Motor Trend - First Drive: 2009 Mercedes-Benz CL550 4MATIC

[Germancar1]

Coupe de Gravel: Tackle trails in regal style


Okay, admittedly the graceful coupe pictured here is not aimed at plutocratic off-roaders, but the engineers on hand at its launch proudly recalled an instance while mountain testing when they encountered a team of fellow development engineers shaking down a proper off-roader. Upon hiking the AIRMATIC suspenders up to tippy-toe mode, their graceful and gorgeous coupe managed to tackle a trail that impressed the truckers.


2009 Mercedes-Benz CL550 4MATIC - First Drive - Motor Trend


M

[iguess]

Honestly, I love the idea of an awd coupe. You get a little of everything. I mean I've never taken my CLK in the snow, but its good to know that if someone else was using the SUV and I needed to run to the supermarket for milk with 2 inches of snow on the ground, I could.

[zzboba]

I do not like AWD that much -- always comes with more weight, steering feel for front wheels is somehow biased and in the CL's case 4MATIC is not available with the brillant ABC chassis...
...but 4MATIC could probably cure CL's traction problem (from standstill).

CL 65 with 4MATIC and ABC -- that would be some dragster!

[WSH]

Agree....4Matic is highly overrated...

And ABC and traction/braking value of proper winter tires/wheels are highly underappreciated....

Have found traction of my CL63 to be superb in both dry/wet (obviously have no need for winter tires in CA)....

Would argue aggressive launch from 0 MPH is largely irrelevant anyway to most jaded drivers of any high-end car; 0-xxx accel is prob most relevant to clueless journalists and ricers....

I suspect most CL drivers care about dry/wet traction w/aggressive mid-range accel on fwy...or trac in rapid launch from ?20-30MPH coming out of a curve in twisties.....

[Dr. No]

Originally Posted by WSH

Agree....4Matic is highly overrated...

And ABC and traction/braking value of proper winter tires/wheels are highly underappreciated....

Have found traction of my CL63 to be superb in both dry/wet (obviously have no need for winter tires in CA)....

Would argue aggressive launch from 0 MPH is largely irrelevant anyway to most jaded drivers of any high-end car; 0-xxx accel is prob most relevant to clueless journalists and ricers....

I suspect most CL drivers care about dry/wet traction w/aggressive mid-range accel on fwy...or trac in rapid launch from ?20-30MPH coming out of a curve in twisties.....

Agree totally with WSH....Drove my ol' S55 with snowtires and ABC just fine. Even the SL600 with snowtires was ok, but with Wisconsin drifts the front was a bit low. 4Matic is nice, but not needed for experienced winter drivers with proper snowtires. Just dropped off my ML63 for its' A service and put on summer tires and came home in a loaner ML 350, yikes what a difference! That ML 63 is the best SUV out there and did great with snowtires this year, during our 100" of the frickin white stuff...why do I live here again? I need to move to CA and stick with one CL (65)

D.