Mercedes-AMG CLE53 Cabriolet Review: Not Affalterbach’s Most Thrilling

It’s easy to get confused by Mercedes-AMG’s current offerings. While a Mercedes-AMG ‘43 uses an inline four, as do the ‘35 and ‘45 models, a ‘53 still uses six cylinders. And so, thankfully, the new Mercedes-AMG CLE53 Cabriolet has avoided being downsized relative to its predecessors.

Yes, the plural word at the end there is correct – the CLE Cab and its tin-top sibling effectively replace two cars, or rather, four. It serves as a successor for the C-Class coupe and Cabriolet as well as the E-Class coupe and Cabriolet, despite being a little bigger than the latter.

To my eyes, it looks better than any either of those, whether you’ve gone for a roof of the solid metal or folding fabric variety. And in spicy ‘53 form, AMG has really gone to town on it. Where the old C53 coupe/Cab and the E53 coupe/Cab felt a bit half-arsed, this new CLE53 features aggressively blistered wheel arches and wider tracks front and rear, with the car gaining 73mm at its girthiest point.

It has real presence and promises a thrilling drive the moment you look at it, particularly in Night Edition form with its various blacked-out trim pieces. Unfortunately, it never really delivers on the ‘thrilling’ front.

On paper, it sounds interesting enough, with 443bhp and 413lb ft of torque from the 3.0-litre straight-six making for a 4.4-second 0-62mph time, dropping to just 4.2 seconds with the Pro Performance Package’s Race Start system. Not so long ago, we’d associate such numbers with full-fat V8 AMGs, and here, there’s a turbocharger spooled up by the hybrid system to make the engine in theory nearly as responsive as one of the old big-capacity nat-asp Affalterbach machines.

In reality, the CLE53 Cabriolet never feels that quick, and the soundtrack from the inline-six is uninspiring. AMG has attempted to improve it with some augmentation through the speakers, but it’s excessive, particularly when it comes to the upshift noises piped into the cabin. And you do still get turbo lag, even if the electrical stuff does combat this very effectively.

The nine-speed automatic gearbox, meanwhile, is fine. It gets on with the job without ever being truly frustrating, but there are slicker auto transmissions out there. Again, the brakes aren’t a standout feature of the car, but the stopping power is perfectly adequate.

Show it a corner, and the CLE53 Cab is competent enough, with plenty of traction in the dry from the all-wheel-drive system and the wide Michelin Pilot Sport S5s used at each corner. It’s generally a neutral-feeling system, which rarely wants to get the rear of the car moving around. The car feels pretty remote, offering little in the way of feedback through either the steering wheel or through your bum to the chassis.

The weather at the international launch for the car in southern Spain was…not much like being in southern Spain at all, with plentiful rain and fog. In these lower grip conditions, the front end would often push into understeer, and for the briefest of moments, the CLE53 feels like it’s going to keep washing wide forever, before finally getting its act together.

This is when you really feel the weight of the car, which is a chunky 2110kg, around 100kg porkier than the coupe. Much of that is down to under-body stiffening measures, and while these have ensured it doesn’t flop around like an old-school convertible, the CLE53 never feels quite as willing to quickly change direction as you’d like.

Everything starts to make a lot more sense if you calm down a bit. Despite all the extra bracing underneath, the car remains very comfortable, even with the adaptive dampers turned up to their stiffest setting. The roof is brilliant, taking 20 seconds to open or close at speeds of up to 38mph, rather than the usual ~30mph we’re so used to quoting. With it up, you wouldn’t really know you’re in a convertible, given how good the acoustic insulation is.

Mercedes interiors have gone a little off the boil in recent years, and the CLE is a perfect example of this. There are a lot of different ideas going on, from design to material choice, and far too many cheap-feeling elements, like the vents. The seats, though, are wonderfully comfortable.

Factor in a smooth six-cylinder engine is smooth, and you have a car for making swift, relaxing progress. Which isn’t really how you want to describe a model from Mercedes-AMG.

Just like the CLE53 coupe, the Cabriolet is a car we struggle with conceptually. Looks aside, all of the good stuff can be attributed to derivatives lower down the pecking order. Perhaps that’ll be the draw for some people – it looks the part, yet isn’t unduly compromised by trying to get a good Nurburgring lap time or whatever. A little like the AMG Line trim on steroids.

The thing is, you’re expected to pay a lot of money for the privilege. £77,075, to be exact, or £82,825 for the Night Edition. If you do actually want a proper performance car, just as we pointed out when testing the CLE53 coupe, the jump to a BMW M4 isn’t massive.

But if it has to be an AMG, and how a car feels when gunning through the gears and tearing around a corner, you might want to wait until the CLE63 gets here, as from the sounds of it, it’s getting a V8.