MERCEDES-BENZ CLE 300 COUPE

Does this all-new model represent the best of the C-Class and E-Class coupés it replaces, or is it a consolidation too far?

- MATT SAUNDERS

TESTED 30.8.23, SAN SEBASTIAN, SPAIN ON SALE AUTUMN PRICE £55,000 (EST)

Picturing a mid-sized Mercedes luxury coupé may not feel like an especially modern thing to do, but I'm sure you can come up with plenty of options. A bluff but lovely 1980s C123, perhaps; a marginally curvier 1990s C124; or even a CLK Kompressor, so popular in the early 2000s.

Over the decades, Sindelfingen has spoilt us for choice with these extra-desirable two-door grand tourers. And yet rather sadly, it can no longer afford to. A consolidation process of Mercedes' internal-combustion offerings has been creeping quietly forth for a while now, as it finds the research and development cash it needs for its electrified models by cutting others. This robbed us of a replacement for the pretty S-Class Coupé as long ago as 2020, and it has now cut the firm's smaller coupé and cabriolet count by half, as instead of individual replacements for the C-Class and E-Class two-doors, we get this new CLE.

Based on the same platform as the latest C-Class and E-Class saloons and estates, it is intended to answer the desire of owners of the old C-Class Coupé for a more spacious cabin and that of owners of the old E-Class Coupé for a slightly sportier and more engaging drive.

Built at Mercedes' factory in Bremen, Germany (alongside the new SL convertible, no less), the CLE will be launched in the UK later this year as a fixed-head coupé and then in 2024 as a cloth-top cabriolet.

Initially, the coupé will be offered with a choice of mildly hybridised, turbocharged, inline four- and six-cylinder petrol engines (badged CLE 300, tested here, and CLE 450, tested overleaf), both with 4Matic four-wheel drive.

There are cheaper, four-cylinder, rear-driven CLE 200 and CLE 220d models too, but they're for abroad.