Which is it? I've seen both being used interchangeably it seems.

 

Man I've been as confused as you are. It seems like C218 is used for non amg version and W218 for 63amg.

 

No, has nothing to do with AMG. "C" stand for coupe (MB calls CLS a 4dr coupe) (C207, C218, etc.), "W" stand for sedan (W212, W204, W222, etc.), "S" stand for wagon (S212; go figure, intuitively it should be the opposite, but its not), "A" stand for cabriolet (A207) and "R" stand for roadster (R230/231 SL and SLK/SLC).

 

This makes sense... so what is the official code for the CLS? Wikipedia references both W218 and C218... this forum uses C218. What does Mercedes actually use?

 

I understand that bro, I was specifically talking about the CLS C218 and W218 situation.

 

The only Mercedes documentation I have outside of the manual refers to it as 'Model 218', which is no help at all! Haha

 

Anyone know the answer to this? what does MERCEDES themselves use for body code of cls63 and regular CLS?

 

following

 

Mercedes use the C218 notation for it, see the picture below from their site. threeMBs called it correctly in the post above. You shouldn't really rely on Wikipedia for 'gospel' answers. It's useful but not always that reliable.

 

so “w218” is completely wrong to be using for any cls, including the cls63?

my guess is, W is used for sedans, and since the cls has 4 doors maybe they looked at it like it’s a sedan rather than coupe?

 

The CLS63 is W218. Don't know why the difference.

 

W218- AMG

 

From what I can tell W218 and C218 can be used interchangeably. One isn’t for AMG and the other for non-AMG

 

Exactly, where is the source that for the C218 it changes to “w218” for the amg version? I don’t see that anywhere from Mb and other models don’t change the chassis name when going from regular to amg versions, so why here?

 

I think that _218 is body related marking. AMG is engine related. When I open wikipedia then C218 refers to sedan. X218 refers to shooting break option. Feels like W218 is both C218 and X218. Also both can be AMG. Is this theory valid? So I would not use W or C interchangeably in all cases.

 

These designation have stopped making logical sense. Why is the first generation called C219, but the later, second generation C218. Shouldn't the numbers go up? Then, the third generation CLS is called C257. What happened?

The coupe is called C219 and the shooting brake X219. But the coupe has four doors as normally a sedan has and was built on the chassis of the W212 E class sedan, so maybe AMG kept with the W designation--AMG of course does more than just put in a more powerful engine.

Anyway, lots of people get it wrong:

 

And now, I did, too. I of course meant "The coupe is called C218 and the shooting brake X218."

 

It would make sense to say it’s called w218 because it’s based on a sedan w212 and still has 4 doors, but that should apply to the regular cls as well not just amg version

 

C218 is used in europe along side with w218 but america just uses w218

 

Yes, because there is no "shooting brake" (hatchback) version in America, so the distinction between the C218 (four-door coupe) and X218 (station wagon) is not necessary. They just use W218 in the U.S., which is the overall designation for the model series.

 

I was under the impression c218 is primarily used in the USA and world wide w218 is used.

 

Nope, I'm in the UK and the screenshot from Mercedes site I posted above denotes it as C218.

 

Never did I see Mercedes themselves use w218 including in “America”. They only use C218 which means that’s the only correct one it could be...

 

W - Wagon
S - Station
C - Coupe



QUOTE=threeMBs;7365163]No, has nothing to do with AMG. "C" stand for coupe (MB calls CLS a 4dr coupe) (C207, C218, etc.), "W" stand for sedan (W212, W204, W222, etc.), "S" stand for wagon (S212; go figure, intuitively it should be the opposite, but its not), "A" stand for cabriolet (A207) and "R" stand for roadster (R230/231 SL and SLK/SLC).[/QUOTE]