The scandal at the Volkswagen Group has had a direct impact on demand for diesel engines in Europe, with market share dropping by almost 8 percent to 43.7 percent in 2017, the lowest in eight years. While the situation is unlikely to improve in 2018 let alone in the years to come, some automakers still believe there is a future for the diesel engine. The German brands won’t be giving up on diesels anytime soon as demonstrated by new models being launched with a variety of diesels.
One relevant example is Mercedes and its third-generation CLS, which can be had in three different diesel flavors on the old continent: 300d, 350d, and the 400d. In the adjacent video, we’re dealing with the beefiest of the three, which uses a six-cylinder 3.0-liter engine producing 335 horsepower and an immense 516 pound-feet (700 Newton-meters) of torque.
Get up close and personal with the revamped CLS:
It’s enough diesel punch to enable the CLS 400d run to 62 mph (100 kph) from a standstill in only five seconds and reach an electronically governed top speed of 155 mph (250 kph). But numbers don’t necessarily tell the whole story as it’s always better to experience the performance in the real life. The folks over at AutoTopNL are doing just that, taking new cars and putting them through their paces in acceleration tests all the way up to top speed.
They had the gasoline-powered CLS 450 a while ago and recently got behind the wheel of the CLS 400d to see if Mercedes’ performance numbers check out. Long story short, they do. The sprint to 62 mph took roughly 5 seconds and the maximum velocity was verified as well. While we can see the digital speedometer climbing all the way up to 158 mph (254 kph), it’s a known fact these are not entirely accurate as a speedometer usually shows a slightly higher number.
The CLS 400d needed approximately 37 seconds for the speedometer to display 250 kph, which makes it only a few seconds slower than the aforementioned CLS 450. Performance aside, it sounds really good for an engine running on Devil’s fuel, and probably makes a few people sad for Mercedes’ decision to only sell the gasoline-powered versions in the U.S.
Video: AutoTopNL / YouTube
