2006 Mercedes-Benz CLK-Class Sports Car Reviews & Ratings

The Mercedes-Benz CLK offers generous room even for tall drivers. The back seat actually has enough room for two adults to travel comfortably. You might not want to take a couple friends for a daylong jaunt, but no one is going to get out of the back seat looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Mercedes made access to the rear seat easier with handy quick-release front seats that slide forward and up. Seatbelt presenters automatically extend forward from behind the door opening to make the seatbelts handy for front-seat occupants, then retract.

The coupe's rear seats are split 60/40, and fold down to add to the cargo capacity of the coupe's 10.4 cubic-foot trunk.

Interior materials are among the finest in any recent Mercedes. Soft polyurethane sprayed onto the dashboard provides an attractive appearance and a luxurious feel. While there have been complaints about the use of plastic in the M-Class and C-Class, it's hard to imagine anyone not being seduced by the look and feel of the CLK interior. Nice touches of wood and gathered leather on the doors panels make for a very attractive cabin. The cup holder on the passenger side is attractive but cantankerous, and was the only thing negative we could find in the interior.

The cabriolet has a beautifully lined top.

The instrument panel is a departure for Mercedes, but it works admirably. A large round speedometer and tachometer dominate the center of the gauge cluster. Small thermometer-like gauges for the fuel level and coolant temperature flank them, harking back to a Mercedes design of the 1950s. While they take some getting used to in a brief test drive, the design has the look of something so intuitive for daily use that it's a wonder nobody else uses it.

The Mercedes CLK is a luxury two-door you can drive hard without even realizing it. The chassis has the kind of stiffness with which Mercedes has only in recent years endowed its upscale SL roadsters.

In mixed driving along a stretch of Detroit's Woodward Avenue that varied from 1900-style brick to pool-table smooth asphalt, the coupe's suspension swallowed unpleasant bumps without complaint while communicating steering input fluently back to the steering wheel.

A few miles north of downtown Detroit, on the winding lakeside roads of Oakland County, the coupe handled curves at speed with the easy grace of a thoroughbred horse stretching out in the home stretch.

A spirited romp in a cabriolet along the California coast and through the Golden State's coastal range was similarly impressive and more enjoyable. Unlike many convertibles, the CLK feels solid, like it's carved from one thick piece of rigid material. Extensive use of high-strength steel alloys of varying thickness in the cabriolet's unit-body panels and structure combine with liberal reinforcements of transmission tunnel, cross struts and rear bulkhead to add torsional stiffness and bending resistance and minimize vibration. Mercedes claims that the stiffness of the cabriolet's body is equal to that of the coupe. All of this contributes to its precise handling and taut but comfortable ride quality.

The front suspension combines two low-mass lower control arms with a strut, coil springs, dual-tube shocks and a stabilizer bar. Mercedes chose to use the two lower control arms to improve impact absorption for better wheel control and damping. The rear suspension is the latest refinement of Mercedes proven multi-link design. It has been tuned for improved absorption of vibration and more predictable handling when driven hard. The CLK has very little squat or dive during hard acceleration or braking.

Mercedes continues to improve its electronic stability program, which can help the driver maintain control by reducing skidding. In the CLK, the system is virtually transparent, intervening unobtrusively to prevent wheel spin, but without the heavy-handed reduction in power that marred some of its early applications.

The brakes on the CLK are superb. They're easy to modulate for smooth stops in normal, everyday driving, and respond very linearly.

The Mercedes V6 and V8 engines perform admirably and both benefit from a five-speed automatic transmission. The 268-horsepower CLK350 has all the power most drivers need, accelerating ably from a stoplight and driving the car smoothly through the gears.

The 302-horsepower CLK500 is a refined German muscle car, delivering thrilling acceleration performance with barely any deterioration in handling in spite of its greater weight. The CLK500 cabriolet can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in about 6 seconds, according to Mercedes. The automatic transmission is very responsive. The engine exhaust makes a pleasant sound.

The coupe, with its smooth aerodynamics and quiet manners is an excellent car for all seasons, but the convertible may be your preference if you enjoy top-down driving. Buffeting from the wind when the top down is fairly low with the windblocker in place. Put the top up and there's very little wind noise.

The Mercedes-Benz CLK-Class is made up of three models. Each is available as a two-door coupe or cabriolet. The CLK350, CLK500, and CLK55 AMG each offers progressively higher levels of performance but are otherwise similarly equipped.

The CLK350 coupe ($46,525) and cabriolet ($54,475) are powered by a new 3.5-liter V6, which develops 268 horsepower (up from 215 horsepower) at 6000 rpm and 258 pound-feet of torque at 2400 rpm. Power is transferred through a new seven-speed electronically controlled automatic transmission with software that adapts shift points to suit the driver's style. The TouchShift system allows the driver to shift manually.

The CLK500 coupe ($55,125) and cabriolet ($63,075) get a 5.0-liter V8 that produces 302 horsepower at 5600 rpm and 339 pound-feet of torque from 2700 to 4250 rpm. The engine is coupled to a seven-speed electronically controlled automatic transmission with driver-adaptive shift points and TouchShift with steering-wheel-mounted shift buttons.

The CLK55 AMG ($83,375), available only as a cabriolet for 2006, is a limited-production, ultra-high-performance model with a 5.4-liter V8 rated at 362 horsepower at 5750 rpm and 376 pound-feet of torque at 4000 rpm. It's fitted with an AMG-modified SpeedShift five-speed driver-adaptive automatic transmission that can be shifted manually using the shift lever or Formula 1-style controls on the steering wheel.

All CLK models boast a long list of standard equipment, including leather upholstery, dual-zone climate control with pollen and dust filter, 10-way adjustable power seats with three memory settings, and rain-sensing windshield wipers. All boast extremely well-equipped and attractive interiors, with two-tone leather and aluminum trim available as an option on the CLK500 and an exclusive, monochromatic black interior on the CLK55 AMG.

Five options packages are available for the CLK models. The Comfort Package ($990) includes active ventilated seats with heating and a multi-contour driver's seat. The Lighting Package ($990) adds bi-xenon headlamps with Active Curve Illumination and headlamp washers. The Premium Package for the CLK350 coupe ($1,500) and cabriolet ($1,200) consists of a six-disc CD changer, harman/kardon LOGIC7 surround sound, and heated washers; the coupe's package includes a sunroof. The CLK500 Premium Package ($2,500) includes the CD changer and surround sound system, and the heated washers, and adds auto-dimming mirrors, garage door opener and, for the coupe, a sunroof.

Options include a navigation system combined with a computerized management system for stereo and air conditioning ($2,240); Sirius Satellite Radio ($699); hands-free communication ($925); wood and leather steering wheel ($530); sport suspension ($210); heated front seats ($690); electronic trunk closer ($510); and Keyless Go ($1,080). For that extra special touch, designo Silver Edition and Graphite Edition trim packages are available ($7,050).

Safety features that come on all CLK models include dual two-stage frontal airbags; front-seat head and chest side-impact airbags. Rear-seat side-impact airbags are optional ($385). New for 2006 is the addition of active front head restraints to help support the head and prevent whiplash injuries in the event of a collision. The cabriolet has a new design of side-impact airbag mounted in the front seat that adds head protection to the usual chest protection expected from such systems. Automatic-deploying roll bars come standard on cabriolets. Also standard is the Tele Aid automatic emergency response notification system, which calls an emergency response center and gives the car's location in the event any seatbelt tensioning retractor or airbag deploys. A Run-Flat Package ($275) includes run-flat tires and a tire pressure loss warning system. Active safety features that come standard include antilock brakes (ABS) with emergency Brake Assist and electronic stability control.