Both CLS and A7 (above) are slicked-back versions of their makers' regular saloons. The CLS is related to the two-year-old E-Class. Audi, clearly in a hurry to plug the long-standing CLS-shaped gap in its range, has got the A7 out before its mechanical twin, the 2011 A6.
We're testing the V6 diesels of each, which will be the big sellers because they're effortlessly fast, remarkably economical and likely to be bought on the company-car quid. The Mercedes is a 3.0, despite the 350CDI badge, but then you can't begrudge it fiddling its CV, given the stonking 265bhp and 457lb ft of torque. A seven-speed auto is standard, and rear-drive. The Audi's 3.0-litre comes in two outputs: 204bhp for the FWD, and 245bhp for this quattro version. This too has a seven-speed transmission, but it's a twin-clutch S-tronic, which, as we'll see, has consequences.
The Audi has a bit less power and quite a bit less torque, but despite the quattro drive, it weighs less than the Mercedes - both have largely steel structures, but most of the exterior panels are aluminium. Their all-out performance justifies the 50 grand.
But they go about it differently. The Mercedes engine is almost uncannily quiet, tending to silence at a motorway cruise, and it delivers its torque without much of a trough at either end of the rev scale. The shove in the back is insistent. The full-auto transmission weaves its way through both town and highway with feathery softness, but like all Benzes, it isn't so co-operative when you feel like taking control.
The Audi V6 TDI was the benchmark for smoothness, but this Mercedes has it beaten. Never mind, it's hardly shabby. Just a fraction peakier and little bit more audibly insistent - though the snare-drum racket from the big tyres drowns it out on a motorway. The S-tronic transmission isn't a luxury-car 'box. At town speeds, especially when the oil's cold, its efforts to impersonate a proper auto aren't much cop. It manoeuvres grabbily, and holds onto first because it doesn't have a torque converter to ease it into second. In slow traffic, it's crude. But there's a pay-off. On an interesting road when you're driving more actively, it gives you snappier shifts and more complete manual control.
But that'd be no use without a sporty chassis. The Audi has firm springing and, on the test car, oversized 265/35 20 tyres, as well as four-wheel drive. Cornering grip, then, is hardly going to be an issue. But it's not all rosy. For a start, those tyres tramline badly, and corrupt the steering. Ah well, if you can feel the ridges, you ought to be able to feel what you do want, the friction of the surface and edge of the grip envelope. But you can't. The A7 corners highly effectively, but with no particular spirit.
By the way, the car in these shots is on the optional adaptively damped air-sprung chassis. We actually did rather more miles in a second car with steel springs and passive dampers, on the standard 19s. It tramlined less, kicked up slightly less of a road-noise assault and frankly, even compared with the adaptive car in ‘comfort' mode, there wasn't much in it for ride. But it too was numb to the helm. Maybe it's the electric power steering, which is making its way up from small cars to big ones. The A8, which has the same air-sprung chassis but hydraulic steering, is better.
Mercedes too has switched to electric steering for the CLS. Manufacturers fit it because it saves fuel and complexity, allows more tuning of weight at different speeds, and can include extra functions like self-parking and pulling you back into a motorway lane if you drift. But it nearly always sacrifices ultimate feel, as the Audi proves. At all normal speeds, the CLS wheel is weighted just like any other Benz, with a deliberate action and lots of self-centring. On our greasy test roads, it didn't give us enough feel to be entirely confident, even on winter tyres, but when we did the first drive in a sunnier place, it did the job.
One thing's for sure. The CLS is a very close match to the Audi for agility, yet it's a league ahead for ride. A long-wavelength plushness has it floating regally over big bumps, and there's little secondary shudder. And yet the damping keeps it all neatly tied down. The Audi sits on the thumpy, jiggly side of firm, and a slight shudder through the steering column undermines that tank-like integrity.
The Mercedes is the luxury car here, but then you'd expect a Mercedes to be just that. It's quieter, smoother and better-riding. You relax into it like you do in a hot bath. The Audi looks for all the world the chiselled, lean athlete, and its responsive gearbox and suction-pad traction bear it out. But it doesn't have the sense of fun to press home that advantage. If you prefer the Audi's style or could use its hatchback, fair enough, but beside the Mk2 CLS, the A7 feels like what it is: a first attempt.
The verdictHat-tip to the Audi A7 for bringing back elegant minimalism to Audi design. But it’s the Mercedes CLS that best marries the comfort of a limo-barge with the driving smarts of a coupe.
