Mileage 15887 A new gadget is
(mostly) helping us to drive the Brake more efficiently
We all know how easy it is for passengers
to wind up drivers with unauthorized fiddling with the switchgear. But I'm one
of those rare and ghastly types who, even when I'm the one doing the driving,
can irritate the hell out of everyone else in the car with my incessant
tinkering with the various controls.
Mercedes-Benz
CLS Shooting Brake
The navigation has to be on, even for a
10-milejourney I've done a thousand times before. And it has to be north up,
2D, full screen and noises off. Anything else is unthinkable. Then I have to
set the zoom to one notch closer than that which would be the tightest required
to display the entire journey. And the closer I get, the more often I have to
adjust the display. If, upon reading this, you conclude that I am in need of
urgent medical attention, you are not alone.
The
navigation has to be on, even for a 10-milejourney I've done a thousand times
before.
So imagine my delight in discovering that
the Brake had brought me an all- new toy to play with, in the form of its
so-called 'Eco Display'. By way of three bar charts, it monitors and reports on
your ability to accelerate, brake and hold a steady speed in the most efficient
manner possible. It then awards you marks out of 100, beginning with a default
start-up position of 50 per cent.
In my first few journeys I only managed to
reach 92-94 per cent, but now that I've learned its ways I can quite easily see
98 and 99 per cent and even an un-improvable 100 per cent. Interestingly, you
don't have to drive like a saint to do it, either; it's all about reaching the
speed you want progressively and then staying there. You can even drive up
steep hills with predictably disastrous effects on fuel consumption without
affecting the Brake's efficiency rating.
In
my first few journeys I only managed to reach 92-94 per cent, but now that I've
learned its ways I can quite easily see 98 and 99 per cent and even an
un-improvable 100 per cent.
I should, I know, try to get out more, but
you'll be pleased to find that I take an equal delight in reducing my
efficiency rating to zero per cent a remarkably easy thing to accomplish even
if you don't deliberately drive like an idiot. Normal fast- road driving using
maximum acceleration for overtaking and leaning on the brakes will help to
achieve this.
Overall, in normal driving the Brake is
regularly returning a smidge under 40mpg and occasionally a touch more, which I
reckon is pretty good for a two- tone car. This means effortless 600- mile runs
between stops, courtesy of its vast 80-liter tank. That's fully 100 miles more
than our other 3.0-liter diesel estate, the Audi A6 Allroad, with its relatively
puny 65-liter tank. The only problem is, I now routinely drop over $165 worth
of diesel into the car, which seems a lot, even if only psychologically.
Normal
fast- road driving using maximum acceleration for overtaking and leaning on the
brakes will help to achieve this.
Otherwise, life with the Brake is good. A
couple of months in, the idea of having a car as stylish as a coupe but as
usable as an estate still looks as good in practice as it always did in theory.
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Mercedes-Benz
CLS350 CDI Blue Efficiency Shooting Brake
§ Price:
$83, 992
§ Price
as tested: $105, 562
§ Economy:
39.1mpg
§ Faults:
None
§ Expenses:
None
§ Last
seen: 17.4.13
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