Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake
Why 6.2: DougScore 65 in the gap list and rare-body AMG appeal. It is less obvious than the E63 wagon and arguably weirder.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
The M157 biturbo still delivers a heavy cross-plane thump and a proper crack between shifts. But the hot-vee turbochargers sit directly in the exhaust path and swallow the top end, leaving a car that thuds rather than sings — mid-table for a big AMG V8.
8-cylinder · turbocharged · 6,500 rpm redline · rated 6.5 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €97k (2014) → €55k (2026), trending down · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
Two ISOFIX anchors on the outer rear seats; the middle position is belt-only.
No ISOFIX on the front passenger seat, matching Mercedes' rear-only layout across the sedan and estate range.
Mercedes CLS owner's manual (ManualsLib) pattern + consistent rear-only ISOFIX layout across the Mercedes range (owner-community sourced, not manufacturer documentation)
The long version
The CLS Shooting Brake is Mercedes at its most stubborn: make the coupe-sedan less practical than an E-Class wagon, then give it a wagon tail anyway. In AMG form that contradiction becomes desirable. It is fast, rare, elegant and deeply unnecessary. Owners buy it because an E63 wagon is too obvious and a coupe is not useful enough. That makes it a perfect index car: not the rational AMG wagon, the emotional one.