Mercedes-AMG is perhaps the ultimate buster of niches. If there’s a performance car margin to fill, you can guarantee the good people of Affalterbach will make it so. This is why there’s a small, seven-seat SUV with more than 300hp, an 840hp S-Class hybrid and a four-cylinder C63. Nobody could accuse the AMG lineup of not being diverse, or refusing to move with the times. Perhaps not all of them sell tremendously well, but there’s choice aplenty.
The old CLS Shooting Brake was definitely one of the more appealing niches pursued by AMG. On paper, it made little sense, because an E63 boasted the same powertrain and more space for less money - but we don’t buy cars on paper. As an experience, the 63 SB was on another level, stunning to look at and with a more lavish interior than the fairly humdrum (by comparison) E-Class wagon.
This CLS certainly won over the person who put in the region of 20,000 early miles on it - a certain Chris Harris. Yes, him again. Once its initial duties had been fulfilled as a press car, it was his for a good many months as a long-term loan. As a young whipper snapper on the PH staff back then, receiving a sporadic update on the AMG was always quite exciting, discovering where it had been and what it had been up to. This being 2013, it was usually at Anglesey with Ferraris, giving a very good account of itself.
And now that very car is for sale on PH. KP62 BBF has 80,000 miles under its forged rims, and is now being sold by the guardian of its last 14k and two years. Still looks fantastic, right? Paint, wheels and upholstery appear in fine fettle, and where a generous options spend perhaps looked OTT back in the day - sunroof, comfort seats, and a £2,696 ‘Luxury Package’ are just the start - it only makes the CLS look more desirable in 2024. Thank heavens someone opted for the locking diff when new, also - all £2,570 of it.
There are stacks of history to support the 63’s mileage, and a button-heavy Merc dash that looks lightyears from today’s offering has been usefully modernised with CarPlay. The current owner has been on top of preventative maintenance in their time with the car as well, with front discs and pads, all four tyres, plus the gearbox and diff oil service, sorted since 2022. The next A service isn’t due until May and, although the MOT is coming up in January, there seems little reason to worry about that: it hasn’t failed a single test since 2015. Indeed they’ve all been clean, first-time passes bar a couple of years for keeping the child seat in (which hardly seems fair) and some worn tyres. Which is understandable in a 550hp-plus, rear-drive AMG.
Because the CLS was such a niche prospect when new, not many of them sold; arguably the rarity these days makes them even more appealing. You’ll do well to get into a Shooting Brake for less than £20k (the cheapest on PH right now is £16k with 120,000 miles) and even better to get one that matches the spec of BBF. It was a near-£100k car new thanks to the £14,000 of extras added by the press office; £97,419 in 2013 is more than £130,000 today. And now it’s for sale at £21,495. The CLS is unlikely to ever be a bargain basement AMG, and it’ll always be expensive to keep at its best, but as rare-groove AMGs go - and fast estates, for that matter - it’s surely always going to be one of the more desirable. Just ask the seller of this one.
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