Mercedes-Benz CLS terminated 2023 with no replacement

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If you’re hankering for a four-door German not-a-sedan from Stuttgart, you are advised to hustle towards a Mercedes dealership with great haste. According to reports, the Mercedes-Benz CLS wraps up production later this year.

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In marketing, perception is everything. Plunk a raft of focus-group participants in front of a grey car whilst repeatedly telling them it is actually a new blue colour and, eventually, some of them will start to believe the tale.

Mercedes-Benz used this to great effect about 20 years ago when it introduced a sedan it called a ‘four-door coupe’ simply because the model had a swoopy fastback roofline. Two decades later, the damn things are everywhere — and have even spread to the crossover/SUV segment, which is now also home to non-sensical “coupes” such as the BMW X6 and the Audi Q5 Sportback.

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Most of the world’s automotive brands are focused on tightening their belts these days, reducing model count ahead of the inevitable EV onslaught as we roll towards the 2030s. Today’s CLS shares much with the E-Class, an actual sedan with four real doors, though it is understood the next-gen E will not spawn a CLS cousin. But that new E is scheduled to show up this autumn in certain markets, explaining why the ‘four-door coupe’ CLS isn’t long for this world.

In Canada, the CLS is currently available in two flavours, both equipped with 4Matic all-wheel-drive. Kicking things off is the $85,900 CLS 450, powered by a turbocharged 3.0L inline-six with mild-hybrid technology, good for 362 horsepower and a run to highways speeds from rest in just 4.8 seconds.

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Moving up from there, we find a AMG CLS 53, priced a hair under six figures and belting out 429 noisy horses from an engine of equal displacement to its less expensive brother.

The original CLS was a moonshot like few had ever seen when it was first introduced, ushering in the “four-door coupe” moniker of which we make so much fun these days. Other automakers from Germany were caught napping but quickly introduced their own variants, such as the Audi A5 and A7 Sportback and BMW 4 and 8 Series Grand Coupes. Non-luxury brands also tried their hand at this style, with the Volkswagen CC (née Passat) being just one example.