As Lancia is Italy’s beloved motoring icon of yore, so the CLE is Germany’s ‘we’ve-arrived’ style-meister, as passionately defended as spätzle and the unrestricted autobahn. The iconic Mercedes-Benz two-door includes a cabriolet, which continues a long tradition of four-seater open-top dream cars, the first breaking cover in the 1950s with the spectacular 300SL Roadster, renowned for its iconic gullwing doors and advanced engineering.
Best of all though was the 1970s 280SE Cabriolet, beautiful, spacious and a popular collector’s car today. The current CLE is the darling of the Chelsea/Brooklyn/Montmartre set, in love with the history of the coupe and the droptop as much as the new millennium electronics. For 2025 the CLE uses Benz’s much-vaunted four cylinder, turbocharged engine with outputs between 300 and 400Nm of torque, more than enough for indecent turns of speed. More relevant to the cruising classes is the roof, which drops at the touch of a button in 20 seconds.
The current CLE is the darling of the Chelsea/Brooklyn/Montmartre set, in love with the history of the coupe and the droptop as much as the new millennium electronics.
