2024 Mercedes-Benz CLE450 4Matic First Look Review: Not So Old-School

At the beginning of last year, Mercedes-Benz decided to drastically decrease the number of models in its lineup. Most of its coupes and wagons are headed to the chopping block. As of the 2024 model year, only two true coupes remain: The six-figure AMG GT Coupe and the CLE, which we are reviewing here. It’s a mix of old and new, a single “class” that directly replaces the E- and the C-Class Coupes. The presence of the CLE signals just how important it is to Mercedes to offer a gas-powered coupe, even as SUVs continue to dominate sales and electrification grows more pervasive. However charming and old-school its basic recipe, the CLE signals a new direction of luxury that is more new-school, and perhaps more polarizing.

At launch, both four- and six-cylinder versions will be available, dubbed CLE300 and CLE450. Both come standard with all-wheel-drive—4Matic, in Mercedes lingo. We spent four days with a six-cylinder model, which starts at $66,800.

Our car had over $8000 worth of add-ons, a number of which were cosmetic, including the Cirrus Silver paint, a lovely cool-blue gray, and the 20-inch AMG wheels ($1500) and black exterior trim (Night Package, $1150). Given the freedom, we’d put the money for the wheels and trim towards Nappa leather upholstery, which costs $2590 extra. The Driver Assistance Package was the most expensive option on our car, at $1950, but it is essential if you want the most intuitive driver-assist features like pre-emptive, automatic lane-change on the highway. (Mercedes has invested a lot of time into its drive-assist tech, and the system is very well-sorted.) If you want to access the newest and most niche tech features, the ones that distinguish the CLE from its predecessors, you’ll need to add MBUX Entertainment Plus, bundled in the Pinnacle Trim, which costs $2600. More on it, and those niche features, later.

At a mechanical level, the CLE-Class is a very familiar car. It is built on the MRA2 platform, which first appeared in the 2014 C-Class (W205) and is now in its second generation. The CLE450 is powered by the same mild-hybrid driveline as in the E-Class: The turbocharged M256 inline-six paired to a nine-speed automatic transmission, supplemented by a 48V ISG, or Integrated Starter Generator. This bit of kit and its associated tech are mounted on and in the transmission and contribute up to 23 hp (up two hp from prior versions) and 151 lb-ft of torque over and above the engine’s 375 hp and 369 lb-ft.

Like the driveline, the exterior borrows heavily from various vehicles in the Benz lineup. Size-wise, it’s nearly identical to the old E-Class Coupe. (Put another way, it’s much larger than the now-discontinued C-Class Coupe.) The black bar connecting the taillights is straight from Mercedes’ line of electric, or EQ, models. The grille, with its star texture and single horizontal spar, is early 2020s Benz, and a cleaner interpretation than the grille on the 2024 E-Class sedan, which is rimmed in a thick band of chrome. In all, the CLE cuts an understated, pretty profile.

Specs: 2024 Mercedes-Benz CLE450 4Matic

Price (base / as-tested): $66,800 / $75,170

Powertrain: 3.0-liter inline-six cylinder engine with 48V mild-hybrid system, nine-speed automatic transmission

Horsepower: 375 hp

Torque: 369 lb-ft

Layout: Front-engine, 2+2, all-wheel-drive coupe

Curb weight: 4266 pounds

EPA-rated fuel economy: 23/33/26 city/highway/combined

0–60 mph: 4.2 seconds, manufacturer estimate

Interior is copied and pasted from the C-Class, which means organic lines and lots of glass and metallic textures. Some details are convincingly luxury-spec, like the weight and action of the paddle shifters, which are made of aluminum. The intricate design of the climate control vents displays further attention to detail, down to the satisfying click when you close or open the panes. However, a lot of the novelty lies below the surface. 

Like the newest E-Class, which debuted earlier this year, the 12.3-inch center screen in the CLE runs the third generation of Mercedes’ proprietary infotainment system, MBUX (for Mercedes-Benz User eXperience), backed by Mercedes’ own operating system, MB.OS. MBUX has been around for a while, but the third generation brings integration with third-party apps via the Mercedes Me Store and your Mercedes Me ID. (You’ll need to order your CLE with the $2600 Pinnacle Trim to download those apps.) A few highlights of that app selection: Zoom, Webex, Spotify, Tiktok, and Angry Birds. Apple Music is integrated natively, and the standard 17-speaker Burmester sound system can stream compatible tracks in Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos. (A novel audio technology more popular in film than in music, Dolby Atmos can place sounds within a track in 3D, rather than simply in stereo, or left-right.) A final party trick of the third-gen infotainment system is the ability to build a routine: For instance, you can program the car to change the ambient lighting to blue and set the air conditioning to 68 degrees when the outside temperature is above 75 degrees. 

The common theme with all of these features? They’re likely to appeal most strongly to a group of people who are willing to pay extra for the latest tech. That’s not everyone—you may want a “fun, indulgent luxury car,” as Benz is marketing the CLE; but you may not want or need the ability to take Zoom calls in it, especially when that costs an extra $2600. The trick stereo system is another example. While audiophiles love Dolby Atmos, it isn’t widely available across the music industry; only powerhouse labels, like Mercedes partner Universal Music Group, have adopted it, and then only for classic tracks or today’s biggest names. If a song isn’t mixed in Dolby Atmos—because, for example, the artist doesn’t have access to the technology—you can’t listen to it in Atmos because the stereo isn’t receiving the appropriate information.

Mercedes cars are, in fact, the first non-Apple devices to offer access to Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, the clunky name for Apple’s execution of the audio technology that belongs to Dolby. The Mercedes-Apple partnership was essential to the use of the Atmos tech; only a few streaming services support Dolby Atmos, and Spotify, the most popular music streaming platform, is not one of them. Mercedes is definitely innovating, but the CLE suggests that its areas of innovation are extremely specialized. 

The overall impression of driving the CLE is busy-ness. The transmission scrounges for regenerative energy with unrelenting diligence. Every deceleration, whether you’re coasting or braking, is punctuated by downshifts that you both hear and feel. The default ride mode, Comfort, wallows. The air suspension does an impressive job of absorbing abrupt impacts, especially when you account for the large wheel and skinny tire package of the AMG Line, but the pitch and the roll of the body is unsettling. Switching to Sport mode produces a far calmer ride. (Sport also prompts the stereo to pump more engine sound into the cabin, but the feedback isn’t entirely unpleasant.) The ergonomics of switching drive modes are confusing: The active mode is not readily apparent without pulling up the drive-mode menu, which you do by pressing the left side of the long black button below the center touchscreen. Whenever you press the button, however, the press triggers a change in drive mode—from Comfort to Sport, or from Sport to Efficient. It’s frustrating to simply check which mode you’re in. 

The center screen adds to the busy-ness of the experience. By default, it displays a satellite map, with roads color-coded for traffic intensity (a familiar key used by Google and Apple alike). Especially when you’re in familiar territory, the map is distracting. Given the customizability of the screen behind the steering wheel, the display also seems redundant: Using the controls on the steering wheel spokes, you can toggle the digital instrument cluster to reflect the map and turn-by-turn directions. (If you’ve specced your car with the head-up display, you can even receive directions in your line of sight. Transparent blue arrows will direct you to and through each turn.) To make the center screen less shouty, your author would swipe and poke her way to the screen that displays the album art for whatever song was playing. Mercedes has made much of its Zero Layer home screen display, which supposedly places icons so intuitively that you never have to dig through submenus. But when that home screen is mostly a map—and not a very pretty one—the annoyance of submenus is less of an issue. Why not make the default view the 3D picture of the car, with navigation in the bubble at the top left?

The front seats are new to the CLE. They include two speakers at the level of the headrests, and have bladders in the sides that your author, a relatively small person, appreciated. The back seats are equally pretty but less friendly: Thighs and hips are held securely, but a person slightly under six feet will hit their head on the roof thanks to the rather upright seat backs. Their main virtue is in their folding nature: You can lower them to gain 14.8 cubic feet of interior storage, enough for three bags of golf clubs.

Two-plus-two coupes are precious few these days. Unless you are a huge fan of the latest infotainment and stereo technology, the closest rival for the CLE lies in the recent past: An E-Class coupe will likely serve you just as well as the new CLE, provided you’re not seeking the latest novelties. If you are considering new cars only, the closest competitor is the Audi S5 Coupe. It’s slightly cheaper, slightly down in power (25 hp), and possessed of a more traditional interior. If the second row of seats is not a must-have, we would strongly suggest that you at least test-drive the mid-engine Corvette. America’s sports car has matured into a genuine grand tourer, and its Magneride suspension is every bit a match for the air-bladder setup in the Benz—in fact, we prefer GM’s system for its breadth of adjustability and less fussy around-town ride. Finally, if you need to fit adults in the back seat of your German splurge-mobile, look elsewhere.

Mercedes has reincarnated a sporting, grand-touring coupe in a business environment that is rapidly killing off this sort of car. The company deserves a nod of recognition for preserving the format of car upon which it first made its name, but as an example of its breed within Mercedes, the CLE coupe is no stand-out. Except for some very niche elements, the CLE isn’t a dramatic improvement upon the E-Class Coupe that it replaces. It may be one of the only 2+2 luxury coupes standing in 2024, but it will likely fail to convert anyone who doesn’t already love its predecessors.

2024 Mercedes-Benz CLE450 4Matic 

Highs: Subtle, pretty sheetmetal. Generous cargo space. 

Lows: Wallows in default ride mode. Newest tech features have only niche appeal. 

Summary: An unconvincing blend of recently departed Mercedes. 

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