Mercedes-Benz CLS expelled in Australia, nearing the end of production

Mercedes-Benz arguably invented the modern four-door coupe segment but as sedans – including its own – became more and more polished, CLS has been exhausted.

shapes CLS currently being discontinued locally after three generations as Mercedes-Benz welcomes electric vehicles balance it is selling along with more traditional electronic class.

A spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz Australia said: “Orders have ceased and production of the current CLS will end in August this year in preparation for the new E-Class.

The vehicle no longer appears on the Mercedes-Benz Australia website, including the depot locator.

It seems unlikely that the CLS will be replaced, as the E-Class has a new rival in the EQE, no next-generation CLS has been tested, and Mercedes-Benz has stopped offering lower mass models such as SLC and two doors WORLD RANGE variant.

The CLS’s best year in Australia was its debut season, 2005, when Mercedes-Benz sold 540 units, followed by 509 in 2006 and 501 in 2007.

It has been erratic since then, as is the case with fashionable vehicles, although Mercedes-Benz came close to hitting those numbers in 2013 (456) and 2015 (451) with the fifth-generation model. two.

The third-generation model has been much less successful in Australia, with just 220 sold in 2019, its best year yet. This number drops to just 30 in 2021, rising slightly to 55 in 2022.

For context, Mercedes-Benz has – at least until 2020 – sold at least 1000 units of the now defunct E-Class sedan and wagon (in Australia).

In Europe and the US, each generation of the CLS also proved less popular than the previous one.

Each car salesIts best years across both major markets were 2005 for the first-generation model (34,982 total), 2013 for the second-generation model (23,171) and 2018 for the current model (10,566). – although that final figure may include some second-generation models.

The CLS Shooting Brake, a bolder alternative to the related E-Class model, is offered only in the second-generation model, and plans to offer a carriage version of the third-generation model have already been made. Canceled.

However, Mercedes-Benz continues to offer a smaller version of the Shooting Brake CBA in other markets, although it is no longer sold here.

The CLS isn’t the first car to be marketed as a four-door coupe. The Rover P5 Coupe has been around since 1962, while there are a number of “hardtop” sedans similar to the CLS such as Mazda 323 Astina hardtop.

The four-door coupe designation was controversial with purists, who believed that a coupe should have two doors, but it spawned both its smaller sibling, the CLA, as well as several models. imitation car.

These include the BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe and the Volkswagen Passat CC. However, these models were quickly followed by similar slim but more practical five-door forklifts such as Audi A5 Sportback And A7 And BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe.

Those rankings also rose to include the Mercedes-AMG GT Coupé 4 Doorswhich is actually a five-door liftback itself.

The sedans also continue to have a more aggressive design, leaving an increasingly small space for four-door coupes. And this is just marketing semantics anyway, what to say Audi e-tron GT not a four-door coupe?

THAN: Everything Mercedes-Benz CLS