Mercedes-Benz CLS500 vs BMW 645ci (comparison article)
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Mercedes-Benz CLS500 vs BMW 645ci (comparison article)
Here is the article by AOL Auto's in association with Car Connection.
BMW 645ci vs Benz CLS500
Before you ask - yes. I am fully aware the BMW 645Ci has been given a revised engine and a new name: 650Ci. I'm also aware that the 6-Series has two doors while the Mercedes CLS500 has four doors. And no, I wouldn't have pegged them as automatic rivals for one another either.
But in my defense it was Mercedes, not I, that insisted on calling the CLS a coupe. I'm shocked they didn't take the opportunity to slap a new segment title on it, like Sport Utility Coupe (SUC) or Quad Utility Aperture Coupe (QUAC) but instead they stuck with "four-door coupe," which puts it in direct competition with the BMW 6-Series, a car it is actually surprisingly close to in terms of performance, price, and prestige, if not door count.
Because both cars are based on altogether more practical saloons (5-Series and E-Class), we can assume that the buyer is not overly concerned about versatility or practicality and is focusing instead on the statements the 6-Series and CLS make about their owners. These cars are all about image and looks and, no, I'm not about to take another swipe at the poor 6-Series. A Bangle BMW it might be, but now that I'm over the early shock it's beginning to grow on me. The proportions are crisp, the relationship between glass, metal, and wheel is perfect and the way light dances across the flame surfacing make it a photographer's dream. If only that dreary expression and fat backside didn't spoil the overall effect and keep the BMW from looking its best. There's a glorious car in there somewhere. Hopefully BMW will set it free come facelift time.
The Mercedes is a lot more subdued than the Bimmer and yet it attracts more admiring glances. It's not muscular like the BMW but it is more elegant, with its simple arced shape and delightful detailing around the front and rear lights, for example. It's just so effortlessly desirable, like an expensive timepiece or a well-tailored suit, that it makes the 6-Series look contrived and fussy in comparison. People turn to look at it for a reason. It's gorgeous.
Cabin essence
Turning our attention indoors, the 6-Series interior could so easily have been one of the all time greats. It's modern and technical like an expensive Scandinavian hi-fi unit, and its expensive materials and perfect construction just beg to be touched and appreciated. The driving position can't be faulted either but, sadly, it all goes to pieces when you try to change radio stations or adjust the ventilation airflow. You have to navigate several on-screen menus via a joy-wheel-thing down by the handbrake and while you get better at it over time, the iDrive controller never stops being annoying. Banish the minor controls if you must, BMW, but please leave us the basics.
The rear seats are also pretty cramped for such a vast car, with no legroom and limited headroom, while getting in and out is a graceless affair making the rear strictly for giving the occasional rides to people you don't like very much.
The Mercedes borrows much of the interior from the E-Class, which means you get the same overworked center console, poorly positioned climate controls and genuinely iffy quality. The haphazard switch placement I can forgive because I'd rather have a riot of switches than the iDrive system any day, but the cheap plastic molding that holds the seat-bolster adjustments would shame a decade-old Taurus, which also seems to be where they got the inspiration for that ugly blob of a steering wheel.
That said, it is a hushed and comfortably place to spend time and the driving position is snug and sporty thanks to the narrow windows and low-set seat. The rear of the CLS is considerably better than the Bimmer, thanks to those individual rear seats and separate climate controls. There's more headroom than you'd expect, too, but watch that swooping door aperture when you're getting in. It'll catch you out if you're not aware of it.
Open-road assay
To the open road now where, as you'd expect, the BMW proves the sportier car with a firm ride and a flat cornering attitude. Sadly, our test car was fitted with the optional active steering and SMG transmission, effectively smothering the driving experience with unnecessary technology. Active steering varies the steering ratio depending on the car's speed so you don't have a lot of arm-twirling in parking lots, but with the link between steering wheel and tires refereed by an idiot computer you quickly lose confidence in the car because you never know what it will do. For example, on one occasion while braking hard for a hairpin, the car suddenly decided that I was parking and switched the steering to low-speed mode. I pile in an armful of lock expecting the car to feel like it did ten seconds earlier, but the car has already deduced that I'm racing for a peachy parking spot outside Le Chateaux du Pomp and dives in about six feet too early. The electronics drown out all the feedback, too, eroding your confidence still further.
And then there's the SMG gearbox, which responds to paddle inputs with bureaucratic sluggishness and shifting gears in with unpleasant lumpiness. Although changes are faster when it's set to sport, they then become unbearably rough. Even the thumb-operated paddle shifters are counter-intuitive. Order the auto if you're a town-dweller. Get the manual if you enjoy country blasts. Don't take an SMG-equipped 6-Series if you're given one for free.
The Mercedes is, by comparison, considerably more laid back. Even with the standard air suspension on its stiffest setting the CLS adopts a relaxed, floaty attitude that's much smoother and more refined than the BMW. That said, if you drive it with some aggression you find that it actually rolls a lot less and grips a lot harder than you'd expect. The steering isn't very quick or very informative but at least it's predictable and the seven-speed transmission can barely be felt shifting gears, which is a good thing because it likes to swap cogs an awful lot. Hard blasts are more fun if you use the transmission's manual override, which is operated by nudging the gearlever left and right, bizarrely.
The seats don't grip you as well as the Bimmer's either and it doesn't take long at all before you realize the 3992-lb Mercedes isn't really a car for throwing around back roads. With 306 hp from its 5.0-liter V-8, the CLS can manage the 0-60 mph sprint in a lively 6.0 seconds and charge on to a top speed 155 mph, but even with its seven gears it can't touch the BMW performance. The old 645Ci's 333-hp, 4.4-liter V-8 dispatches the 0-60 mph dash in 5.5 seconds with top speed again pegged at 155 mph, but that extra horsepower from its new 4.8-liter V-8 gives it a whopping 54-hp advantage over the Mercedes. Its 5.3-second 0-60 time testifies to that extra power while carrying some 178 pounds less than the CLS; it feels noticeably faster and more agile as well. More power is never a bad thing, but the price has inched up as well. It's now seven grand more than the Mercedes.
They might be after the same customers, but they go about it in very different ways. The sporty BMW is probably a lot of fun with a manual gearbox and a normal steering rack but fitted with active steering and SMG as our test car was it's a complete dud. It lunges in all directions unexpectedly makes you want to thump it in frustration. Even without the annoying options, there's still that awful iDrive and cramped rear to deal with, as well as the fact that for all its visual drama and fine proportions, it's not a pretty car.
The Mercedes is, by comparison, an oasis of calm refinement that can still be driven hard when the need arises. It also helps that the Mercedes is more practical and commodious, doesn't have that frustrating iDrive system to contend with and is a newer model, which is important to coupe buyers. Its quality disappoints and it could be more engaging to drive, but as a statement of style, sophistication, and prestige, the Mercedes can't be touched. The Bimmer has met its match in an unlikely rival. Long live the Bling!
BMW 645ci vs Benz CLS500
Before you ask - yes. I am fully aware the BMW 645Ci has been given a revised engine and a new name: 650Ci. I'm also aware that the 6-Series has two doors while the Mercedes CLS500 has four doors. And no, I wouldn't have pegged them as automatic rivals for one another either.
But in my defense it was Mercedes, not I, that insisted on calling the CLS a coupe. I'm shocked they didn't take the opportunity to slap a new segment title on it, like Sport Utility Coupe (SUC) or Quad Utility Aperture Coupe (QUAC) but instead they stuck with "four-door coupe," which puts it in direct competition with the BMW 6-Series, a car it is actually surprisingly close to in terms of performance, price, and prestige, if not door count.
Because both cars are based on altogether more practical saloons (5-Series and E-Class), we can assume that the buyer is not overly concerned about versatility or practicality and is focusing instead on the statements the 6-Series and CLS make about their owners. These cars are all about image and looks and, no, I'm not about to take another swipe at the poor 6-Series. A Bangle BMW it might be, but now that I'm over the early shock it's beginning to grow on me. The proportions are crisp, the relationship between glass, metal, and wheel is perfect and the way light dances across the flame surfacing make it a photographer's dream. If only that dreary expression and fat backside didn't spoil the overall effect and keep the BMW from looking its best. There's a glorious car in there somewhere. Hopefully BMW will set it free come facelift time.
The Mercedes is a lot more subdued than the Bimmer and yet it attracts more admiring glances. It's not muscular like the BMW but it is more elegant, with its simple arced shape and delightful detailing around the front and rear lights, for example. It's just so effortlessly desirable, like an expensive timepiece or a well-tailored suit, that it makes the 6-Series look contrived and fussy in comparison. People turn to look at it for a reason. It's gorgeous.
Cabin essence
Turning our attention indoors, the 6-Series interior could so easily have been one of the all time greats. It's modern and technical like an expensive Scandinavian hi-fi unit, and its expensive materials and perfect construction just beg to be touched and appreciated. The driving position can't be faulted either but, sadly, it all goes to pieces when you try to change radio stations or adjust the ventilation airflow. You have to navigate several on-screen menus via a joy-wheel-thing down by the handbrake and while you get better at it over time, the iDrive controller never stops being annoying. Banish the minor controls if you must, BMW, but please leave us the basics.
The rear seats are also pretty cramped for such a vast car, with no legroom and limited headroom, while getting in and out is a graceless affair making the rear strictly for giving the occasional rides to people you don't like very much.
The Mercedes borrows much of the interior from the E-Class, which means you get the same overworked center console, poorly positioned climate controls and genuinely iffy quality. The haphazard switch placement I can forgive because I'd rather have a riot of switches than the iDrive system any day, but the cheap plastic molding that holds the seat-bolster adjustments would shame a decade-old Taurus, which also seems to be where they got the inspiration for that ugly blob of a steering wheel.
That said, it is a hushed and comfortably place to spend time and the driving position is snug and sporty thanks to the narrow windows and low-set seat. The rear of the CLS is considerably better than the Bimmer, thanks to those individual rear seats and separate climate controls. There's more headroom than you'd expect, too, but watch that swooping door aperture when you're getting in. It'll catch you out if you're not aware of it.
Open-road assay
To the open road now where, as you'd expect, the BMW proves the sportier car with a firm ride and a flat cornering attitude. Sadly, our test car was fitted with the optional active steering and SMG transmission, effectively smothering the driving experience with unnecessary technology. Active steering varies the steering ratio depending on the car's speed so you don't have a lot of arm-twirling in parking lots, but with the link between steering wheel and tires refereed by an idiot computer you quickly lose confidence in the car because you never know what it will do. For example, on one occasion while braking hard for a hairpin, the car suddenly decided that I was parking and switched the steering to low-speed mode. I pile in an armful of lock expecting the car to feel like it did ten seconds earlier, but the car has already deduced that I'm racing for a peachy parking spot outside Le Chateaux du Pomp and dives in about six feet too early. The electronics drown out all the feedback, too, eroding your confidence still further.
And then there's the SMG gearbox, which responds to paddle inputs with bureaucratic sluggishness and shifting gears in with unpleasant lumpiness. Although changes are faster when it's set to sport, they then become unbearably rough. Even the thumb-operated paddle shifters are counter-intuitive. Order the auto if you're a town-dweller. Get the manual if you enjoy country blasts. Don't take an SMG-equipped 6-Series if you're given one for free.
The Mercedes is, by comparison, considerably more laid back. Even with the standard air suspension on its stiffest setting the CLS adopts a relaxed, floaty attitude that's much smoother and more refined than the BMW. That said, if you drive it with some aggression you find that it actually rolls a lot less and grips a lot harder than you'd expect. The steering isn't very quick or very informative but at least it's predictable and the seven-speed transmission can barely be felt shifting gears, which is a good thing because it likes to swap cogs an awful lot. Hard blasts are more fun if you use the transmission's manual override, which is operated by nudging the gearlever left and right, bizarrely.
The seats don't grip you as well as the Bimmer's either and it doesn't take long at all before you realize the 3992-lb Mercedes isn't really a car for throwing around back roads. With 306 hp from its 5.0-liter V-8, the CLS can manage the 0-60 mph sprint in a lively 6.0 seconds and charge on to a top speed 155 mph, but even with its seven gears it can't touch the BMW performance. The old 645Ci's 333-hp, 4.4-liter V-8 dispatches the 0-60 mph dash in 5.5 seconds with top speed again pegged at 155 mph, but that extra horsepower from its new 4.8-liter V-8 gives it a whopping 54-hp advantage over the Mercedes. Its 5.3-second 0-60 time testifies to that extra power while carrying some 178 pounds less than the CLS; it feels noticeably faster and more agile as well. More power is never a bad thing, but the price has inched up as well. It's now seven grand more than the Mercedes.
They might be after the same customers, but they go about it in very different ways. The sporty BMW is probably a lot of fun with a manual gearbox and a normal steering rack but fitted with active steering and SMG as our test car was it's a complete dud. It lunges in all directions unexpectedly makes you want to thump it in frustration. Even without the annoying options, there's still that awful iDrive and cramped rear to deal with, as well as the fact that for all its visual drama and fine proportions, it's not a pretty car.
The Mercedes is, by comparison, an oasis of calm refinement that can still be driven hard when the need arises. It also helps that the Mercedes is more practical and commodious, doesn't have that frustrating iDrive system to contend with and is a newer model, which is important to coupe buyers. Its quality disappoints and it could be more engaging to drive, but as a statement of style, sophistication, and prestige, the Mercedes can't be touched. The Bimmer has met its match in an unlikely rival. Long live the Bling!
