SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Most, but not all, the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.

My most recent drive is on the home page. Archived reviews and opinion pieces are in the active menu down the left side. Hover your cursor over a heading or manufacturer's name and follow the drop-down.


Chauffeured in style: We do business in the 2015 Mercedes-Benz CLS 350 Bluetec

A mobile office

Posted: 2 December 2015

The numbers
Base price incl. CO2 tax: R948 858
Engine: 2987 cc, 72-degree V6, DOHC, 24-valve, turbodiesel
Power: 190 kW at 3600 rpm
Torque: 620 Nm between 1600 and 2400 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 6.5 seconds
Maximum speed: 250 km/h (governed)
Real life fuel consumption: About 9.3 l / 100 km
Tank: 80 litres
Boot: 475 litres
Warranty and maintenance: 6 years / 100 000 km

It’s long, low, wide and sleek. Our test unit was finished in Black. No fancy name, just Black. Huge air scoops set into a more pronounced front bumper and a glossy black grille, highlighted by dozens of tiny chromed hexagons – M-B calls them “diamonds” – make it look darkly sinister.

As before, it has a long bonnet, a slender glass line with frameless side windows and its roof slopes rearward dramatically. It’s as sexy as a private jet flight to Paris for breakfast – afterwards - but it’s not for everyone.

The marketing people say it slots in just above E-class and a touch below S, but it isn’t some passé saloon car. It’s certainly not designed for families with rambunctious children or fidgety teens – or even for wannabe racers, although an AMG version can be had at a price.

It isn’t made for demure entry and exit while wearing heels and skirt. The deep door sills don’t allow it. Or for even the most perfunctory kisses “hello” or “goodbye.” A huge central console makes sure of that. Its most obvious role is as chauffeur-driven executive express; a mobile office, if you will.

It’s set up for that. Individually sculpted rear seats, equipment trays in the fold-down armrest, slide-out cup folders, jacket hooks and air conditioning repeater controls make that evident. And the built-in internet connectivity is there for more serious business than kids’ games and mindless chit-chat.

There’s another little touch: Boxes with drop-down lids, built into each front chair, provide stash space for your chauffeuse-slash-bodyguard and her working partner to store lightweight short-range radios or spare clips for their Glocks. That’s if you’re in a particularly stressful line of business, of course.

Enough foolishness: Our test car was fitted with a three-litre, all-aluminium, V6 turbodiesel fitted with particulate filter (DPF) and Mercedes-Benz’s Bluetec urea injection system. That cleans up most of the nasty nitrous oxides to earn it an EU6 emissions control rating.

Supplementing the cleaner engine, this model shares the new nine-speed automatic gearbox with the range-topping CLS 500. It not only fits into the same space as the 7G-Tronic used in other versions, but it’s lighter, more efficient and shifts more easily.

The added gears provide almost seamless changes while allowing longer legs in the upper ratios for better fuel economy. The torque outputs of its two companion engines handle the job easily. To put that into perspective, this car ticked over at about 1400 rpm while loafing along at 120 km/h in ninth.

Despite its easy revving vibe and its cleanliness, this engine and gearbox combo is no pussycat. Developing 190 kilowatts and 620 Newton-metres, it pushes the 1845 kg car to 100 km/h in 6.5 seconds. Although no match for the petrol-fuelled AMG version that gets that particular job done a full two seconds quicker, the big diesel gives the feeling of being more than adequately powerful and ready for anything.

Standard equipment, apart from the obvious, includes nine airbags; self-adjusting comfort suspension; tyre pressure monitoring; active park assist; collision prevention assistance; the media interface that usually costs R3500 extra; a sunroof normally priced at R12 000; a sunblind for the back window; Thermotronic automatic climate control; a DVD changer; Comand online satnav with 8” touch screen, connectivity and media control, and adaptive brake lights. Options, as always, could fill a slender book and (possibly) add considerably to the final price of the car.

Not very common with a car like this, the rear seatbacks can be dropped, to lie almost flat, by tugging on dedicated levers in the luggage compartment. One side could be deployed to provide quick access to cargo required in transit although a conventional load-through is a R5150 option.

I wouldn’t say anything about your bodyguards possibly needing quick access to long guns, would I? Perish the thought!

Test car from MBSA press fleet


What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.

Comments?
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