is for Santa to send us one AMG version later this year.

Credits: Story and Photos by Benjamin G. Kline