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The good: The air suspension standard on the 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS550 offers a very comfortable ride, and Harman Kardon audio system reproduces music with excellent fidelity. Adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection, and lane departure systems all work fine.
The bad: The engine generates an acceleration uneven bands of some power.
The bottom line: Mercedes-Benz luxury reinforces his reputation with 2012 CLS550. A powerful engine and efficient engine of this elegant promenade and a number of advanced driver assistance.
The 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS550 is one of the most elegant designs car on the road. You may be confused with a large drop of liquid mercury flowing down the road. Mercedes-Benz did a great job of keeping a roof, or curves and moldings on the rear fender sides. If you do not want people to stop to admire your car, the CLS550 is not for you.
As an update to one of the big BMW sedans, the CLS550 sports a new engine making its way towards the formation of all Mercedes-Benz 550-designated cars, direct injection V-8 with two turbos. This engine, and a new seven-speed automatic transmission combine for surprisingly good fuel economy. The car also comes standard with air suspension, giving one of the rides more comfortable at all.
Mercedes-Benz has done much work in the electronic driver assistance, and the CLS550 serves as a showcase for innovative technologies. The technology suite cabin and navigation functions very good stereo, but in this area the company does not push the envelope. Mercedes-Benz moves away from the kind of integration of applications now becoming fashionable.
Luxury ride, the sound
Two things make a ride CLS550 ultimate luxury: air suspension and the Harman Kardon 14 speaker surround sound system. Although more than $ 70 large, you will not find a car of this price with a better ride. Potholes and rough pavement are beneath the notice of the CLS550. If the princess who famously felt a pea under twenty mattresses were riding in the CLS550, it results in a deep sleep.
Add to this trip very comfortable to the music of great detail produced by the Harman Kardon audio system. Of its speakers, is easy to hear all the plays percussion and string guitar strumming. Horns and voices come through amazingly rich quality. Top notes of this system may be too loud and sustained notes trumpet can be painful. Low, however, is very well controlled.
The audio allows almost all audio sources you want. Mercedes-Benz adds Bluetooth streaming audio to your list, which also includes the integration of the iPod, the car hard disk itself, and HD Radio. There's even a PC card slot, a little strange anachronism. However, Mercedes-Benz has not joined the bandwagon of application, however, so there is no integration of Pandora and Internet radio.
At this level of luxury, power seats with heating and cooling memory configurations are, of course, standard. And it's available for the driver's seat with pivoting massage reinforcement. This function uses massage airbags in the seat, which are not as effective as rollers, but still quite decadent.
In addition to improving the driving experience is a good set of features of care. Mercedes-Benz for some time has offered an adaptive cruise control that adjusts the car's speed to match traffic ahead. This system works very well, allowing you to drive many miles in light to moderate traffic without touching the gas or brake. We have even seen to bring the car to a complete stop in traffic stopped ahead.
A blind spot detection lights feature a red triangle in the side mirrors to warn of cars on the sides of the CLS550. Flashing triangle and a warning tone sounds if you activate the turn signal. In the CLS550 Mercedes-Benz also offers features night vision, making the instrument a longer view of the road can be seen unaided.
And new for the CLS550 is a lane departure warning and prevention system drift. This system follows the rail lines, which displays an icon in the instrument panel when activated. If the drift over a lane line without signaling or active steering, the wheel that vibrates and sounds a warning tone. Continue to drift a little wheel brakes out of play, causing the car to stop the drift. When activated, it feels as if the car is turning quickly back on the street, with enough movement to awaken dozing drivers.
CNET car came equipped with LED headlights, which is part of a $ 4,390 package that also includes an interface to the iPod. These well-defined project headlights bright rays similar to HID headlamps. Continue with the steering angle, the lighting of the corners.