Mercedes CLS saloon (2011-2017) - Reliability & safety
Beautifully built, the CLS has a strong reputation for reliability
Mercedes CLS reliability
The Mercedes CLS didn't feature in our Driver Power 2014 owner satisfaction survey, but we'd expect it to be well built and very reliable. As a company, Mercedes finished ninth out of 33 in our manufacturer rankings, although this represented a drop from the previous year. Nonetheless, owners praised Mercedes' cars for their ease of driving and build quality, although running costs are reported to be high.
Safety
The CLS hasn't yet been crash-tested by Euro NCAP, but as it's based on the Mercedes E-Class (which has the maximum five-star rating) we'd expect it to be very safe. It has all the modern safety features you'd want, including up to eight airbags, electronic stability control and traction control.
If you want to make your CLS even safer, you can also choose Mercedes' PREsafe system, which closes all the windows and primes the seatbelts if it senses an imminent accident, as well as warning you if the car strays out of its lane on the motorway.
That system is part of an optional Driving Assistance package, which also includes a number of other additional safety features including active blind-spot assistance, active lane-keeping assistance and junction assistance. The latter helps you to avoid accidents involving crossing traffic at junctions.
