Mercedes-AMG CLE 53 2025 long-term test

The extra £5500 for the Night Edition Premium Plus gets you a head-up display, a Burmester 3D stereo with amazing sound quality, some different exterior and interior trim and what sounds like a spa day with some fancy air fragrances and “next-generation” massaging seats.

You can spend another £7500 on top for the Pro Performance Package, which lowers the driving position with bucket seats, adds a race mode and a drift function to the driving mode options and sticks on lots of carbonfibre trim.

I haven’t had a long spell with a Mercedes since I ran an A-Class hatch just before Covid, and it has been interesting to see the shift in positioning of the brand during that time.

It’s in the process of reversing out of the volume market with cars like the A-Class (about which my reports often centred on whether it was better than the Volkswagen Golf) and returning to being what CEO Ola Källenius calls “a premium luxury car maker”.

That’s not jargon, as cars such as the CLE demonstrate what he means: it’s a cut above the likes of the 4 Series but clearly not a Bentley. It’s that in-between position that Mercedes has occupied when at its very best. There’s no Volkswagen with which to compare the CLE.

The CLE 53 hasn’t been the easiest car to gel with, because it’s tricky to get everything in the right settings. That’s not just from the sheer volume of information and selection tools presented to you on the screens and the steering wheel and the level of customisation they then afford but also in a more basic way of getting comfortable.

You sit quite high, which takes some getting used to, particularly as it’s a wide car to place on the road and its extremities feel a long way away. That has meant lots of fiddling with the electric seat to find the right driving position.

There’s then a lot of bandwidth within the various driving modes to search for what’s right for you, selectable through different suspension and powertrain settings on two steering wheel controls.

Often with driving modes, you can discount one for sapping all the power and another for making the car too uncomfortable, but it’s more nuanced in the CLE 53, and they all have merits.

Comfort and Sport are horses for courses, and I’m hunting for that ‘Goldilocks’ setting that has it just right for most of the time. But if it’s in the right settings and you’re on the right road... that’s more like it. Sport stiffens up the chassis but doesn’t make it too stiff, allowing you to really, really interact with the road.

I’ve already had some memorable drives in this car. The engine in particular is fantastic. When we first tried this 3.0-litre mild-hybrid turbo straight six, in a CLS saloon in 2018, we gave the car an award on the strength of its engine alone, and I still love the way it wants for little in performance while being so smooth at the same time.

This is so far proving to be more muscle car than precision driver’s tool yet one with sumptuous material richness inside and clearly some hidden depths. Best I find the right menu to access them.

Update 2

"That's not the CLE AMG, is it? Oh my God!"

"That is a truly lovely car, mate. Beautiful."

"Love that. Wow. That's the nicest car I've seen in ages."

All three of those interactions with complete strangers happened within 48 hours of each other, and they aren't uncommon when I'm out and about in the CLE 53.

Maybe it's just how vast the Mercedes range is and how hard it can be to keep up with the flow of new models, but the specialness of the CLE, particularly in AMG flavour, had passed me by a bit. This really is a stunner.

Usually you have to be in exotica like an Aston Martin or a Bentley for a big coupé to turn heads in such a way. I can't recall a BMW, an Audi (or even a Mercedes for that matter this side of an SLS or AMG GT, at least) garnering such a reaction.

When you drive past people, you can often track their heads following the car as it goes by, and a glance in the rear-view mirror might reveal them still looking.

And good on 'em. I would, too. The more time I spend in the CLE 53, the more I like it and the more special it feels in every way: looks, performance, handling, interior theatre, big boot.

I was fortunate enough to spend a week in a Bentley Continental GT in the US recently, and the CLE 53 feels far closer to that lineage than a C-Class. Such trips have meant I've been sharing the CLE 53 love around the Autocar team.

Digital editor Murray Scullion drove it back to back with an old CLK 63 AMG Black Series for an upcoming feature. He came back smitten, too, and felt it was in no way overshadowed by what many consider to be the zenith of AMGs.

"I thought there were striking similarities between the pair," he told me. "Both feel heavy and mechanical. Both have huge torque available seemingly at any speed in any gear. Both have huge road presence and brazen soundtracks."

"We borrowed the CLK Black Series from a renowned Mercedes specialist, the SL Shop. What was very telling was that absolutely everyone there loved the CLE."

Editor-in-chief Steve Cropley, meanwhile, "greatly enjoyed its refined sportiness", saying: "I loved the steering and firm, flat ride — especially the way it could be quite markedly varied through four settings by a convenient twist control on the steering wheel."

That controller holds the key to really being able to gel with the car, as associate editor James Attwood found out: "It's a difficult car to adjust to at first, but once you spend a bit of time and work your way through the settings, it opens up. At first it felt a little harsh, but with some fiddling and familiarity it became much easier to enjoy."

There are further allowances you have to make for the CLE 53, and all borrowers shared similar concerns: you need to get used to the driving position, the sheer size of it (you think a C-Class, due to the name, but it's more E), the poor rear visibility and the massive overhangs when manoeuvring. But once you're settled you can really get to enjoy it.

From the interior, which Attwood said "feels like you would want a luxury Merc coupé to: nicely grand and comfortable", to the engine, at which deputy editor Felix Page marvelled: "That straight six has to be one of the best all-rounders under the bonnet of any current production car. Composed and manageable at a cruise, quiet at low speeds and delightfully raucous and grunty where space permits."

That last point was a concern shared by Cropley: "To really get a car like this truly working, you have to drive it pretty hard, which can get rather antisocial unless you choose your test territory carefully. But do this and it's rewarding, for sure."

Now, can I have the keys back?

Update 3 

Considering the state of Britain’s roads and the vast mileage I cover testing cars, it’s a miracle that I’ve never had flat tyre – but it has finally happened, and I’ve broken my duck in style.

I was looking forward to spending a week in our Mercedes-AMG CLE 53 long-termer, since I liked the model when I did the first drive review a few months back – a six-cylinder coupé is right up my street.

I do remember the ride feeling a tad brittle and those nice 20in wheels looking extremely kerbable, though, and so they proved.

I was enjoying a spirited drive on one of my favourite local roads when BANG! A particularly vicious pothole was hiding in a shady spot, and the CLE’s width makes it hard to swerve safely. I’ve hit wince-worthy potholes before, but this one felt different. 

Sure enough, after just a few seconds, the tyre-pressure monitor showed the front le going down quickly and the car started pulling to the le . In a quiet side road, I surveyed the damage.

A can of goo was never going to save the front left, but the rear le looked unharmed. I called Mercedes-Benz Assistance and in moments I was through to an actual person who took my details and sent help.

After 25 minutes, I received a text from the RAC saying they were on the case. From this point, my experience isn’t entirely representative, because normally the easiest thing would have been to recover the car to the nearest Mercedes dealership, which wasn’t far away.

Because this is a press car, Mercedes UK wanted it recovered to the press garage in Milton Keynes, which was far away. About an hour a er my initial call, there was the offer of a mobile tyre fitter, but since they wouldn’t have the correct Mercedes-spec Michelin Pilot Sport S5 rubber, I declined, because fitting something else felt like a waste of a tyre.

In the end, two and a half hours after my first call, a truck arrived to take me home and then the car up to Bucks. A few days later, I learned that the pothole claimed not just one tyre, but also bent the front and rear wheels, as well as some suspension components.

I didn’t see the bill for it, and I don’t think I want to. There are a few takeaways from this tale. Keeping in mind that my experience was complicated by this being a press car, I’d say it’s a solid pass for Mercedes-Benz Assistance – good on the phone, but the choice of recovery partner could be better.

Meanwhile, I still like the CLE 53, but I don’t like its wheels. Let’s face it: our roads aren’t going to improve any time soon. So why tempt fate with ultra-low-pro le tyres? They’re also Mercedes-specific and different sizes front and back, which makes sourcing replacements harder. 

Update 4

Convertibles are an increasingly rare breed in new car showrooms. The era of a convertible version of almost everything (Nissan Micra, Peugeot 206, Vauxhall Astra…) is thankfully long behind us, giving the drop-tops that remain more of a special feel and sense of occasion that this breed of car deserves.

And proper soft-tops at that, as the retractable hard top thankfully seems to have largely been consigned to history too. Even premium car makers like Mercedes have cut their convertible ranges.

There’s only the CLE Cabriolet and SL Roadster if you want a soft-top Merc, and given the supercar brief of the latter, if you want a more traditional Mercedes convertible, the CLE is all there is.

While the AMG CLE 53 was off the road for a few days having its wheels sorted after road tester Illya Verpraet fell out with a pothole, Mercedes sent us a CLE 450 4Matic AMG Line Premium Plus Cabriolet (rolls off the tongue) to try.

The sun even came out for some winter roof-down miles, that most British of pastimes. So what if it’s only two degrees outside? I need my vitamin D.

Like the CLE coupé, the cabriolet is beautifully designed and proportioned. It’s so elegant, a real classy and classical Merc.

The AMG CLE 53 has been turning as many heads as a supercar would, and nods of approval follow you around in the cabriolet too. It has serious kerb appeal, even if the red roof and tan interior combination isn’t quite one I’d go for.

I’ve been hugely impressed with the refinement levels in the CLE Cabriolet, the 3.0-litre straight-six engine feeling wonderfully understressed. Even with the roof down, it’s a quiet cabin.

The seats are huge and incredibly supportive; blinding heated seats too – a must in a soft-top in Britain. It does feel its size and weight over bumps in the road, yet this is more a trade-off for the roof-down poseur appeal than it is a compromise.

You never feel like you’re in a dynamically inferior product. The boot is quite fiddly: it’s enormous, but it doubles as storage for the roof when folded away.

There’s an almost invisible dividing line in the boot that you need to work out where not to push any luggage behind.

The theatre of reaching for the retractable roof button inside can be interrupted by a ‘computer says no’ moment. Less is more when it comes to coupés and convertibles if they are to retain their special feeling, and for Mercedes to go all in on the CLE at the expense of everything else achieves that.

These are feel-good cars. Soon, there will be a convertible version of the AMG CLE 53. Now that will be one to try…

Update 5

Driving your first AMG is not something that anyone should take lightly. I mean, just look at the bulldog stance and menacing glare of the CLE 53 and tell me you wouldn’t be at least a tad nervous.

So I was thankful to be given not only the key to this car but also an invitation to Mercedes-Benz World in Surrey for an AMG driving experience and driver training day.

Situated on the historic race track at Brooklands, it’s an impressive emporium – and all the more so when I visited because it was hosting a classic car auction. Well, unless there was some bizarre German licensing deal for pink Ford Edsels I never knew about.

There’s a wide range of experiences on offer here, ranging from brief passenger rides to full driving days; in anything from EVs to off-roaders to super-saloons; and costing from £45 to £695.

There are even sessions for kids. I was, of course, delighted to avoid a silent soap bar and be directed towards a C63 – albeit the commercial bomb that is the S E Performance four-cylinder plug-in hybrid.

Instructing me was Keith Robinson, who proved as chatty, affable and enthusiastic as he is knowledgeable and experienced, having raced Ferrari GTs at a high level. Also among the instructors was Mauro Calo – a name familiar to Autocar devotees and James Bond film directors alike.

It’s a tight and technical handling circuit but with a good mix of corner types and space on the straights for some serious speed, especially when you have 671bhp at your disposal.

As I built my confidence, Keith gave me encouragement and pointers on my technique with the controls, braking points and cornering lines.

I’d not driven on a damp track before, nor in a plug-in hybrid, so there was much to learn. As we finished up, he got me to try a lap in EV mode. The C63 is still quick even when silent, and the fact that this duality is possible is technically impressive – but then so is a train, and I’m never going to get excited about that.

Thank heaven for the news about a new AMG V8… Anyway, the dance became much more enjoyable when I swapped into an A45 S.

Thanks to this mega-hatch’s comparatively uncomplicated turbo petrol engine and lighter weight, I got into something of a flow and was soon lapping quickly and confidently.

The skidpan was a very different experience. I understand the fundamentals of powersliding a car, but Mercedes’ four-wheel drive system turns them on their head. Steering into a drift will ruin it.

Instead, you have to tip the car sharply sideways, then hold the wheel pretty much straight while pumping the throttle to maintain momentum.

Keith seemed genuinely impressed that I pulled off a ‘4Matic drift’ (albeit not consistently), but all my instincts were telling me that what I was doing was weird and wrong.

I decided to leave Autocar’s smokyphoto duties to Mauro… Perhaps the most eye-opening experience of all, though, was the drag strip.

Even with far from ideal surfaces underwheel, using the C63’s launch control yielded 0-62mph in only around four seconds. We’ve become used to such numbers, but sit and count four elephants and you’ll appreciate how little time that actually is.

There was some serious thudding when my timing was off, but it just violently bolted when I aced it. I’ve felt similar sickening acceleration in many EVs, but some accompanying engine noise makes all the difference.

Finally, I was taught how to do an emergency stop through standing water – perhaps counterintuitively, so ly did the trick. Slamming the pedal to the floor simply locked up the wheels, despite the best efforts of the ABS.

A half-day AMG experience is definitely not cheap at more than £500, but it’s something I’d highly recommend. And you can choose your own adventure, within reason: if 70mph is your comfortable limit, they will happily let you do that.

Hopping back into the CLE 53 to drive home, I had a newfound understanding of fast cars and a greater belief in my own ability to handle one, which, of course, is precisely the idea.

Update 6 

When the CLE was first announced, it sounded like just another new Mercedes to fill yet another specialist niche.

However, quite the opposite has proved to be true: the CLE has allowed for a rationalisation of several Mercedes models, while still feeling both special and unique from anything else in the range.

The CLE strikes me as one of the purest and most feel-good models the three-pointed star makes today. Not only has progress on the old-school Mercedes-Benz coupé been good, then, but the CLE also feels like it’s among the best of them.

The CLE has a more classical style, but the shiny newness of its badge meant I often found myself explaining exactly what type of Mercedes this was. You hear ‘C’ at the start of its name and instinctively think of something smaller, while the ‘E’ suggests a larger car – and a CL was about as big as Mercs got back in the day.

And no, it’s not a CLK. So you could read those three letters several different ways. In essence, the CLE replaces the C-Class, E-Class and S-Class coupés and cabriolets all at once.

Mercedes has pitched it somewhere around the E-Class and S-Class models in size and positioning, rather than go after more volume. It was a good call: rarity only adds to the appeal.

Yet the sense of occasion was over and above that of all those ‘Class’- suffixed models and came close to supercar levels.

This thing turned heads, and plenty of them. The CLE generated the most interest of any car I’ve run this side of McLaren’s 650S, and even that didn’t foster as much positivity pound for pound.

Perhaps that’s because the Mercedes feels more relatable more achievable; that’s the mark of a good brand that has created a level of aspiration even as it has spread down into other markets.

The CLE is a good example of a reversal of a wider trend at Mercedes. Its models now seem to have been developed with a bit more thought put into what they’re about and why you would buy them, and there’s clear, distinct positioning between models, rather than them overlapping or tripping over something else in the range.

The design is a triumph, and the CLE is perhaps the best-looking car Mercedes makes. The Gorden Wagener-shaped design theme has stuck for well over a decade, and while some of the volume Mercs suffer from a touch of VW Golf-itis, making it hard to tell one generation from another, the CLE shows Mercedes’ design and proportions at their very best.

Can you tell that I quite liked this car? It was certainly love at first sight, but that didn’t extend to the way it drove. The CLE felt vast from behind the wheel, more so than its dimensions (4.85 metres long, 1.94 metres wide) suggest.

It took some getting used to, and you were only ever a tight city street or narrow B-road away from having to breathe in. The large, 20in alloys sat well outside the bodywork, too, and I kerbed them twice. It’s a sickening feeling, and I pride myself on taking care behind the wheel and being a good judge of dimensions, but I met my match in the CLE.

Road tester Illya Verpraet went further by taking out the nearside front 265/35 R20 Michelin, although this was due to a pothole.

Still, it demonstrated the wheels’ vulnerability. In a previous report (Autocar, 12 February) we said there was suspension and wheel damage as a result of this incident, but we’re happy to clarify this wasn’t the case: only the tyre was replaced and the nearside alloys were refurbished.

You sit high and far back in the CLE. It’s quite an unusual driving position and took some getting used to. The interior, while comfortable and richly appointed, was pretty baffling, too, with some big screens along with lots of buttons and different control inputs, and I never truly felt like I had learned my way around.

The thumb-wipe buttons on the steering wheel were particularly odd, and I fell out with the ‘Hey Mercedes’ voice control more than once. “Hey Mercedes, where’s the swear jar?”

Then there were the driving modes, switchable through two dials on the steering wheel, one of which adjusts the powertrain and liberates more performance, while the other stiffens the chassis.

There were real, noticeable differences between the settings, far more than is typical. I liked Comfort on the motorway and Sport on a B-road. That might not sound like a revelation, but too often I find driving modes are gimmicky, and simply making a car feel slower in one direction or too uncomfortable in another.

The CLE has plenty of different characters to explore. Character is the key word for this car: it has bags of it. Even the foibles are part of its charm; this is a car you have to get to know in order to understand it, and then you can really enjoy and exploit it.

It can just as easily play the role of big, comfortable cruiser or B-road weapon, with its four-wheel steering giving a level of agility that something so big shouldn’t have. For now, the CLE range is topped by the 53 AMG version we ran. This does without the V8 (or four-cylinder hybrid…) of 63-badged AMGs but is no slouch itself.

The straight-six engine is a belter and a real highlight. It’s not at the level of drama of a Mercedes V8, but it isn’t trying to be that.  In this context, it feels more akin to a downscaled Bentley: big on torque and refinement, and the power and performance is a by-product of that.

A smaller Bentley: that’s a good way of looking at the CLE, both for its sense of occasion and for how special it makes even the most mundane trips feel. More of this please, Mercedes.

Mercedes-AMG CLE 53 4Matic+ Coupe Night Edition Premium Plus specification

Prices: List price new £78,825 List price now £78,825 Price as tested £81,445

Options: Alpine Grey solid paint £925, Driving Assistance Package Plus £1695

Fuel consumption and range: Claimed economy 29.4mpg Fuel tank 66 litres Test average 28.1mpg Test best 31.2mpg Test worst 20.1mpg Real-world range 408 miles

Tech highlights: 0-62mph 4.2sec Top speed 155mph Engine 6 cyls in line, 2999cc, twinturbocharged, petrol, plus 48V ISG Max power 443bhp at 5800-8100rpm Max torque 413lb ft at 2200-2500rpm Transmission 9-spd automatic, 4WD Boot capacity 240 litres Wheels 9.5Jx20in (f), 11.0Jx20in (r), alloy Tyres 265/35 R20 (f), 295/30 R20 (r), Michelin Pilot Sport S5 Kerb weight 2000kg

Service and running costs: Contract hire rate £1145pcm CO2 217g/km Service costs None Other costs New tyre £322.87 Fuel costs £672.67 Running costs inc fuel £995.09 Cost per mile 34 pence Faults None