Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake

The most satisfying road test experiences are those where you really understand why a person would buy this car. You find yourself unexpectedly occupying someone else’s shoes, gaining vicarious enjoyment of, say, child seat friendliness (when you don't have kids) or off road capability (when you wouldn't even attempt to cross a pothole). But the best tests of all are those where you would happily, decisively perhaps even immediately buy the car for yourself. When your job involves driving every type of car it’s rare for this to happen; but it happened to me with the CLS Shooting Brake.

Unfortunately, just as the best literature is born of pain and suffering, so the most entertaining road tests are those of cars with a long list of problems and hortcomings but I’m resolute in my task here. So, whatever is the opposite of shortcomings (long comings ? long goings ?), well, let me give you a long list of those instead.

The CLS has all the advantages of an estate car without the garden centre middle classness, its undoubted utility (1550 litres of bootspace, seats folded) offset by rear haunches so sexy it would make a coupe blush. Early fears of compromised rear seat headroom (the roofline tapers like the new media centre at Lords) and lack of shoulder room up front (it looks narrow because of its styling, but is actually 30 mm wider than an E-class) were unfounded. Porcelain leather and piano black lacquer trim complete a cabin so swish you’d expect to find it at the top of the stairs on a 747.

The driving part is beautifully judged set not to stun but to complement. The 3.0-litre V6 turbo diesel engine might not be the sweetest block on the block, being modestly endowed with power (261 bhp) and with quite a lump to get off the line, but once moving its 457 lb ft of torque f ows like a river in flood. Gifted steering, agile rear drive chassis and a seven speed auto ’box which understands the brief, gel like the Barcelona midfield, with similar results. It’s the Lionel Messi of motorway cruisers.

It has to be said that the ride came in for a serious bit of stick from our Ben Barry when he swapped the CLS for his RS6 Avant (‘It hits you like it’s the mallet and you’re the mole,’ he said), but I liked it well enough, especially once the winter tyres got packed away. Ben also had a word about the nose ploughing on in tighter corners, and he has a point, but generally the CLS isn’t a car that incites you to riot. And whether at his hand or at mine, it never feels in any trouble.

We could probably debate the achievement of 38.4 mpg at the end of 9021 miles. Good or bad? I’d say pretty impressive, given that the scruff of the CLS’s neck was routinely grabbed through gears one to four, and the official mpg figure of 47.1 is close enough to be almost within DRS range. Someone more patient or less late for work could surely clamber up into the 40s. We spent £1320.40 on diesel but made only 19 visits to the pumps, partly because of the sizeable 59 litre tank.

The other thing that quite often doesn't happen with long term test cars is that we get the spec right, but this time we did. We correctly turned our noses up at the lesser 2.1-litre four pot diesel, just in case we needed to pull the skin off a rice pudding at some point, and equally correctly snubbed the massively overpowered CLS63 AMG, a machine so lairy I feared my six bags of garden rubbish might arrive at the council tip a nanosecond before me. As far as the range goes, we’re in the sweet spot made even sweeter by £2605 of extras including the £715 Memory Package and £650
Harman Kardon surround sound hi-fi . Also, as a Brucie bonus, I tried the facelifted CLS, with its two extra gears, gawdy lighting arrangements and £5 more expensive price tag, and didn't feel like a saddo iPhone 5 user with 18 months left on his contract. That said, the newer car does get a big screen info telly in place of my iPhone-spec screen.

Quick mention of two gripes: the column gear shifter belongs either on a 1970s Pontiac or in a museum, and the DAB radio is a throwback for anyone old enough to recall Norman Collier's faulty microphone routine.

It sometimes feels a bit awkward heaping praise on a car. After all, Mercedes have loaned the CLS to me, and cynics will be convinced that I'm in Merc’s pocket, and that I’ll get a free CLS in exchange for kind words. Mercedes would never do that. But can I help it if they’ve got my number?

Price £56,025
As tested £58,630
Miles this month 365
Total miles 9021
Our mpg 38.4
Offi cial mpg47.1
Costs None
Fuel this month £106.68