Video: 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS550

We saw at first at the 2010 Paris motor show last year. And you can see that it retains its predecessor's coupe-like profile, even though it's got four doors. We're going to talk about styling and get inside of it too. Upfront you can see a lot of similarities here to the grill on the Mercedes SLS super car. It's broad. It's got this big star in the middle here. As you get out to the headlights, you're looking at what Mercedes says is the first application of led adaptive headlights across the industry. This means that in these lights, there's up to 71 LEDs per headlight cluster, and they can actually swivel in the direction of a turn, a few degrees, as opposed to usually the Xenon or halogen headlights, and a lot of cars that do that. You can see the profile is similar to what it was before. There's some interesting kind of cut lines going on here. They sort of converge as you get toward the rear of the car. Mercedes says the flared rear wheel arches resemble, and I quote "the powerful thighs of a feline predator waiting to pounce". Yeah, I got, I got nothing for that. For a car that's a few inches shorter than the Mercedes E-Class and S-Class, I got to say, Mercedes has done a reasonably good job here with room. I'm not feeling my head really knocking up against the ceiling, even though I am sitting down a little low, but you do notice it with visibility. As you're looking around, the sight lines are kind of low. The C pillar is really kind of encroaches, as you're looking over your shoulder to change lanes. Cabin materials are mostly befitting of a car that's probably going to start at more than $70,000. The car here has attractive piano black and metal and chrome finishes. There's real leather atop the dashboard Mercedes says. It's not some kind of vinyl, imitation stuff. One thing we're not real crazy about are the climate controls. These look and feel like the flimsier ones in the C-Class, which is Mercedes entry-level model, rather than the nicer tabbed controls in the S-Class. CLS 550 gets a twin turbo V8. (car door closing) That's good for 402 horsepower. There's also a CLS 63 AMG with a larger twin turbo V8. That's good for up to 550 horsepower, with its optional performance package. Both cars employ Mercedes excellent airmatic suspension. So, ride quality should be pretty good. The CLS goes on sale this summer. We'll report more once we've had a chance to drive it. (upbeat music) <v Announcer>For more car related news, go to cars.com or our blog, kicking tires.net.