2026 Mercedes-Benz CLE Reviews, Pricing & Specs

The CLE lineup represents something now in short supply: a low, sleek, beautiful design. The AMG CLE 53 heightens the styling even more with wider fenders and bigger wheels that create a more planted stance.

Up front, the CLE 53 sports the A-shaped AMG Panamericana grille with vertical slats and a large Mercedes star logo in its centre. The corners are occupied by squinting headlights with LED light-signature brows up top and large air intakes down low. The rounded nose flows into heavily flared front fenders backed by chrome-accented air vent gills. From there the body tucks in like a Coke bottle, then widens again to pronounced rear haunches. The front and rear fender flares are necessary because the front track is nearly six centimetres wider than that of the standard CLE, and the rear track is just over 7.5 cm wider. A full-width taillight panel drapes over the rear above another Mercedes star and quad exhaust tips. It’s all grounded by wide tires on standard 19-inch wheels, with optional 20s.

The coupe’s roofline arcs back all the way to the tail. The side window line sports a chrome outline, and a kick-up at its rear contributes to the coupe’s wedge shape. The cabriolet has more of a two-box shape with the top up. Its power cloth soft top is offered in black, grey, or red and can close or open in 20 seconds at speeds up to 60 km/h.

Inside, the CLE 53 combines technology with luxury and sportiness. A pair of large screens provides the tech, while the sportiness comes from a chunky, flat-bottomed AMG steering wheel, aluminum pedals, sport bucket seats, and available trim materials including carbon fibre, a metal weave, a metallic mixed fabric, and a few varieties of wood. Soft-touch or other high-quality materials are found wherever the hand may roam, though harder plastics exist at hip level and below. Mercedes livens things up with standard 64-colour ambient lighting, some bright upholsteries, contrast stitching, available red seat belts, and illuminated AMG door sills.

The CLE 53 uses a tuned version of the engine from the CLE 450. It’s a turbocharged 3.0-litre inline-six that generates 443 horsepower and a standard 413 pound-feet of torque that can ramp up to 443 lb-ft for 10-second boosts. An electric compressor acts as a smaller turbocharger, allowing the conventional exhaust gas turbocharger to be larger and generate up to 22 psi of boost. The engine is aided by a 48-volt electric starter-generator that can add up to 23 hp and 151 lb-ft of torque to enhance acceleration. The power flows through a nine-speed automatic transmission to all four wheels via Mercedes’ 4Matic+ all-wheel-drive (AWD) system.

Between the boost of the starter-generator and the electric turbo, the AMG 53 offers immediate grunt from a stop, though it is smoothly delivered. From there, the larger turbo takes over to keep pushing the car forward for a 0–100 km/h time of 4.4 seconds, or 4.2 seconds with the optional Race Start launch control function available in the AMG Dynamic Plus Package. The engine has a deep growl that gets deeper in the Sport and Sport+ modes courtesy of an active exhaust.

The nine-speed automatic shifts smoothly and does a good job of keeping the engine in its rev range, especially in the Sport and Sport+ drive modes, in which the exhaust lets out a commanding burp between shifts.

But the CLE 53 does more than perform in a straight line thanks to its stiff structure and smattering of advanced chassis hardware. It uses coil springs at all four corners and four-link front and five-link rear suspensions, plus adaptive dampers with three settings. It also comes standard with rear-axle steering that can turn the rear wheels up to 2.5 degrees opposite of the fronts at low speeds to aid maneuverability. At 100 km/h, the rear wheels turn with the fronts for better stability in highway lane changes and high-speed turns.

This all works together to create an excellent balance of ride and handling. In twists and turns, the CLE is a natural athlete with neutral handling, good grip from its 265/40R19 front and 295/35R19 rear Pirelli P Zero tires, and the agility to quickly change direction and back again. The steering has a light touch that firms up in the Sport and Sport+ modes, but it’s very stable on-centre, quick to react, and provides useful feedback about what’s happening at road level. The convertible has no detectable body quake and feels about as solid as the coupe. Even with the dampers in their firmest Sport+ setting, the ride is smooth enough that bumps never pound through.

Our test car was fitted with the $2,500 AMG Dynamic Plus Package that adds dynamic engine mounts, red brake calipers, Race and Drift modes, Race Start launch control, and larger brakes that consist of 15.4-inch front discs with six-piston calipers and 14.6-inch rear discs with single-piston calipers. The engine mounts firm up the structure for quicker responses, Race Start optimizes power and traction for the quicker 0-100 km/h time quoted above, the Race mode turns up the wick on power delivery, and Drift mode sends the AWD system’s power only to the rear wheels while loosening the traction control to enable glorious slides (on closed courses, of course). That’s a lot for $2,500 — and the bigger brakes are the cherry on top, with strong stopping power and perhaps enough durability for some track time.

The CLE 53’s interior is a fine place to be. It comes standard with synthetic leather and synthetic suede upholstery, power front seats with memory, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, and dual-zone automatic climate control. Leather is a $2,300 option and softer Nappa leather runs $3,500. Also available are ventilated front seats and massaging front seats.

The cabriolet has a power-folding three-layer soft top that does a good job of shutting out noise, but not quite as good a job as the solid structure of the coupe. It comes with an AirCap electric pop-up wind deflector, remote opening and closing for the top and windows, and the Mercedes AirScarf neck-level heating system. Between AirScarf and AirCap, the CLE Cabriolet can be driven in cooler temperatures without fear of freezing.

Neither the coupe nor the convertible offers much trunk space. The coupe’s trunk has a modest 410 litres, and that shrinks to between 285 and 375 litres in the droptop depending on whether the roof is down or up. Still, there’s enough space for a couple and their luggage for a grand tour weekend.

The CLE 53 has lots of well-integrated technology. It gets a standard 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, an 11.9-inch infotainment touchscreen, navigation with a year of map updates and live traffic information, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, wireless smartphone charging, and a SiriusXM satellite radio trial. The instrument cluster offers three design themes, and the available head-up display has four of its own. We prefer the digital speedometer and tachometer of the Classic IP design and the hockey stick tach of the Race theme on the head-up display.

The infotainment system runs MBUX software that responds to “Hey Mercedes” voice commands or touch controls. The system is easy to use and state of the art, but we don’t like the fact that all the volume controls are sliders rather than knobs. The audio system is a pumping 710-watt, 15-speaker Burmester unit.

Buyers can also get a dashcam, a head-up display, and the AMG Track Pace telemetry system that records performance data, keeps lap times, displays live data in the instrument cluster, and even has a race navigation feature that can show the cornering angles and braking points of the ideal line in the head-up display.

A decent number of safety features are standard, but Mercedes charges for some that we recommend. The standard features include forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, high beam assist, a driver attention monitor, automatic parking, front and rear parking sensors, blind spot monitoring, and an exit warning system. The convertible also gets pop-up roll bars.

Our test car had the $2,700 Driver Assistance Package Plus, which adds adaptive cruise control, active blind spot monitoring, intersection assist, automatic lane change capability, lane keep assist, traffic sign recognition, and evasive steering assist. However, true hands-free highway driving capability isn’t available. It felt rather strange to have the vehicle suggest and execute automatic lane changes with the adaptive cruise control set but then require us to keep our hands on the steering wheel.

There are no crash-test results for the CLE, which isn't unusual for a high-end, low-volume car. We'd expect it to perform well in a collision given the aforementioned levels of equipment.

If buyers want nice things, they're going to have to pay up. The 2026 Mercedes-AMG CLE 53 coupe starts at $89,600 including the destination charge, and the cabriolet runs $101,650. Those prices are about $9,000 more than the BMW 4-Series in M440i xDrive (AWD) trim, but the Mercedes has 68 more horsepower. The Benzes cost about $15,000 less than the BMW M4 coupe and convertible, but those cars have 523 hp and are meant to compete more directly with the forthcoming CLE 63. Still, at this point the federal government’s luxury tax is due on the portion of the price over $100,000, which puts more money on the line with these decisions.

Those who want a coupe or convertible for less can choose the CLE 300 4Matic or CLE 450 4Matic models. The 300 4Matic starts at $69,000 for the coupe and $79,000 for the convertible, while the 450 4Matic models start at $81,550 for the coupe and $92,900 for the convertible.

While fuel economy is generally not a consideration for high-end coupe and convertible buyers, the CLE 53 offers decent efficiency given its premium power. The coupe is rated by Natural Resources Canada at 11.7 litres per 100 kilometres in the city, 8.7 on the highway, and 10.4 combined, and the convertible raises those figures slightly to 12.1/9.2/10.8 city/highway/combined. Those numbers should be fairly easy to achieve in the real world as we averaged 11.4 L/100 km over 480 kilometres of mixed driving, some of it quite spirited. Those who want the sleek coupe or convertible body styles with better fuel economy can go for a CLE 300 4Matic model that tops out at 8.7 L/100 km combined for the coupe and 8.6 L/100 km combined for the cabriolet.

Given their premium pricing, we’d opt for the CLE 53 variant of either the coupe or cabriolet. These models look meaner, accelerate faster, and handle better while still offering on-road comfort. For buyers who want something nice, it's worth going for the nicest option.