Mercedes-AMG CLS 53 interior

The system doesn’t feature the A-Class’s latest ‘Hey Mercedes’ voice recognition software, but it accepts voice commands for navigation destination inputs and the like at the first time of asking.

The Burmester audio system is excellent and impressively resistant to distortion at high volumes.

The mix of cabin materials looks ritzy and expensive, the overwhelming majority of them substantial and pleasing to the touch. Its side-by-side windscreen duo of instrumentation and ‘infotainment’ displays broadcasts the car’s technological sophistication in what may seem, at first, an almost confrontational way. You get used to that quickly enough and it ends up being anything but distracting. Still, what you’re getting in the interior of a CLS 53 is, by and large, what you might get inside any other CLS, equipment level notwithstanding: material richness, tactile quality and plenty of what the Germans like to call ‘technical fascination’.

As far as practicality goes, the CLS holds an advantage over some of its rivals by offering belts and seats for three across the back row – although, as an adult or even a teenager, you wouldn’t want to occupy the car’s fifth seat for long. In the outer back seats, there’s space for all but the tallest adults to get comfy, with an entry and exit routine made slightly awkward by the car’s curvy profile.

Boot space is decent, though not as generous as it is in an Audi A7 Sportback or a Porsche Panamera; and not as accessible either because the CLS still has a bootlid while its German rivals both have hatchback rear ends. Here, you do feel that a trick is being missed; and it probably wouldn’t be if Mercedes hadn’t cancelled the CLS Shooting Brake replacement after the four-door had been designed.