Someone Please Pass the Keys to the Mercedes-Benz CLS55

Like most men in their twenties I was a car guy. I ate and drank the elixir of horsepower, torque, RPM’s, and sheet metal. I could recite long lists of carlines and their varying specifications. I subscribed to and devoured all of the (four) the nation’s most popular car magazines of the time: Car & Driver, Motor Trend, Road & Track, and the beauty queen of them all, Automobile Magazine. But as time and overseas assignments took my attention elsewhere, one-by-one my subscriptions lapsed and my car fetish all but died.

But now in the autumn of my life I have rekindled my love of cars, especially expensive high performance cars from well known and well respected nameplates we all know: Cadillac, BMW, Audi, Lexus, Lincoln, and of course Mercedes-Benz. So when it came time for my daughter annual fundraiser, I skipped the usual chocolate and wrapping paper and went straight for Automobile Magazine, a periodical is consider the premiere car rag.

Full of glossy, colorful, pictures and serious well written articles, car comparisons, and long-term road tests, Automobile Magazine is far and away the best car rag for my hard earned money. Unlike the other three American car magazines Automobile Magazine covers more of the international automobile scene; i.e. the magazine is not content to cover the just American sheet metal, but reaches far-a-field to bring readers the off-beat, the exotic and the really expensive. And the magazine does this is a format that is easy to follow and extremely inviting.

For instance the December 2005 issue featured the all new BMW Z4 Coupe, as well as a comprehensive write-up on the all new Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Add to these two very well written and equally as comprehensive comparison articles: Honda Civic CI vs. Chevrolet Cobalt SS vs. Subaru WRX vs. VW Jetta GLI and BMW M6 vs. Mercedes-Benz CLS55 AMG, and you have receipt for the classiest automobile magazine this side of the pond.

Article Excerpt: Clash of the Power Brokers; The BMW M6 and the Mercedes-Benz CLS55 AMG illustrate perfectly the differing philosophies of these in-house tuners. Pg. 76.

Whereas the CLS55 AMG takes the smart, casual approach to inspired motoring, the M6 refuses to leave its garage without racing coveralls, helmet, and gloves. The BMW is far less happy to trifle with traffic; it prefers to play at a level where more velocity and more skill are at stake. The grippy chassis hangs on much longer, the tires still carving where the Mercedes has long since resorted to stem turns. The stability control permits a higher degree of slip and slide, knowing that the suspension and steering posses enough skill and sensitivity to avid drama.

Beyond the tree line, where the cows outnumber the cops, the BMW again emerges as the sharper driving instrument. Unlike the CLS, which retains a conservative electronic safety net even when the traction control has been switched off, the 6-series is willing to all but drop its electronic guard. In principle, both cars are gifted playthings, but the M6 is more talented and quite a bit more challenging. It tends to need more space because its front wheels like to turn wide before the rear end lets go. This is less of an issue on the track than on the road, where the two-door coups responds nervously to variations of grip and contour.

Another strong incentive to read Automobile Magazine is its decided lack of wall-to-wall advertisements. Most of the magazine is dedicated to substance; the articles are what make Automobile Magazine such a joy to read. The articles are well written, concise, and comprehensive. And although the writers fill the paragraphs with lexicon of the automobile industry, the prose never talks down to the reader, or looses my interest along the way.

Interspersed between these nuggets of auto knowledge are other articles that deal with esoteric but informative tidbits from the automotive arena. For instance the same issue that brought us the above mentioned articles also delved into “what happens when you take your Ford Mustang GT to your high-school reunion?” Not exactly need to know information, but human interest stories are always welcome in this world seemingly filled with nothing by death and mayhem.

Even some of the photographs in Automobile Magazine have a story to tell in the guise of in-depth exterior and mechanical analysis. In the final analysis there is no other car magazine I would rather subscribe to than Automobile Magazine. Within its glossy pages I have found a home, a resting place from which I can gleam my needed automotive knowledge. For me there is no other.