2026 Mercedes-AMG CLE53 review

Does anyone ever really need a convertible?

Need? No. Want? Absolutely. They are aspirational. Nothing says 'I've made it' like driving down a (probably) beachside road in a soft-top with the roof down, music playing and wind flowing through your hair.

You can do that on a relatively lean budget in something like a Mazda MX-5, a Mini, or even a V8 Ford Mustang GT.

If you want something a bit snazzier, though, it's a big leap in price up to the next most affordable models, a territory dominated by luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

I've spent a week in the Mercedes-AMG CLE53 convertible to find out if it's worth the almost $20,000 more the car maker is asking for it over the coupe.

At this end of the market, value takes on a very different meaning, but do you get a lot of car for the asking price? Yes, you do. Most of it is under the bonnet, but let’s dig into the finer details.

The AMG CLE53 is the successor to the two-door C- and E-Class models and comes in two versions: a regular coupe or a convertible.

The coupe starts from $158,900, and the soft-top from $176,600, both before on-road costs.

As standard, both feature an 11.9-inch portrait infotainment touchscreen, 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, Burmester 3D surround-sound with Dolby Atmos, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a wireless charger, built-in augmented-reality satellite navigation, heated front seats, and dual-zone climate control.

For another $2100, you can add ventilated front seats and massage functionality, a memorised parking function and an interior fragrance via the Plus Package.

AMG Performance front bucket seats are another $5400 option, or you can choose to deck your CLE53 out in a lot of carbon fibre through the $8900 Carbon Package.

I had the convertible on test, but with 'just' the Plus Package and Alpine Grey paint ($3000) optioned.

Under the bonnet is a 330kW/560Nm 3.0-litre turbocharged inline-six engine matched to a 48-volt mild-hybrid system and a nine-speed torque-converter automatic transmission, with Mercedes-AMG's 4Matic+ all-wheel-drive system.

The AMG CLE53 also adds rear-axle steering, adaptive suspension, and speed-sensitive steering, as well as larger front and rear brakes than regular Mercedes-Benz CLEs.

Its only true competitor is the BMW M4, which starts from $174,100 for the G82 manual, rising to $191,900 for the Competition automatic, all prices plus on-roads.

Or for similar money, you can get the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Estrema with a 328kW/606Nm V6 for $156,990 plus on-road costs.

Considerably cheaper but still a convertible, the Ford Mustang GT retails for $93,666 before on-road costs.

If most of your time spent in the CLE53 is going to be sending it on road trips along twisting country roads, or even just cruising around town, the pitch to your partner probably shouldn’t mention fuel.

While its combined fuel use isn’t that bad for a sports car at 9.7 litres per 100 kilometres, its city consumption is a thirsty 13.2L/100km, and it only sips 98RON unleaded.

If you’re spending upwards of $175K on a sports car, that might not worry you too much, but it’s good to know.

I spent a lot of my time with the CLE53 doing a mix of urban to-ing and fro-ing, as well as long stints on the freeway and some more spirited drives through the Dandenong Ranges.

Overall, my average consumption was a claim-beating 9.3L/100km, but there were times when I saw it rocket into the 11s or 12s.

I travelled just over 450km for the week and topped it up once to return it, though out of courtesy, as it still had more than a quarter of a tank left.

Mercedes-AMG quotes the average 66-litre tank should get you 680km of driving range.

Mercedes-AMG covers the CLE53 with a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, with servicing every 12 months or 25,000km, whichever comes first.

The car maker offers servicing packages: the first three years cost $4190, or five years cost $7760. Five years of roadside assistance is thrown in for free.

BMW also backs the M4 with an identical warranty, but servicing is condition-based, meaning the car will let you know when it needs a visit to the dealer, and it offers a shorter three-year period of roadside assistance.

The Mercedes-AMG CLE53 will cost $6920.97 to comprehensively insure based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male living in Chatswood, NSW.

Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history and personal circumstances.

The broader Mercedes-Benz CLE line-up was awarded five stars by ANCAP’s sister organisation, Euro NCAP, in 2024, earning high marks across all categories.

The five-star rating applies to all variants.

It was awarded 93 per cent for adult occupant protection, 86 per cent for child occupant protection, 87 per cent for vulnerable road users, and 84 per cent for safety assist technology.

In addition to the safety features listed in the table below, the AMG CLE53 comes with 10 airbags, evasive manoeuvre support, automatic parking, and advanced anti-theft monitoring.

The latter is an intelligent security system available on selected Mercedes models that acts as a bodyguard for your car, monitoring its surroundings for signs of break-ins, towing, or even parking damage, and can send real-time alerts to your phone via the app.

Given Melbourne’s car crime levels these days, you might be glad you have that last one.

The BMW does not have an ANCAP rating. The wider 4 Series line-up is now unrated after its previous rating expired at the end of 2025.

The AMG CLE53 is a throwback to when all Mercedes-Benz cars were low-slung and sexy.

Whereas the coupe is sleek, the convertible just adds that extra wow factor.

Styling changes for the current model include 20-inch alloy wheels, an AMG body kit, front-wheel-arch ventilation, a rear lip spoiler, and four exhaust outlets.

There’s also the distinctive vertical-slat grille, massive lower air intakes, and prominent wheel arches to accommodate the wider wheel track, both front and rear.

And its front and rear tracks have been widened over a four-cylinder Mercedes-Benz CLE300 for a more athletic stance.

While my test car was decked out in premium Alpine Grey paint, it was contrasted by a black roof, high-gloss black trim details here and there and beautiful bright red brake calipers.

Switching out the black soft-top for a red one is an option, but it costs $500 more.

It’s a sports car, it’s tight inside, let’s just accept it for what it is.

The transmission tunnel is especially high in the front row, separating the driver and front passenger for a sportier feel. 

The grey and red leather sports seats sit low to the floor and are nicely bolstered. You can get full bucket seats as an option, but I think these do the job well while remaining comfortable. 

An automatic seatbelt feeder brings your belt to you to save you pulling a neck muscle trying to find it somewhere in the back row.

The chunky, flat-bottomed steering wheel is trimmed in nappa leather and microfibre, with two round drive-mode buttons that stand out for ease of use and to show that this AMG has got the goods.

The right-hand dial is for the four drive modes, and the left for flitting between settings such as exhaust sound, suspension firmness, traction control and driving dynamics.

There are some other AMG touches here and there, such as illuminated door sills and floor mats.

Overall, the cabin feels a little different to fresher Mercedes models, featuring retaining the circular air vents on the dashboard and an awful lot of gloss black plastic.

There are small pockets of storage here and there, but this is a dad-spec, bring your keys, wallet, phone, and nothing else type of car – there’s nowhere for stashing toys, drink bottles, or the kitchen sink.

Door space is limited, as is the room inside the centre console bin. There are obviously no rear doors, and no centre armrest either, although there are two small cupholders in the middle between the two outboard seats.

Fitting forward-facing child restraints, if you do want to do that, is incredibly difficult. The ISOFIX anchors are easy enough to find, but unlike other sedans and coupes, the top tether points are not behind the rear headrests.

Instead, they are located on the back of the rear seats, unlike in an SUV, where you can access them from the boot. As you'll also find in some dual-cab utes, you have to pull the rear seats forward one by one, attach the clip, then shove them back into place before tightening.

This is both quite awkward and borderline painful to achieve in a small space, and means you can’t get the top tether as tight as you normally would. Tight enough, but not as bulletproof as it might be in an SUV.

I wouldn’t attempt a rear-facing seat; you wouldn’t be able to get your little one out easily, and you’d completely lose any space for a front passenger for the restraint to even fit.

Putting the top down to give you more space to muck around with the child seats makes things easier, but it’s not life-changing.

My two little ones in the back were absolutely loving life, though. There’s just enough leg room for them at their age (seven and three), and they actually thought it was quite funny that when adults were in the front, the seats started to reverse back towards them to find the occupant’s preferred position.

They also loved the 64-colour ambient interior lighting, especially my three-year-old daughter, who insisted it remain on hot pink for almost our entire stint with the car.

The boot is roomier than you might think. It accommodates quite a few bags if you push them all the way back behind the rear seats. The only thing is that the lid opening is fairly restricted, so fitting awkwardly shaped items, or even something long like golf clubs, takes a little more care.

The AMG CLE53’s pièce de résistance, of course, is its glorious soft-top roof, which can be folded down on the go at speeds of up to 60km/h.

There are three buttons on the centre console to control it: up, down, and to activate the wind deflector.

The latter activates a deflector on the windshield header and a wind-blocking net behind the rear seats to drastically reduce cabin turbulence. You’ll need it, because once the speedo starts climbing, the wind force can get a bit much for anyone in the back.

There’s also a nifty button on the front doors, next to the heated seat control, that turns on warm air to keep your neck nice and cosy when the roof is down.

The absence of a hard roof, however, can make the cabin quite exposed to wind noise, and there is a noticeable creak in the windows whenever you raise or lower them.

The infotainment system in the AMG CLE53 is good, but it feels a little simplistic and old compared with new Mercedes models.

There are limited apps in the menu, mostly covering basic functions such as radio, phone, and seat comfort, but you can also access Teams for meetings and play around with the Burmester sound system’s settings.

The display's quality remains very high, and it responds quickly to input. I particularly like how easy it is to reach from the driver’s position, and it doesn’t feel too big or overwhelm the space.

In its natural position, it sits on a slope, which looks quite nice and helps it integrate well into the dashboard, but you can also make it pop up to stand upright to cut out glare from the sun.

The cluster is also of a good size, and allows for high levels of customisation, with a variety of information available, as well as different themes to suit all tastes.

The Burmester sound system is exceptional, with music projected around the smaller space in a way that feels like you’re swept up in it. That’s not something you can easily achieve in larger vehicles.

Mercedes offers access to its connected car services via the Mercedes-Benz app, with a free subscription for the first year, or three, depending on the model. After this, remote features and premium packages require a subscription.

The Mercedes-AMG CLE53 is powered by the brand’s M256 3.0-litre turbocharged inline-six engine matched to a 48-volt mild-hybrid system and a nine-speed torque-converter automatic transmission driving all four wheels.

Outputs are a whopping 330kW/560Nm, while the mild-hybrid system's integrated starter generator can add a boost of up to 17kW and 205Nm when accelerating.

It’s incredibly quick off the mark, as well as zesty on the move with plenty of mid-range torque available whenever you need it.

The nine-speed has been developed to offer more responsive shifting, particularly if utilising the paddle-shifters on the steering wheel, but it can be a bit shunty at walking speeds.

Despite its massive outputs, it never feels loose or unwieldy, with the razor-sharp, speed-sensitive steering helping to keep things tight and under control.

In some of the Sportier drive modes, it’s darty and hungry, but in a good way. It knows where you want to go and executes the move almost before you’ve had time to give it any more thought.

On regular bitumen, there wasn’t much cause to test out Race mode, but Sport and Sport+ elevate the everyday driving experience to one of raucous fun, making it an absolute joy to blast along winding roads.

Note that the car will revert to Comfort on start-up the next time you drive, which is a shame, as it takes the theatre out of starting the engine with a big song-and-dance.

There’s no getting away from it: the sound of the engine is enhanced inside the cabin, piped in from a front synthesiser speaker under the bonnet, to provide a more emotional driving experience rather than just being outright loud.

I don’t particularly care if it is amplified personally; I still like the drama of it.

If you do knock it into one of the energetic drive modes, expect the ride to be unyielding.

Even in Comfort, it is quite firm, but it’s not so bad as to be jarring. There is some scuttle shake over nasty patches as the body twists and the impact reverberates up through the steering column.

The secondary ride is also unsettled by large bangs, such as aggressive speed bumps, resulting in a waviness as the adaptive suspension struggles to shake off the impact.

The rough ride isn’t helped by the large 20-inch wheels, though fortunately the Michelin Pilot Sport S5 tyres they’re wrapped in do a bang-up job of keeping the CLE tethered to the tarmac. 

You can send it into a corner at a decent speed, and it’s going absolutely nowhere. Larger at the back for stability, the AMG CLE53 is fitted with 295/30 R20 tyres at the rear and smaller 265/35 tyres at the front.

The rubber isn’t quite perfect, however, as the trade-off, combined with that wind invasion I talked about earlier, is vast amounts of noise kicked up from the road.

You can find examples of the Mercedes-AMG CLE53 for sale on Drive Marketplace, alongside other new and used Mercedes models.

Find your nearest Mercedes-Benz dealer here to see the AMG CLE53 in the metal and take one for a test drive.

For more details relating to pricing, specifications, and the latest offers on the AMG CLE53, click here. 

If you have $175K burning a hole in your pocket and love a soft-top, the Mercedes-AMG CLE53 could be a great second-car option for weekends.

It’s not great on fuel around town, surprise, surprise, but take it to stretch its legs once in a while, and the consumption does drop to a more reasonable level.

It looks great, drives even better, and it is just about big enough inside to stash a couple of kids now and then if you need to.

For $20K less you can get the Coupe, which will drive better, be quieter and probably use less fuel, which could make the convertible a hard sell.

But there aren’t many convertibles around anymore, even luxury ones, so I reckon snap them up while you still can.