Hagerty Test Drive: A hint of thrift for a high-style statement - Traverse City Record Eagle
Briefly: A new entry-level version of the seminal “four-door coupe”. Few events have had as profound an influence on modern automotive design as the debut of the CLS a decade ago. That car’s arched roofline launched a fleet of copycat four-door models, from German luxury competitors to South Korean strivers, all of which willingly sacrificed practicality on the altar of design. The CLS didn’t only make it permissible to market new models with compromised headroom in the rear seat, it also tweaked the lexicon. The “four-door coupe” became an accepted description of the genre, never mind the obvious contradiction. The CLS, based on the midrange E-Class sedans, got away with it in the same way a runway model gets away with, well, almost anything. By the specifications, the loss of headroom in the rear seat is just two inches (and one inch up front) compared with the conventional E-Class. On a recent 1,000-mile trip by myself, the CLS proved to be an ideal long-distance companion, even when construction slowed the Interstate to a crawl for long stretches. Putting practical considerations aside, the CLS has presence, the automotive equivalent of curb appeal. Source: www.record-eagle.com
