Folks can justify needing a compact car, an off-roader, a minivan or a pickup, but convertibles are the epitome of unnecessary. Nobody needs a convertible, or at least that’s what I thought until I drove the 2024 Mercedes-Benz CLE450 Cabriolet. I’ve always been a sucker for a convertible; my first car was a 2005 Saab 9-3 Cabriolet that I bought off Craigslist for $5,000 and that promptly drained my bank account then died completely. Ever since then I’ve been fiending for another hit of open-topped opulence, and then the CLE rolled up in my driveway.
Full disclosure: Mercedes-Benz loaned me a 2024 CLE450 Cabriolet for a weekend so I could take it to the Mercedes-AMG C63 S E Performance drive event in Malibu. I did just that, and I impressed my neighbors and friends with the pretty, punchy and almost-practical four-seat drop top before a group of evil people (the actually wonderful folks at the fleet management company) robbed me of my new car (did their job with the utmost kindness and respect). Obviously I was sad to see the CLE450 Cabrio leave my garage.
The cheapest CLE300 Cabriolet starts at $64,350 and is powered by a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-4 with 255 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque, the same powertrain I drove in the coupe a couple months ago. Step up to the CLE450 Cabriolet for $73,850 and you get an excellent turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-6 with a 48-volt mild-hybrid system that makes 375 hp and 369 lb-ft. Both powertrains manage to get the same gas mileage at 23 city, 32 highway, and 26 combined, and all CLEs come standard with all-wheel-drive. If you can, go for the CLE450. That straight-six is one of the finest engines on the market, and it takes this nearly 4,500-pound car from 0 to 60 mph in a scant 4.2 seconds.
As with the rest of the CLE lineup, the CLE450 Cabriolet comes standard with an uncharacteristically generous list of equipment. All CLE Cabriolets come standard with a Burmester surround sound stereo, heated front seats with memory, Mercedes’ AirScarf neck heaters, automated parking, blind-spot monitoring, automated emergency braking, a wireless charger, 64-color ambient lighting and more. My test car totaled $84,270 with much-appreciated features like 20-inch wheels, ventilated front seats, the driver’s assistance package and a head up display.
The CLE Cabriolet replaces both the C- and E-Class convertibles in the Mercedes-Benz lineup. Though it has a slightly shorter wheelbase than the E-Class cabrio, it’s slightly longer than both outgoing cars. That means the CLE Cabriolet is the largest vehicle in its class, and it has two potentially usable rear seats as long as front seat occupants scoot up and/or rear seat passengers are shorter. The trunk space is compromised by the folding roof and small trunk aperture, but there’s enough space and flexibility with the standard split folding rear seatbacks to carry what you need. Is it enough for a family of four to take on a weekend road trip? Probably not, but three will do just fine with some balancing of cargo space and seating capacity. The front seats enjoy heaps of space in virtually every dimension from legroom to headroom to shoulder room to manspreading room, the CLE is seriously spacious up front.
Driving the CLE450 Cabriolet is a sumptuous experience. The turbocharged mild-hybrid I-6 and 9-speed transmission are impossibly smooth, sound impeccably refined, and always have ample power. The CLE450’s standard adaptive sport suspension is controlled, composed and comfortable. The convertible top is simple to use, conveniently operates at speeds up to 37 mph and does a relatively good job of insulating the cabin from noise when it’s closed. The platform is impossibly stiff, which is a feat of engineering in a long-wheelbase ragtop like the CLE. Most convertibles jiggle and wiggle over bumps, but despite my best efforts to elicit chassis flex, I never noticed any. The heads-up display that’s projected onto the windshield never gave away any subtle jiggles either. The lack of chassis flex is a huge flex on the part of Mercedes’ engineers.
Mercedes-Benz’s driver assistance systems are some of the best in the industry; they’re easy to use, rarely struggle to follow the road and accelerate and brake relatively naturally unless you’re coming up quickly on slowed or stopped traffic. The standard Burmester stereo brings songs to life in an admirable way when the top is up, and somehow manages to lose very little of that clarity when the roof is down and the soundwaves are left to escape into the ether. You’ll love blasting your favorite songs with the top down; I sure did.
This car feels like it was made for one purpose, and that purpose is the often-misunderstood art of grand touring. Grand tourers are made for cruising long distances at high speeds in blissful comfort, and the CLE450 Cabriolet achieves that mission with the precision of SEAL Team Six. It’s perpetually capable on winding roads, never feeling clumsy or out of its element, and the 450’s powertrain has the type of swelling refined power that you don’t realize has pinned you to your seat until you see the numbers in the HUD approaching triple digits. On the pothole and speed bump-riddled roads of Los Angeles, the CLE never feels unrefined or unsettled, and it never feels too big, or too small around the swaths of Cybertrucks that litter the streets of LA.
Though I never rode in the CLE’s back seat with the top down, I had some friends who did and they got blown around a lot at freeway speeds, but surface streets spared their hair from any unintentional restyling. All CLE Cabriolets come standard with Mercedes’ AirCap, which pops up from the top of the windshield and pairs with a deployable wind deflector behind the rear seat headrests to minimize turbulence for passengers. I didn’t notice a massive difference with the wind deflectors deployed, but that speaks more to the Cabriolet’s aerodynamics that are designed to direct airflow away from the occupants. AirCap creates a fair amount of wind noise when it’s deployed, which can become grating over long periods of time. Overall though, being inside the CLE Cabriolet with the top down is an enchanting experience.
If you can afford it, I implore you to test out the Mercedes CLE450 Cabriolet. If you’re not sure if you’re more on the side of being cabrio-curious and you have $85,000 burning a hole in your bank account, this might be the convertible that wins you over. I know it won me over.
