CL600 Sport Is the World’s Best Highway Cruiser
“I’d Love to Go to Vegas in This Thing, It’d Be Fantastic,” — The Smoking Tire‘s Matt Farah on the CL600 Sport
Mercedes’s CL is large, comfortable, and absolutely effortless when spec’d out with the 600’s twin-turbocharged V12. This is a car that scores remarkably high on the “waftability” charts, as it just plain shoves down the road without transmitting so much as a pothole through the seats into your lower back. You’ll feel just as relaxed at this car’s 130 mph limited top speed as you would in any other car in a school zone. The Smoking Tire‘s Matt Farah makes that abundantly clear in the “One Take” video above.
Compared to the rev-happy and overly boisterous CL55 or CL63 V8 engines, the CL600’s V12 is silky smooth and ready to cruise. Comfort comes with a size and weight penalty in the CL600, meaning it won’t be shuffling through a high-speed canyon run anytime soon. While this car is large and heavy, it is capable of quick, but not jarring, acceleration. That’s thanks to nearly 600 pound-feet of torque. The transmission shifts smoothly, the turbos spool up easily, and provide a wave of forward shove to keep you cruising as long as you like.
CHECK OUT: What Forum Members Are Saying About This Perfect Vegas Cruiser
If you’re looking for a comfortable, pillarless coupe that can seat four full-sized adults and float down the road in spectacular form, look no further than the mid-2000s Merc CL600. These are a quiet performance bargain right now, too. Considering that depreciation has these cars hovering in the $20K range, they’re as comfortable on your pocketbook as they are on the road — though maintenance costs can balloon if anything is deferred for too long.
So for the price of a new Honda Civic, you could be cruising down the road in the dark horse of the German cruiser market. Nobody is really talking about how great these cars are, but they might just be the best way to enjoy 20 grand of highway cruising right now.
