Mercedes-Benz CLE Review 2025

Here’s the deal — you want a car that reflects that you’re doing well in life, has a sporty edge but isn’t so focused that you won’t be able to unwind on your way home from a long day, plus it has to reflect that this is very much a self-awarded treat, so while it needs to be reasonably practical, it’s not the be all and end all. Yes, you want a coupe — except there aren’t that many new ones to choose from south of £100,000. Find out how good one of the genre’s latest exponents is with our full Mercedes CLE Coupe review.

It’s customary to begin a CLE review by explaining that it’s the result of merging two outgoing model lines together — namely the Mercedes C-Class Coupe and the Mercedes E-Class Coupe. A few years ago, Mercedes coupes were running wild, so the company made like the Spice Girls and two became one.

The result is a wonderful crossover — not in the hackneyed SUV sense of the word, you understand. The Mercedes CLE Coupe has a bit more space than the C-Class did, yet it’s also a little sportier to drive than the E-Class was. And with a much nicer interior than both. To get to the point early, though, it’s still not as fun to drive as the other German two-door we’re obliged to mention, namely the BMW 4 Series Coupe. If that’s Sporty Spice, this Merc’s Posh Spice.

So what of Baby, Ginger and Scary? Erm. The reality is the demand for coupes of this size has waned so dramatically that several manufacturers no longer bother. There was no replacement for the Audi A5 Coupe, nor the Lexus RC, while the more focused Toyota GR86 also disappeared without a successor.

There’s a glimmer of hope for coupe fans on the horizon — sure, it’s smaller than the Mercedes CLE but the first Honda Prelude to be sold in a quarter-century could be a sign of a revival for the slinky body style.

Still, this Mercedes versus BMW distinction is good, because it means you have a proper choice — between those two, at least — rather than just picking the styling or badge you like best. Do you want something that feels a bit more modern, a bit more fun to drive and a bit more massive-nosed? Or do you want something with a softer edge, more relaxed, more of an old-school, sophisticated two-door cruiser? 

It’s obviously not quite that clear-cut in reality. For a start, the Mercedes CLE is anything but old-fashioned — some of its tech is genuinely marvellous and very useful, like the system that detects when you’re at traffic lights and shows them on the screen to prevent you craning your neck around the rakishly angled windscreen pillars. Its interior lighting is among the most gloriously colourful we’ve ever seen, while the augmented reality navigation system makes following directions much easier than packages without it do. 

There’s gimmicky tech, too. Tell the car how tall you are and it will automatically adjust the driving position accordingly. When we tried it, we ended up with a seating position worse than a magician’s assistant contorting themselves into a tiny box.

Thankfully on more traditional matters of ride and handling the CLE Coupe nails it. The driving experience is polished, which is to say that regardless of engine choice, it’s a very quiet, supple and serene car to spend time in. It’s rear-wheel drive at the less expensive end of the range’s scale, possessing a fundamental sense of being well-balanced and fun if you want it to be, albeit generally set-up on the softer side with a smooth automatic gearbox, lightweight steering feel and… you get the picture. 

It’s not perfect, of course. It might be bigger than the outgoing C-Class but space is still tighter than a powerlifter’s hamstrings in the back. The boot probably passes the golf bag test — don’t all these cars? — but the loading bay is as flat as an amateur chef’s soufflé, which makes it inflexible. And the infotainment system can be more confusing than when a TV production company has to edit out a disgraced celeb from a to-be-broadcast show. BMW’s iDrive is still the benchmark in this regard. 

Yet overall, the Mercedes CLE Coupe is better at being a luxury experience. This side of a high performance supercar, isn’t that what a two-door coupe is supposed to be about, really? 

Word is that outgoing E-Class Coupe owners wanted more fun behind the wheel, so as a result the Mercedes CLE Coupe is a shade sharper to drive than the larger of its predecessors. It’s still no BMW 4 Series, dynamically, and that’s fine — it doesn’t need to be. 

Instead, it feels like a long-distance car, sensationally comfy and relaxing for miles and miles. It does so intelligently as well, such as the tech that automatically adjusts the seat very slightly during long journeys to prevent back pain. It’s a system that works much better than the automatic seat position based on your inputted height thing. It’s very easy to find a driving position that suits you perfectly, providing you do it yourself.

Depending on which version of the CLE Coupe you choose, three different suspension arrangements are fitted to cars sold in the UK. Driver-adjustable dampers are the preserve of the fastest Mercedes-AMG CLE53 models, while less powerful, non-plug-in hybrid CLEs are fitted with Agility Control Sports suspension, that automatically varies the damping in real time according to road conditions and how the car’s being driven. Exclusive to the CLE300e PHEV versions is a Comfort suspension arrangement that includes air springs for the rear wheels.

Dynamic Select driving modes on all models allow you to vary other parameters that influence how the Mercedes CLE Coupe drives, including the weight of the steering and how quickly the engine and gearbox respond to the accelerator pedal. In Comfort the sensation is lighter and more relaxed and feels best-suited to the car — in Sport the CLE becomes a bit harsher in an artificial way, with more steering resistance, a more immediate throttle response and gears that are held further up the rev range before changing up to the next. 

It doesn’t transform the car, especially with the less powerful engines — how sporty can a 2.0-litre diesel with an automatic gearbox and massaging seats really be?  

In typical style for this upmarket German brand, the Mercedes CLE Coupe is available with a wide array of engines, each with mild hybrid assistance, apart from the plug-in hybrid choice. Nine-speed automatic gearboxes are standardised across the line-up with no manual alternative available. With that many ratios, you’d think it would shuffle like LMFAO, but it doesn’t — in truth it’s silkier than pyjamas adorned with a royal’s monogram.

The cheapest way into the range is with the rear-wheel drive CLE200. It’s quiet and quick enough but its 204PS and 320Nm 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol lacks charm, although it can’t be accused of being slow — top speed is 149mph while the 0-62mph sprint takes 7.4 seconds.

If you want the most efficient model, on paper at least, then the CLE300e plug-in hybrid is the one for you. It combines the same 2.0-litre engine with a 129PS and 440Nm electric motor for a total output of 313PS and 550Nm. It’s a tax-friendly choice for company car drivers and isn’t a slouch with a 147mph top speed and a 6.3-second 0-62mph time, although as we explorer later in the review, its real-world fuel efficiency is far removed from the quoted figures.

A more pragmatic choice for fuel economy is the CLE220d. It’s also a 2.0-litre unit that’s shockingly quiet for a diesel. It’s powerful at 197PS plus there’s lots of torque (440Nm) meaning it feels quick and flexible, especially when building up speed, such as when overtaking. It has much more get up and go about it than the CLE200 than its 148mph top speed and 7.5-second 0-62mph time indicate.

Back to petrol and next up is the CLE300 4Matic — yes, that does mean it has four-wheel drive, but no, it doesn’t have a 3.0-litre engine under the bonnet. Instead, there’s an uprated version of the previously mentioned 2.0-litre, tuned to produce 258PS and 400Nm, meaning a 6.2-second 0-62mph and an electronically governed top speed of 155mph. Brisk but short of character.

For a proper old-school coupe experience, the 3.0-litre six-cylinder petrol fitted to the CLE450 4Matic is the way to go, but it’s pricey and comparatively thirsty — not that either of those points should be a surprise for an engine producing 381PS and 500Nm. There’s no change to the top speed from the CLE300, but the 4.4-second 0-62mph time is a significant improvement.

Yet, there’s an even faster version available should you choose the Mercedes-AMG CLE53 4Matic+. Here the 3.0-litre engine’s been further squeezed to extract 449PS and 560Nm, trimming the 0-62mph benchmark down a tad to 4.2 seconds. That’s not much but elsewhere AMG’s engineers have made their CLE feel like a completely different, more specialist coupe.

Top speed for the Mercedes-AMG CLE53 remains at 155mph unless you go for the flagship Limited Edition version where the electronic reins have been loosened a touch increasing its potential to 168mph.

The lack of a Euro NCAP crash test for the Mercedes CLE Coupe is not a major issue because it’s closely related to the C-Class range, which has a five-star score. That doesn’t guarantee the CLE will perform identically well, but it would be a major shock if it wasn’t very close.

In true Mercedes style, it’s chock-full of active and passive safety features, including 11 airbags — it’s amazing that the CLE doesn’t float away after a prang, really. 

The automatic emergency braking system includes cross-traffic detection, so it will stop the car if you pull out into the path of vehicles approaching from either side, while Pre-Safe tightens seatbelts, adjusts headrests, and closes windows in an instant to further protect you in a crash. It even plays a particular frequency through the speakers to cancel out the horrendous noise of a heavy impact to mitigate hearing loss. Amazing stuff. 

A 360-degree parking camera is standard, as is blind-spot assistance, including integration into the head-up display on CLEs fitted with that option, plus there are Isofix child seat mounting points for all three passenger seats. This is one safe coupe. 

Should you wish to tow with the Mercedes CLE Coupe you can do so. All versions have an identical 1800kg braked trailer capacity — reasonable for tip runs and the like but not caravans the size of a pre-fab bungalow.

A coupe like this is always going to put practicality second to style, but some are better at that compromise than others — unfortunately, the Mercedes CLE Coupe isn’t one of them. 

Its rear seats in particular are tight on space for adults remotely above average height, while the boot is more like a giant letterbox than a genuine luggage storage solution. Its 420-litre capacity might sound spacious on paper and the rear seatbacks fold in a 60/40 split for extra flexibility, but the slender opening seriously limits its usefulness. 

It’s a significant volume bump over the 355 litres available in the outgoing C-Class Coupe, at least, unless you go for the CLE300e plug-in hybrid. Its high-voltage 19.5kWh battery pack has to go somewhere, resulting in a 130-litre reduction compared with other CLEs, down to 290 litres. Pack light.

There’s not much interior storage space, either, although if you’re using this primarily as a two-seat coupe, there’s enough. The centre console storage is hidden beneath the central armrest, with a pair of mismatched cupholders and a wireless smartphone charging pad behind a flap further forwards of that, while the door pockets big enough for your bottle of Huel.  

Let’s pretend that the interior isn’t lifted directly from the cheaper C-Class, because in isolation the Mercedes CLE Coupe’s cabin is one of the best you’ll find. 

The curved centre console leading into the 11.9-inch multimedia touchscreen is a beautiful focal point. And at night, when the cabin lights are in full effect, it’s genuinely dazzling experience — not in the literal sense, of course. Lights frame the main parts of the dashboard and illuminate the air vents, with 64 colours to choose from. Too many, probably. You’ll choose pink if you’re fancy, or blue if you’re Alpha as flip. 

Spec your CLE with open-pore wood trim and it lifts things further. It’s just all very high quality, classy, and interesting. 

Our only gripe you might have is with the steering wheel controls. There are so many functions squeezed onto the four haptic stalks that they can be fiddly, even after you’ve memorised where they all are. 

That impressive looking infotainment package in the Mercedes CLE Coupe is called MBUX, which is only slightly quicker to say than Mercedes-Benz User Experience. 

Entirely screen-based, it’s much more intuitive than the scroll-wheel system Mercedes transitioned from over recent years, but it’s still not as good as BMW’s iDrive, in our opinion. The CLE’s sub-menus can be both confusing and distracting at times, plus while we’re lamenting the lack of physical switches for adjusting the climate control, at least they and the speaker volume shortcuts are pinned to the bottom of the screen, where you can easily get to them on the move. 

Overall, MBUX feels like a very powerful system and some of the things it can do are genuinely impressive. The augmented reality navigation, which overlays instructions onto camera footage taken from the front of the CLE, makes Google Maps look antiquated. 

Driver profiles are linked to fingerprint recognition, which is useful and cool if you’re sharing the car with a partner. And we love the traffic light view system that shows a live feed on the screen when you’re stopped at a red light. It seems like digital overkill, but it stops you craning your neck when you can’t see the actual lights properly around the CLE Coupe’s low roof and windscreen pillar junction.

Even more impressive is that the integrated voice assistant, activated with a cheery ‘Hey Mercedes’, understands regional accents, including Geordie which is the benchmark for natural language processing, obviously.

There’s a single version of the Mercedes CLE Coupe priced at under £50,000 which tells you that it’s an expensive choice, albeit one that feels like reasonably good value considering the quality of materials and the standard of its on-board tech.

Your £47,675 outlay gets you an entry-level Mercedes CLE200 AMG Line Coupe, which tracks north of the £45,285 for a BMW 420i M Sport Coupe, albeit the two are well matched spec-for-spec. It’s almost as though BMW and Mercedes are watching each other. The only other choice in this specification is the CLE220d priced at £50,075.

Lowliest of trim levels for the CLE300 4Matic, the PHEV-powered CLE300e and the 3.0-litre CLE450 4Matic is AMG Line Premium, costing £57,370, £61,620 and £68,325 respectively. AMG Line Premium Plus adds a further £4k to the bill, with Premier Edition a further £2375.

Sitting at the pinnacle of the range are the Mercedes-AMG CLE53 4Matic+ Coupes — the AMG Premium version is £75,660, the AMG Line Night Edition Premium Plus weighs in at £81,410 and the flagship Limited Edition is £94,160. Add a few options are you’re easily north of £100,000. Ouch.

The vast array of engines available for the Mercedes CLE Coupe means that running costs vary significantly depending upon which you choose. 

In short, if you’re buying or leasing privately, then CLE200 petrol will be reasonably inexpensive to run while the CLE220d diesel will be even better. Official WLTP Combined cycle figures for the former are 42.8-43.5mpg and 58.9-60.1mpg for the latter.

With one exception, the more power you crave, the thirstier the Mercedes is — a 40.4mpg claim for the CLE300 4Matic isn’t too significant a step, while the CLE450 4Matic doesn’t appear too wallet-rinsing at 36.7mpg. That’s a significant advantage over the Mercedes-AMG CLE53 4Matic+ versions at 30.1-30.4mpg.

That aforementioned exception? It’s the plug-in hybrid CLE300e with an average return of 128.5mpg under the WLTP test condition. That assumes the battery’s fully charged and with minimal use of the engine. In the real world, such spectacular fuel efficiency figures are possible, but if you don’t keep the battery topped it you’ll be doing very well to get close to 40mpg.

Core to the PHEV version of the CLE’s appeal is its low Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) tax rating for company car drivers of just 6%. Remember when diesels were user-choosers’ favourites? The lowest tax band for a CLE220d is 30%, making the CLE300e a no-brainer.

Insurance groups are 35-44 on the 1-50 scale, so expensive, in other words. And main dealer servicing isn’t going to be cheap either, although it will help bolster the CLE’s resale values. Ultimately, this is a car that can be as pricey as it looks.

Mercedes CLE300e Coupe: Range and charging

According to the WLTP Combined cycle tests the plug-in hybrid Mercedes CLE300e Coupe achieves 70 miles of electric-only driving. Unless you drive everywhere at urban speeds and it’s forever warm and dry where you live, you’re unlikely to achieve that, but in mixed driving conditions it should be able to achieve 50 miles.

Recharging the 19.5kWh battery can only be tackled at a maximum energy flow rate of 11kW using an AC connection, although the majority of UK residences have wallbox charging limits of 7.4kW. Using such a charger means a 10-100% energy replenishment will take approximately 3 hours.

There is a degree of complexity to the Mercedes CLE Coupe range structure, although it isn’t as baffling as it first appears to be — AMG Line is the starting point, but only in conjunction with the CLE200 and CLE220d models. All others barring the CLE53 4Matic+ versions are available in AMG Line Premium, AMG Line Premium Plus and Premier Edition specifications.

A slightly different path is taken for the Mercedes-AMG CLE53 4Matic+ Coupes — that sub-range is available in AMG Premium, AMG Night Edition Premium Plus and Limited Edition guises.

Standard equipment for the Mercedes CLE AMG Line Coupe includes:

18-inch AMG 5-twin-spoke alloy wheels in black with a high-sheen finish
Agility Control sports suspension
Dynamic Select driving modes
LED High-Performance headlights with automatic main beam
Electrically adjustable and folding door mirrors
Front and rear parking sensors
Reversing camera
Heated and electrically adjustable front seats with memory function
Leather upholstery
Thermatic dual-zone automatic climate control
11.9-inch high-resolution multimedia touchscreen
12.3-inch configurable digital instrument display screen
Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone connectivity
Wireless smartphone charging pad
Anthracite linestructure wood trim for main dashboard panel
LED interior Ambient Lighting Premium
Auto-dimming interior rear-view mirror
Automatic seatbelt feeder
Illuminated door sills with Mercedes-Benz lettering

Stepping up the trim ladder to the Mercedes CLE AMG Line Premium Coupe adds:

19-inch AMG multi-spoke alloy wheels in black with a high-sheen finish
Comfort suspension with self-levelling rear air springs — CLE300e only
Digital Light LED headlights with automatic main beam
Keyless entry and starting
Panoramic sliding sunroof
360-degree parking camera system
Heated leather-wrapped steering wheel
MBUX augmented reality navigation system

A further upgrade to the Mercedes CLE AMG Line Premium Plus Coupe brings:

20-inch AMG multi-spoke alloy wheels in black with a high-sheen finish
Multi-contoured and ventilated front seats
Head-up display
Burmester 3D surround sound system
Black open-pore wood trim with aluminium lines for main dashboard panel

Splash out on the Mercedes CLE Premier Edition Coupe if you’re keen on:

20-inch AMG multi-spoke alloy wheels in black with a high-sheen rim flange
Night package — reduced levels of exterior chromework
Nappa leather upholstery
Carbon fibre trim for main dashboard panel

For the quickest versions you need at least the Mercedes-AMG CLE53 AMG Premium Coupe for:

20-inch AMG Y-spoke alloy wheels in matt black with a high-sheen finish
AMG Ride Control suspension
Rear axle steering
Mercedes-AMG-specific bodywork
Grey-painted brake callipers
Digital Light LED headlights with automatic main beam
Mercedes-AMG-specific interior
AMG leather upholstery
Nappa leather-wrapped and heated AMG Performance steering wheel
Anthracite linestructure wood trim for main dashboard panel
Illuminated door sills with AMG lettering

Choose the Mercedes-AMG CLE53 AMG Night Premium Plus Coupe to add:

20-inch AMG Y-spoke alloy wheels in matt black with a high-sheen rim flange
AMG Exterior Night package — reduced levels of exterior chromework
Multi-contoured and ventilated front seats
Nappa leather and Microcut microfibre-wrapped and heated AMG Performance steering wheel
Head-up display
Burmester 3D surround sound system
Carbon fibre trim for main dashboard panel

At the head of the range is the Mercedes-AMG CLE53 Limited Edition Coupe featuring:

20-inch AMG cross-spoke alloy wheels in matt black with a yellow rim flange
AMG Dynamic Plus package
AMG Driver's package including a top speed increase to 168mph
AMG Exterior Carbon Fibre package II — reduced levels of exterior chromework
AMG Night packages I and II — reduced levels of exterior chromework
Mercedes Manufaktur graphite grey magno paint
Editon bodywork decals
AMG Performance Seat package High-End
AMG Nappa leather upholstery in black and yellow
Yellow seatbelts
Carbon fibre and Microcut microfibre-wrapped and heated AMG Performance steering wheel
Door sill treadplates with AMG logo illuminated in yellow