TonyA

Almost signed a lease on a new E300 without driving it but after taking it for a 5 minute spin, I was disappointed. Been researching and test driving 2010-11 S550's and now considering a 2012-14 CLS so I checked out 2 today that were located within a 15 minutes drive. One was a 2012 with 100k miles, very poorly maintained, offered @ $28k and the other a 2014, AMG sport package with 25k miles offered at $46k. Obviously, condition and maintenance will have an impact, however the '14 felt different in every way, sounded different, and accelerated.

What differences are there between the 2012-2013-2014 models?

blazium

The new E300 has tons of tech options though and you get so much with the P1 package. I agree though, the ride is nothing like a CLS!

The G Man

The 2012, 13 and 14 CLS550 should be very similar. Same engine, same suspension and same transmission. There were some option and color changes, I think the 14 gain the auto start stop system. There might have been something wrong with the 2012 you drove.

Mikeki7

They are pretty close but there were a few changes and G man is correct the non amg 14 model year got the eco start stop and I think the blue efficiency logo was also removed from the fenders.

Take note of the early 2012 production CLSs, some of them have the older NTG4 comand system vs NTG4.5. Easiest way to tell is if it has an sd card slot then you have 4.5 if its a fat pmcia card slot then its version 4 and that thing is pretty old, you can google the differences. Also 2012 and some 2013 have a beige/yellow color scheme on the cluster and the comand vs the newer black/red/silver scheme but there are ways to update the cluster and head unit to the new colors. 2014 and possibly some late 2013 have ntg4.7 which isnt a huge difference from 4.5, I believe it adds tethering to iphones so you can use comand online which has some apps like internet radio etc. But I believe you can enable this on ntg4.5 and use android instead. Easiest way to tell is if you have a selection for comand online, if not you have 4.5, it exists on 4.5 but is disabled and can be enabled through a star diagnostic system, iphone tethering wont work though because it doesnt have the hardware change that 4.7 has.

I probably got way to deep into the changes on the navi, my point is that in the end the differences are not so huge unless you have ntg4. if you get a 2012 with ntg4.5 I recommend getting it updated at the dealership as the Bluetooth functionality is greatly improved with newer phones.

konigstiger

Marketing brochures: http://www.auto-brochures.com/mercedes_benz.html

Quackledork

2012 has some older trim pieces from the W211 series E-Class. The gear shift, some buttons, etc. The 2013-2014 were all trim pieces from the W212.