Mercedes CLS (2011 / 2012) spied undisguised

Mercedes CLS 2011 Spy shot

The Mercedes CLS was the first - and some would say still the best - interpretation of a four door swoopy-coupe. It set the benchmark for cars to follow and made the genre hugely desirable.

We now have everyone from VW to Porsche and Aston Martin to Jaguar producing 4 door coupes, with Audi joining in with the Sportbacks and BMW about to put the Gran Coupe in to production.

But after six years of production it’s time fro Mercedes to give the CLS a tweak or three and keep it at the top of its game, so we’re expecting to see the 2011 Mercedes CLS (which will probably be the 2012 Mercedes CLS across the Pond) turn up at the Paris Motor Show in a couple of months.

We expected the new CLS to be based pretty much on Mercedes’ F800 Style Concept we saw at Geneva this year. But looking at the photo above – which was snapped at a Mercedes photoshoot for the new CLS – it doesn’t look as if it is.

In fact – although it could just be the angle the new CLS has been snapped at – it looks a bit lumpy. The front seems to be more upright than before and Mercedes seem to have succumbed to the temptation to correct the only real complaint about the CLS – poor rear headroom – by raising the roof.

All of which seems to make the new CLS less attractive. But all that could just be the angle of the photo. It seems a similar sort of makeover to the 2011 Mercedes R Class which works well, so we hope the same applies to the 2011 CLS.

We’ll reserve judgement until we see it in the flesh.

By Cars UK