Mercedes’ first generation CLS is in my humble opinion, the most beautiful Benz of the modern era. Today’s CLS 55 has the balls to back up those looks, but will its price prove an ugly counterpoint?

Yesterday’s may not have exuded the same sort of sassy attitude as did the heroic Bugs Bunny, but it did however exhibit a similar old school appeal.

Obviously its shoddy paint job and generally worried interior would need some serious work, but that was countered by a seemingly solid body and generally stock presentation. In the end, those assets seemed to match its $2,750 asking price and the car carried off a 65 percent Nice Price win.

The Rabbit was, in its era, Volkswagen’s standard bearer. In fact, it exemplified the company’s name as it was intended, like its Beetle forefather, to be “The People’s Car.”

Mercedes Benz builds cars for people too. They just build them for people of means. One thing it seems rich people like is doors. You can never have too many doors for the hoity toity and that’s why we have all these damn four-door “coupes” offending our epithetical sensibilities.

We can’t blame Mercedes for the creation of the four-door coupe, that honor goes to Rover. Yes, Rover! It was that British company that debuted in 1967 and called it a coupe. That hippie-era Rover was patient zero.

Today’s arrived on the scene nearly forty years later, and served as a catalyst for the form’s reintroduction. Now we have Gran Coupes from BMW, CCs from Volkswagen, A7s and A5 sportbacks from Audi, and a dizzying number of others.

To be perfectly honest with you, as exasperating as the whole incomprehensible four-door coupe naming convention might be, I think that the CLS, at least in its progenitor form, is just about the most drop dead sexy looking car there is.

This one has been sexing it up now for over 170,000 miles. That’s a lot of asphalt under its alloys, although the ad goes to lengths to claim that everything still works as it should. Backing that up, the car does present well in the pictures.

The paint here is interesting too. That sea foam green (Varicolor III?) is not a common hue for a CLS. It’s set, not against a biscuit interior, but one with black leather and a forest of burlwood on the dash and full-cabin console. The driver’s seat shows some crazing in its leather, and the cup holders appear to be missing their chrome cap rings, but otherwise it’s a victory lap of luxury in here.

This being the 55 AMG you get some scoot to go with all that finery. The supercharged 5.4-litre M113K V8 is claimed to possess 469 horses and 516 lb-ft of torque. The mill looks to be tidy, Although it is missing the three-pointed star on its plastic cover. Where might that have gotten to?

A five speed automatic backs up the big eight, and power gets to the ground by way of skinny rubber mounted on AMG five spoke wheels. An air suspension holds it all up.

The ad notes this to be a one-owner car with a clean Texas title. It also claims that the 170K were mere highway miles. The price tag here is $10,999 and you now need to choose whether or not that’s highway robbery.

What do you think, does this CLS 55 AMG seem worth that asking despite the odious odometer reading? Or, is that too much for just too many, no matter if we’re talking dollars, miles or doors?

You decide!

Dallas, TX , or go if the ad disappears.

H/T to fauxshizzle for the hookup!

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