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Mercedes teaches the CL luxury coupe how to save
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The revised Mercedes CL celebrated its public premiere at the Paris Motor Show (October 2 to 17, 2010).
Source: Daimler AG
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The CL shows significant changes compared to its predecessor at the front. LED headlights, a more swept-back bonnet and a modified grille stand out.
Source: Daimler AG
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The Mercedes CL does not even try to fake great benefits. On the footprint of a full-fledged S-Class (5.07 meters long, 1.87 meters wide), the luxury coupe offers …only two doors.
Source: Daimler
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The new 4.7-liter V8 engine with 435 hp is said to consume 9.5 liters according to the standard and enables very good driving performance: the 100 km / h mark is passed after 4.9 seconds, at 250 km / h… the electronic limiter starts.
Source: Daimler
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The CL 500, which has now been awarded the Mercedes Blue Efficiency eco-label, costs 118,346 euros…
Source: Daimler
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…with the top V12 engine with 517 hp in the CL 600, at least 162,792 euros come together.
Source: Daimler AG
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Inside there is a new navigation system for a surcharge and, above all, new assistance systems such as Lane Keeping Assist and Blind Spot Assist.
Source: Daimler
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Mercedes has also revised the AMG variants. A new eight-cylinder is used in the CL 63 AMG (160,769 euros), which now has 5.5 liters displacement instead of 6.2. There are abe for that…r gasoline direct injection and two turbochargers. The power increases by 19 to 544 hp.
Source: Daimler AG
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The CL 63 AMG takes 4.5 seconds to accelerate to 100 km / h. For a surcharge of 9400 euros there is also that "Performance Package" with 27 additional horsepower at which the speed limit …is increased from 250 to 300 km / h and the standard sprint is done in 4.4 seconds if necessary.
Source: Daimler AG
In spite of the increased output, the consumption according to the standard has been reduced by 4.0 to 10.5 liters compared to its predecessor with a naturally aspirated V8 engine.
Source: Daimler AG
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In addition to the CL 63 AMG, a twelve-cylinder version of the CL 65 AMG is still available. The 6.0-liter V12 biturbo engine now has 630 instead of 617 hp and comes with a standard verb…smoke of 14.3 liters. Price: 227,825 euros.
Source: Daimler AG
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The cockpit of the CL looks very tidy and has been freed from almost all knobs and buttons. Almost everything is controlled via the large rotary knob in the middle.
Source: Daimler AG
Mercedes promises more power and less consumption with the new CL. The CL 500 now swallows 4.0 liters less.
B.They have already arrived at BMW in Munich. And now they are being dismantled, "down to the last screw, ”says Gerhard Doll. Doll, project manager for engines at Mercedes, talks about the two engines that he has developed over the past 40 months. They are now used in the revised CL Coupe, and a little later in the sister model, the S-Class. But before the first customer can test it, the competition’s engineers are already racking their brains over the new six- and eight-cylinder gasoline engine.
So it is common among German manufacturers: They compete and sometimes they also fight, but they also cooperate. Anything else would be of no use: If the colleagues do not deliver what they have new, it will be taken care of in another way.
For Mercedes, the new engines are tantamount to a relief, at BMW, however, they will lead to new efforts in the development department. Compared to the previous engine – which was offered in the S 350 but not in the CL – the six-cylinder has 34 hp more power, which means it has 306 hp, but consumes 24 percent less at 7.6 liters per 100 kilometers. The situation is similar with the eight-cylinder in the CL 500, which now has a displacement of just 4.6 liters instead of 5.5: Doll and his employees were able to increase output to 435 hp (previously 388 hp), but consumption fell by 22 percent to 9.4 liters. What almost sounds like a miracle is the result of a good three years of sometimes grueling development time.
Nobody at Mercedes reveals how many million euros it cost to get more of what the customers of this model like (performance), but on the other hand to reduce consumption. This is even more important for the manufacturer than for the buyer: The fleet consumption must be reduced so that one day significant fines are not due. Mercedes also wants to remain competitive. And that is exactly what Mercedes was no longer with drives in the past few years. There was a lack of modern supercharged (turbo) engines with targeted direct injection. This has been standard at VW, Audi and BMW for years. Now Mercedes is finally following suit. During the first test drives in France, the CL rolls over the asphalt with a whisper-quiet engine, only hard sprints show differences: the six-cylinder has a little trouble accelerating the 2.1-tonner as quickly as possible, despite the increase in performance. The eight-cylinder succeeds playfully, and there is even a slight rumble from the tailpipes at the rear.
When this engine is used in the comfortable S-Class, the background noise will certainly be eliminated, but with the Coupe, Mercedes is introducing the change to more sportiness and more emotional forms: the Coupe is still between two worlds in terms of design – on the one hand, from the traditional From today’s point of view, the design of the former head of design Peter Pfeiffer determined it, it has been under the influence of Gorden Wagener since mid-2008. At 41, he is the youngest head of design at a major brand, wants to usher in a new era and therefore do a lot better than his predecessor and almost everything is new.
At the beginning of last year he issued a new design strategy. What does it look like? "Then I would reveal everything," says Robert Lesnik, who worked on the "exterior" design of the new CL. But it also makes it clear where Wagener, who worked like Lesnik in California, and Mercedes want to go. The CL should no longer be a car that stands for the prosperity of seniors. It should also find other, younger buyers. And so a hand was laid on the front headlights, which now follow the lines of the Roadster SL, the now more clearly structured hood and the now curved fenders. The changes are even clearly visible at the rear: the taillights are now continuously red, the white taillights are mounted separately on the trunk lid. More is not possible with a model revision.
“Otherwise only plastic parts are changed,” says Lesnik. But Mercedes is serious about serious changes: The shapes are getting stronger in order to trigger more emotions, and in terms of technology, Mercedes is again leading the way.
This is also evident with the assistance systems, especially the active lane departure warning and the active blind spot assistant. If the driver wants to overtake even though the next lane is occupied, a red signal in the exterior mirror warns the driver. If the driver does not react, the brakes intervene via the anti-skid ESP on the opposite side. This active use of the system by braking is new, as is the intervention when unintentionally leaving the lane, for example when limiting the outside of a curve. There are also the various already known auxiliary systems such as the drowsiness detection "Attention Assist" or the distance controller "Distronic plus" (all for a surcharge).
It’s hard to imagine that the new CL will one day be further improved. The petrol engines bring even more power and maybe consume around five liters. Engine developer Doll is proud of his work, but he is even more relieved that the competition is no longer setting the standards for engines. "The control units for the two engines," he says, "are more powerful than the Apollo 11 computers with which the Americans landed on the moon."
This shows how much effort is put into wresting a few tenths of a liter from the engines in terms of consumption. At some point the couriers from BMW will be at the door of Mercedes. Then Doll and his engineers will dismantle the delivered engine.
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