Growing up in Sindelfingen, Germany, as the daughter of a Mercedes-Benz engineer who worked on three generations of the E-Class, Jennifer Schefczik heard the same thing over and over.
“Child, the E-Class is always about style, safety, and comfort,” her dad told her.
Some 20 years later, Schefczik works as the U.S. product manager for the E-Class and its coupe-like offshoot, the CLS-Class. Here at the media launch event for the third-generation CLS, she is more than happy to espouse the merits of the 2019 CLS to me. With a new inline-6-cylinder engine, more interior space, simplified styling, and the latest safety features, Schefczik’s father’s words hold more true for the new CLS than the E-Class whence it came.
2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class
2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class
2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class
Style leader
The CLS has always been about style first and foremost. Mercedes calls it a four-door coupe, but as a four-door, it’s really a sedan with a swoopier roofline. It amounts to an E-Class with a costlier C-pillar, and the compromised backseat that comes along with it.
For 2019, the CLS gets a revised look that Mercedes says represents its new design direction. That roofline is still there, but some of the other lines aren’t. The styling adheres to the “less is more” philosophy—Mercedes calls it “Sensual Purity”—with fewer of the sharp lines and creases from the outgoing car. Squint, and you couldn’t tell the two generations apart, but the differences are plain upon examination. As Bernie Glaser, head of product management for Mercedes-Benz USA, puts it, the designers took away a line, and if they still liked it, they took away another.
The end result is a swoopy, sexy car, with a fast roofline, a long hood, a short deck, short overhangs, and clean, almost slab-like sides highlighted by the frameless windows typical of a coupe.
The clean look extends to the rear where it has an integrated rear spoiler, two-part taillights with “stardust effect” lenses, and dual exhaust outlets that echo the taillights.
Up front, however, Mercedes aimed for aggression, and all U.S. CLS models get AMG styling with an A-shaped grille done up in a diamond-pattern. The grille tilts forward like a shark’s nose and its A-shape leads into the lower fascia, which features a wide center air intake flanked by two smaller ones. The LED headlights sit up top and flow at an angle into the grille.
2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class
Comfortable cruiser
If Schefczik’s father were prioritizing the traits of those past E-Classes, he might have told his daughter, “Child, the E-Class is always about comfort, safety, and style.” While the CLS will never match the E for comfort, this generation makes strides in engine smoothness, dynamic control, interior space, and passenger comfort.
The headline here is the new twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-6 engine that is aided by an integrated starter-generator (ISG). It replaces and 329-horsepower twin-turbo V-6 and produces 362 hp and 369 pound-feet of torque; the ISG can add 21 hp and 184 pound-feet from a stop. The ISG also enables a sailing function when the car is going downhill, makes the stop/start function seamless, and allows the engine to be beltless by operating the air conditioner and water pump.
On the road, the inline-6 is delightful, as it supplies willing thrust from a stop with a demure growl when pushed. It then fades into the background and operates smoothly, working well with the 9-speed automatic transmission, which provides equally smooth shifts. The 0-60 mph sprint takes just 4.8 seconds with the all-wheel-drive system in the cars I’m driving, though that rises to 5.1 seconds with rear drive because it can’t hook up as well.
A more advanced version of this engine is found in the AMG CLS 53 model. It adds an electric supercharger and larger turbos to produce 429 hp and 384 lb-ft of torque.
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Like its E-Class cousin, the CLS combines control and comfort better than previous generations. The CLS comes standard with a four-link front suspension and a five-link rear suspension, with steel springs and 19-inch wheels. Both cars I’m driving, however, have the optional air springs and adaptive dampers, which Mercedes markets as Air Body Control. With either setup, the CLS gets the same ride height as the E-Class Sport, which is 0.6 inch lower than an E-Class Luxury.
2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class
The drive route for the CLS media preview takes us from Brooklyn, over the Brooklyn Bridge, through congested Manhattan, and out into rural New Jersey. From the affluent city to the wealthy suburbs, this is Mercedes country, and the variety of roads gives the CLS the chance to show its capability in most types of driving. The car handles it all well.
Mercedes offers Economy, Comfort, Sport, and Sport+ driving modes, and I find that Sport works for most needs. It keeps the engine at the ready and the suspension more taut, though still comfortable. Even in Sport+, the CLS handles New York potholes with aplomb, though the transmission tuning becomes too high strung for city driving.
For ultimate comfort, tap a button behind the drive mode selector to raise the suspension 0.6 inch and let it soak up bumps that much easier. The air springs lower the car back down at 50 mph, so this is just a city driving feature. Like the steering in one mode, the drivetrain in another, and the suspension in a third? They can be programmed through an Individual mode.
No matter the mode, though, the CLS is as comfortable as past models but with more dynamic control.
2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class
2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class
2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class
Mercedes has done work on the interior to aid comfort as well. For the first time, the CLS is a five-seater, though that middle rear seat is given little love. It sits higher than the other seats, which is a problem in a car that already lacks head room due to that coupe-like roofline.
The good news is the CLS grows 2.0 inches this year, the wheelbase gains 2.4 inches, and rear seat passengers get an extra 0.5 inch of legroom. That makes it more livable for average-sized adults—I can put my 5-foot, 9-inch frame behind my driving position without a problem—but taller occupants will want for headroom and perhaps even legroom. For those folks, the E-Class makes more sense.
Far more comfort is found up front, where the front seats are not only fantastically comfortable, but they have enough bolstering to hold me in place as I attack the corners on open New Jersey roads. The Energizing Comfort system from the S-Class makes its way to the CLS to help me relax as well. It combines the seats’ heating, ventilation, and (when ordered) massage capabilities, with the car’s climate control, fragrance, music, steering wheel and surface heating, and lighting functions into five different 10-minute programs, plus three muscle-training modes. Mercedes likes to call the car a spa on wheels thanks to this system. I can’t argue with that description given the massage and heating or cooling functions. Unfortunately, the two cars I get into lack the massage option, which my back sorely misses.
2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class
2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class
2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class
2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class
The atmosphere alone might be enough to relax some buyers, as the CLS benefits from current levels of Mercedes craftsmanship. The dash features a vast expanse of glossy or open-pore wood, as well as air vents that look like jet turbines and light up red when the heat goes up and blue when it goes down. Aluminum, leather, and glass compliment the wood, and the fit and finish is exemplary.
That glass comes in two forms. A 12.3-inch infotainment screen is standard, and buyers can opt for another 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster screen to create one long screen covered by a single piece of glass. Mercedes calls it the "surfboard." It’s not particularly beautiful in its presentation., nor is it especially easy to use, but it does brim with the latest technology. Owners can operate it with voice commands, touch controls on the COMAND controller on the center console, or thumb controls on the steering wheel. It may not be a point of relaxation for buyers as they learn the system, but each owner will get used to it after a learning curve and it offers all the latest in connected technology.
2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class
A safe space
Mercedes is at the forefront of active safety/semi-autonomous technology, and the CLS benefits from all of it. The standard equipment includes an attention monitor, forward collision warnings with a cross-traffic function and automatic emergency braking, and a new Pre-Safe Sound feature that emits a sound in the event of a crash to protect occupants from hearing loss.
It’s the equipment in the Driver Assistance Package that adds most of the high-tech autonomous and active safety features. They can steer the car for you, follow at a set distance and slow the car down for corners using GPS data, make emergency evasive maneuvers, detect cars in blind spots and prevent the CLS from steering into them, perform automatic lane changes, and follow local speed limits. All of these features are controlled via buttons and toggles on the left side of the steering wheel, and they all come for a very reasonable $2,250.
Out in the middle-of-nowhere New Jersey, I give that control panel a try and let the CLS drive itself on a winding road. Traveling at about 45 mph, the car steers itself, stays in its lane, and maintains its speed. It feels entirely unnatural and I don’t trust it for a minute, but this is a glimpse of the future, and the individual systems make the CLS a much safer car.
2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class
The takeaway
Mercedes-Benz keeps moving forward with its technology, and in the CLS that can be found under the hood, in the sumptuous interior, and in the safety/semi-autonomous driving systems. Cars like the E-Class and CLS also add dynamic capability while retaining the comfort that has always been the hallmark of the brand.
Pricing isn’t available yet, but expect the CLS to cost $10,000 to $12,000 more than a comparable E400, which comes with a V-6 instead of the inline-6. Expensive C-pillar indeed.
Though Schefczik’s father never worked on the 2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS, I have to think he’d approve of the job his company has done with this car, and the enthusiasm his daughter shows for a coupe-like sedan that was born from a car he shepherded through three generations.
Mercedes-Benz provided travel and lodging to Internet Brands Automotive to bring you this firsthand report.
