Mercedes-Benz CLE Cabriolet review

Compared to the old C-Class, the CLE has another 25mm in its wheelbase. Which means 14mm more legroom, 22mm more shoulder room and 17mm more elbow room on paper. In real life, that translates to adults (or taller offspring) enjoying a much less acute angle for their knees and thus a much friendlier seating position. Though it’s important to note they’ll need to be below six foot (or 1.8m) to sit in the back when the roof is closed, else they might feel like a jack-in-the-box crammed and ready to pop dramatically free.

With the roof down it’s fair to assume anyone above six foot will present an unsophisticated windbreak anyway. But for those of us who are smaller, it’s a relatively comfy place to be.

The boot should allow for decent trips away, too, even if the shape is (inevitably) laughable. It matches the old E-Class cabrio for luggage space, boasting 385 litres (about the same as a Golf) with the roof up. This drops to 295 litres once the roof is down, and thankfully the car electronically sub-divides the space itself; no parking up and toddling round to pull out a protective divider yourself. The rear seats split and fold in a 60:40 ratio too to further boost practicality.

What about the tech?

Perhaps less convincing is the fancy Aircap system. Mercedes has put in the hard yards fine-tuning its aero in a wind tunnel, but it still ups the car’s drag coefficient by around 10 per cent and turns an impressively quiet cabin into one with a definite audible draft. It’s designed for use between 30mph and 80mph, but it feels best reserved for higher speeds when the air turbulence from driving roof down becomes really pronounced. Perhaps it’s simply a sign of how refined the car is in the first place that the system feels a slight gimmick. There’s no doubting the car looks much less svelte with its two protrusions in place, too. If you’re buying this car to pose, best keep the system deactivated.

...and what about the *electronic* tech?

It’s fairly typical of modern Merc, unfortunately. It’s a mess of touch-sensitive surfaces, most of which only work when you press them by accident; the climate controls live permanently on the central touchscreen; the adjustable seat controls are high up on the door card, so you have to hold your hand at a funny angle to use them.

Even swiping through the drive modes is a pain, not least when the AMG adds a pair of circular, toggleable screens to the steering wheel for its many, many possible setups. Though at least these use physical presses rather than more ethereal brushes of your thumb. The fact you can tilt the screen to avoid sun glare at least shows Merc’s engineers have considered the useability of such hefty digitalisation.

Everything else – materials, trim, stitching, screens – is broadly high quality. Shout-out though to the cheap-as-chips-sounding vent ‘click’, and we’d argue too that the game has moved on from the carbon-fibre effect, chrome-fest of some of our test cars. A classy car deserves a classy spec.