Mercedes-Benz CLE Coupe 2024 review

So you’ve stared down the assortment of prestige SUVs and decided it’s a grain you’re going against – you’re getting a two-door coupe instead. Good on you.

While a threatened species in the motoring world, Audi will still sell you a two-door A5, BMW a brooding 4 Series, and Mercedes-Benz something altogether new.

This all-new car replaces both the C-Class Coupe/Cabriolet and the E-Class Coupe/Cabriolet, and our guess would be that the new-generation C-Class coupe had grown so big, Mercedes-Benz decided not to bother replacing the E-Class Coupe. Those customers can just have a C-Class Coupe instead.

Meet the new CLE.

Freshly arrived in Australia and riding on the same MRA2 architecture underpinning both the current W206 C-Class and new W214 E-Class, the CLE is meaningfully larger than even a four-door C-Class sedan – 99mm longer, 40mm wider and 9mm lower – though it shares the same 2865mm wheelbase.

The CLE is considerably larger than the old C205 C-Class Coupe as well – 164mm longer, 50mm wider and 23mm taller. It’s even bigger than the old E-Class Coupe in just about every dimension, excluding wheelbase.

A CLE convertible is also coming very soon.

Former E-Class Coupe customers may enjoy a discount in buying a new CLE, but for C-Class Coupe drivers looking to upgrade, the new CLE 200 is $23,615 more than the old C200 Coupe, while the CLE 300 has risen in price by $21,915 over the old C300 Coupe. Ouch.

Mirroring the C200 and C300 sedans, both cars come with a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine and nine-speed automatic transmission.

With the CLE 200 producing 150kW/320Nm and the CLE 300 190kW/400Nm, Mercedes-Benz says the only difference under the bonnet is software (rather than, for example, a larger turbocharger).

The 2.0-litre engine uses an integrated starter generator offering ‘mild’ hybridisation, which can add an extra 17kW/205Nm to the overall outputs in certain situations.

Size-wise, the CLE isn’t too far off its closest prestige two-door rival, the BMW 4 Series coupe. Compared to a 4 Series, the CLE is 82mm longer, 8mm wider and 38mm taller, and riding on a 14mm longer wheelbase.

Aside from something like a 190kW/350Nm BMW 430i ($109,700 before on-road costs), the CLE Coupe might be shopped against the Audi A5 Coupe. Temptingly, an S5 Coupe with a 260kW/500Nm 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 is only $120,300 before on-road costs.

Chasing Cars tested the new CLE 200 and CLE 300 in Brisbane and surrounding hinterland.

What are the CLE Coupe’s features and options for the price?

Both the CLE 200 and CLE 300 come with a lot of equipment as standard in Australia that would be optional overseas – hence why the CLE is a bit pricier compared to some rivals.

At $102,815 before on-road costs, standard equipment highlights for the CLE 200 include:

• 19-inch alloy wheels
• ‘AMG Line’ front and rear bumpers
• ‘Artico’ high-quality vinyl upholstery
• Heated front seats with memory
• Dual-zone climate control
• Panoramic sunroof
• Head-up display
• 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster
• 11.9-inch central infotainment touchscreen
• Wireless Apple CarPlay
• Wireless Android Auto
• Wireless phone charger
• Augmented reality in-built sat-nav
• Burmester 3D surround-sound system
• Digital radio
• Ambient lighting with 64 colours
• Rear privacy glass
• Electric bootlid
• Side mirrors with Mercedes-Benz logo puddle lights

For $123,815 before on-road costs – a hefty additional $21K more – the CLE 300 adds:

• All-wheel drive
• An extra 40kW/80Nm from the same 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine
• Standard leather upholstery (a $2900 option on CLE 200)

For $4900 you can option the Plus Package on either model, which includes:

• Driving Assistance Plus Package – Mercedes-speak for a full advanced driver assistance system (more on that later)
• Air-conditioned front seats
• ‘Multi-contour’ massage front seats
• Semi-autonomous parking
• Air-conditioning fragrance system
• Upgraded alarm system

For an additional $1000, you can choose from two designs of 20-inch wheels, while some paint options cost between an extra $1700 and $2900.

How does the CLE Coupe drive?

Both CLE models are lovely cars to drive. Around town, the ride quality is supple – impressive given the fixed-rate dampers – and its interior is appreciably quiet. The word that comes to mind is simply ‘nice’.

The 150kW/320Nm CLE 200 is a sweet car to drive. With what feels like no weight over the front axle, and perfectly judged suspension tuning, it turns in with a beautiful ease. Its rear-drive format means that power and grip are in closer equilibrium than the all-wheel-drive 300, making the 200 a surprising driver’s delight.

It feels lighter on its feet than its 1809kg kerb weight suggests – even if it’s ultimately not the fastest thing in the world (its 0-100km/h claim is 7.4sec). It at least offers its full torque from just 1600rpm, with all 320Nm punching as hard as it can from low in the rev range.

Compared to the 200, the CLE 300 feels faster and more serious (0-100km/h in 6.4sec). Thanks to its all-wheel drive, it usefully exploits every one of its additional 40kW/80Nm, and with only a 56kg weight penalty over the rear-drive CLE 200, it’s quite a rapid car.

While it sits flat through corners, its chassis and all-wheel-drive system are very much geared for security rather than fun. There’s far more grip and traction than there is power here.

The CLE 300 rides well on its fixed-rate dampers, but somehow the harshness of the run-flat tyres is more noticeable in the more powerful model.

Both CLEs sound okay with a rorty, synthesised four-cylinder induction noise broadcast into the cabin via the front speakers (in Sport mode). It’s not unwelcome. What is welcome, however, is putting the windows down and hearing the turbo whistling under load – gleefully cool.

With its nine-speed torque converter auto, the powertrain is engineered for comfort and refinement rather than outright performance.

Even in Sport mode, up-changes and down-changes with the paddles are only moderately responsive. If it’s a hardcore performance car you want, best wait for the variants with full-fat AMG badges – like the CLE 53, arriving soon.

Even if the hybrid system is just a mild one, it’s still enough to occasionally lighten your conscience. Going down a hill, a little bar on the digital dash shows the car scavenging energy back into the small battery – energy that would otherwise be lost as heat in the brakes.

That’s exactly the cleverness you want from your brand new $100K-plus Mercedes.

In terms of criticisms, above about 80km/h on coarse Australian roads, there’s a lot of tyre noise for a luxury, non-performance vehicle.

One thing that drove us slightly nuts about the CLE is its start-stop system. While one of the smoothest, quietest and most seamless systems we’ve encountered, there’s an inexplicable delay to the throttle when moving away from a standstill that gets very old, very quickly. Mercifully, the off button is within easy reach.

Overall, however, both CLE variants are very pleasing to drive.

What is the CLE Coupe’s interior and tech like?

The CLE has a comfortable interior that deftly melds classic and contemporary, with large screens that give it a youthful, high-tech vibe – even if the build quality of our test cars was occasionally iffy.

Jumping into the CLE, it sits you nice and close to the road, the interior wrapping around you in a lovely, cossetting way. At its forwardmost point, the roof descends quite low, giving the CLE a quirky ‘chopped roof’ feeling.

There’s lots of space – you’ll never be rubbing elbows with your front passenger. An old C-Class Coupe would feel quite a lot more compact compared to the new CLE, which reminds us of the old E-Class Coupe for cabin roominess.

We love the Nappa leather on the steering wheel, and the $2900 leather upholstery would be a worthwhile upgrade for the CLE 200 (standard on 300). The daring red and black colourway of our CLE 300’s interior added a sinister, devilish touch – even if it does turn its nose up at depreciation.

In front of you, the 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster is appreciably large, and clearly presents important information like speed, range and engine revs.

The 11.9-inch central infotainment touchscreen is very easy on the eyes, while the MBUX software is responsive and easy to use. The wireless Apple CarPlay integrates well into the centre screen.

Mercedes’ own voice control is quite good (if you’re the kind of person who tends to ask Siri, or Google, multiple things multiple times per day). We asked it to turn off the head-up display and it understood, which is quite advanced by automotive voice-control standards in 2024.

That’s just as well as the haptic steering wheel can be fiddly to use. We miss the buttons, dials and rotaries of Mercedes-Benzs from not too long ago – the old volume roller on Merc steering wheels was a mechanical delight. These days, to change the volume you must tap away at a bit of soulless, inanimate trim.

While we’re griping, we also didn’t love the front seats. We found them too firm – more softly padded seats would have been preferable. Make sure you sit in them before signing anything.

Mercedes-Benz has made a big deal about extra space for rear-seat passengers, to ensure the CLE is close to a genuine four-seater (rather than a two-plus-two). In the move from C-Class coupe to new CLE, rear-seat passengers have gained an extra 95mm of legroom alone. Rear headroom, however, would be getting tight for anyone over 175cm.

At 420 litres, the CLE’s boot is 60 litres larger than the old C-Class coupe – indeed, very generous for what will be a two-person car most of the time. The bootlid opens electrically and we appreciated the clever built-in bag hooks.

The CLE Coupe doesn’t have a spare wheel, though, or a puncture repair kit – it relies on run-flat tyres.

Our minor build-quality concerns related to multiple test cars on the vehicle’s launch, marking the continuation of a disappointing trend we’ve noted in Benz cars as of late, with similar pitfalls also noted in the GLC43 we drove quite recently.

The CLE 200 we drove had a quiet rattle from the passenger door, while over coarser stretches of road, the CLE 300 had interior rattles from both doors almost in stereo – including a disappointingly obvious rattle from the driver’s door. There was also a rattle coming from within the dashboard.

Is the CLE Coupe a safe car?

The CLE Coupe has not been independently crash-tested by Euro NCAP or its Australian equivalent, ANCAP. But given Mercedes-Benz’s track record for safety, we could confidently say it’s a very safe car.

This model also comes with the following safety equipment as standard:

• Dual front airbags, front-centre airbag, front-side head airbags and rear-side-head airbags
• Adaptive cruise control
• Active lane-keeping
• Autonomous emergency braking (with pedestrian and cyclist detection, and junction assist)
• Autonomous obstacle evasion
• 360-degree surround view camera
• Blind-spot monitoring
• Active intelligent high-beam (can detect cars ahead and switch off individual LEDs to prevent dazzling when using high-beam)
• Rain-sensing wipers
• Traffic sign recognition

With its in-built SIM card, the CLE Coupe can automatically ring an emergency call centre on your behalf if it’s detected you’ve been in an accident. 

One black mark in our books is that a full advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) is optional. The CLE Coupes only come with adaptive cruise control as standard.

Proper ADAS systems can dramatically reduce fatigue on long journeys, and those developed by Mercedes-Benz are some of the best. Proper ADAS systems are now standard on much cheaper cars from brands like Hyundai and Kia.

What are the CLE Coupe’s ownership costs?

Owing to its mildly hybridised four-cylinder powertrain, the CLE would be relatively cheap on fuel by premium-brand standards. However, it’s pricey to service.

A five-year prepaid servicing plan is $6800. Service intervals are every 12 months or an incredible 25,000km – whatever comes first.

For the CLE 200, Mercedes-Benz quotes combined ADR81/02 fuel economy of 7.2L/100km. Over 1800km of trip computer data, our CLE 200 test car averaged 9.3L/100km.

For the CLE 300, Mercedes-Benz quotes combined ADR81/02 fuel economy of 7.4L/100km. Over 2600km of trip computer data, our CLE 300 test car averaged 9.6L/100km.

The large 66-litre fuel tank means fewer stops at pesky petrol stations. Even using the figures above, the CLE 200 could cover an impressive 700km in the city alone.

Both cars come with a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty and five years of roadside assistance.

The honest verdict on the CLE Coupe

Styling is a major motivator for customers in this segment – you don’t buy a coupe for regularly transporting multiple kids, or weekly Bunnings runs – and on that basis, the CLE is a success.

It’s a handsome car with a muscular stance, yet is pretty and restrained at the same time. It’s so much easier to look at than a BMW 4 Series. This is also a sweet car to drive with a behind-the-wheel experience that matches the looks.

Customers of the old E-Class Coupe will be contented with the new CLE, even if customers of the old C-Class Coupe will surely feel the sting of some hefty price hikes.

Whatever your situation, if you’re undecided on either CLE 200 or CLE 300, we say grab the sweeter-feeling rear-driver and save yourself some bucks. If it’s the CLE 300’s extra performance that has roused your interest, wait for the AMG CLE 53. Or even the CLE 63.