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The CLS550's styling is polarizing, but we love it even if the headlights are overwrought and it looks a little too much like every other new Mercedes from the front.
The three-pointed star adorning the CLS's massive grille is the size of a gladiator's belt buckle.
the new CLS nods at the old car and then goes its own way. It shares a similar crescent-shaped greenhouse profile and tapered, high-bustle rear with the outgoing car, but much of that car's feminine elegance is gone, particularly at the front.
Especially looking dead-on at the rear end, all the drawn lines of the trunk, rear fenders, new lighting elements, bumper, etc. come off both pinched and pudgy at the same time.
The body looks milled from a solid chunk of steel and makes the still-beautiful departing model look positively dated by comparison. And that's just the outside.
STYLING | 8 out of 10
Expert Quotes:
The CLS550's styling is polarizing, but we love it even if the headlights are overwrought and it looks a little too much like every other new Mercedes from the front.
Motor Trend
The three-pointed star adorning the CLS's massive grille is the size of a gladiator's belt buckle.
Automobile
the new CLS nods at the old car and then goes its own way. It shares a similar crescent-shaped greenhouse profile and tapered, high-bustle rear with the outgoing car, but much of that car's feminine elegance is gone, particularly at the front.
Inside Line
Especially looking dead-on at the rear end, all the drawn lines of the trunk, rear fenders, new lighting elements, bumper, etc. come off both pinched and pudgy at the same time.
Inside Line
The body looks milled from a solid chunk of steel and makes the still-beautiful departing model look positively dated by comparison. And that's just the outside.
Autoblog
The whole Mercedes lineup in the midst of an unsubtle leap from feminine to masculine styling, the 2012 CLS sedan joins in this year with bold cues like the ones that now ring out on the E Class and S Class. Only here, it falls into place more neatly and succinctly. Of all the big Benz sedans, the CLS does the best job of melding an older silhouette with the new styling direction, especially from the rear.
The last time around the drafting table (okay, OLED screen), the CLS had spare, elegant sheetmetal that proved a pretty diversion from the upright E Class lurking underneath. Now it's gone in search of a little toughness. In front, the CLS cribs the pronounced horizontal and trapezoidal lines that also compartmentalize the E Class coupe and sedan. The wide grille and immense three-pointed star come off as a classy way to deal with the taller front end required to meet European crash standards. To us, the beltline that divides the grille from the air intakes makes the CLS look as if it's contemplating its own good looks in a narcissistic pond.
Mothballing the plainer doors and rear fenders it once wore, the CLS is now deeply sculpted down its flanks. Whether you think it harks back to ponton fender lines, or suggests a muscular set of haunches, the CLS' rear quarters just work--it's coiled and tensed, a slingshot of visual motion compared to the gentle arc of the roof.
The reinterpreted panels meet up with a reworked dash inside the CLS. The usual cut-tube gauges glimmer with white borders, a big LCD panel dominates the top of the dash, the center vents bulge outward from wood frames, and soft-brushed metallic trim runs rings around the interior. There's plenty for the eyes to digest on here, and like the other sexy German new on the block, it's almost to the point of overload. The wood trims mostly mute that--but the CLS 63 AMG's optional carbon-fiber trim glowers for attention.
Conclusion
Grafting big quads on a svelte set of bones sounds like metal malpractice, but the 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS just makes it work.
