Mercedes-Benz CLS Shooting Brake 63 AMG Car Review - May 2013

The Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake 63 AMG 5dr represents the pinnacle of the range, with a hefty price tag of £83,055 to live up to. To do so, the Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake 63 AMG 5dr is fitted with a 5.5-litre, 32-valve, V8 petrol engine mated to a 7-speed automatic gearbox, which gives the car a fantastic 4.3-second 0-62mph time and a top speed of 155mph. It produces 530lb-ft of torque between 1700 and 5000rpm. The handling is excellent too, with the responsive steering providing excellent feedback and the car feeling tight and composed in the corners, although as with all sporty AMG models the suspension is somewhat stiffer than with standard models. Refinement, particularly where the 7-speed automatic gearbox is concerned, is excellent and the Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake 63 AMG 5dr is a quiet, comfortable environment for long journeys despite its impressive turn of pace.

Mercedes’ always look special from the front, with the deep grille and prominent three-pointed star, but the Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake 63 AMG 5dr succeeds in doing so all the way to the rear. The estate body looks superbly coordinated with the elliptical lines of the top of the doors and rear quarter window swooping down to meet the upward curvature of the rear lights. The Shooting Brake 63 AMG is well-appointed on the inside too, with the standard inclusion of power steering, central locking, stability control, alloy wheels, climate control, electric door mirrors, electric front and rear windows, cruise control, rear parking sensors, leather seats, alarm and immobiliser, Bluetooth, MP3 connectivity, and satellite navigation. The interior, as you would hope from a car in its price range, is finished to a very high standard, and AMG specific detailing including badging, trim, leather seats, front and rear diffusers, alloy wheels, while it also gets AMG suspension and axles.

The CLS Shooting Brake 63 AMG boasts a plethora of airbags including driver, passenger, and front side airbags, and with other driver safety aids such as dynamic stability control the German car maker can claim to have constructed as safe a car as possible. Mercedes performs strongly in most customer satisfaction surveys, and the Shooting Brake's standard 3-year manufacturer’s warranty is for unlimited mileage. In terms of practicality, there are some trade offs in order to accommodate the dramatic styling, and the swooping roofline does reduce both the rear load space as well as the rear headroom, although this should only seriously concern the very tallest of passengers. Luggage capacity is still 590 litres, which grows to 1550 litres once both of the split folding rear seats have been lowered.

The Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake 63 AMG 5dr has that £83,055 price tag, and you can expect running costs to be considerable too. The downside of its phenomenal power and performance is a 28 mpg combined fuel economy figure, dropping to 20.2 mpg in urban driving. It churns out 235g/km of CO2 emissions too, so falls into Road Tax Band L, while it has an insurance grouping of 50. While such practicalities will probably not be high on the list of concerns for the Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake 63 AMG, the car is over £30,000 more expensive to buy than the priciest estate offerings from rivals such as BMW and Jaguar. Despite its advantage in performance and driving experience, there is far more scope for depreciation than with its rivals.