Sleek estate gets world debut at Brooklands, and an AMG version's on the way...
Mercedes has shown off its new CLS Shooting Brake estate to the world at its Mercedes-Benz World uber-showroom at Brooklands.
The swoopy wagon is the production version of the Shooting Break (sic) concept that was unveiled at the Beijing motor show back in 2010 to widespread acclaim, (though it did cause a bit of a kerfuffle among PHers upset at the butchering of the term 'shooting brake').
That confusion over the name has happily been settled now, and thus Mercedes presents its new estate as simply the CLS Shooting Brake, returning to the more traditional nomenclature.
As for the car itself, the front end is more or less identical to the saloon version of the CLS, but the bodywork aft of the A-pillar is unique to the Shooting Brake (a car that incidentally is one of 10 forthcoming new models with no direct predecessor). With five doors and a swooping estate roofline, it is clearly a wagon, but it also (says Mercedes) hits the same coupe-like spot as its four-door sibling. Rather like a Reliant Scimitar, a car that Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche actually cites as spiritual inspiration for the new car.
When it hits showrooms in November, the CLS Shooting Brake will be available with a choice of four-cylinder diesel, six cylinder diesel, V6 petrol and a V8 petrol. Power outputs for the model, which shares its motors with the saloon, range from 204hp for the base diesel to 408hp for the 4.6-litre turbo V8.
That v8's not the range-topper, though - fans of fast estates will be pleased to learn that a CLS63 AMG Shooting Brake is in the works, complete with stonking 5.5-litre biturbo V8
when the seats are up, my 7 series boot is way bigger than that!!!
Surely that shouldn't be a surprise? It's a class bigger. The point of an estate is the height of the boot and the capacity with the seats folded; the width and depth of the boot is generally much the same as a saloon of the same size.
Something like this is never going to be the size of the E-class estate, but I suppose that's why the E-class estate exists as well.
I think pointing out its shortcomings as a load lugger is missing the point somewhat, to me its an estate for no particular reason, and you'd pick this or the regular CLS just because you can.
Great move by Mercedes, I'm sure they'll sell well
ks
