Originally, a coupé or coupe was a passenger car with a sloping roofline and 2 doors, but nowadays a coupe is mostly associated with the sloping roofline part of the design, not necessarily the doors. Mercedes, BMW, Audi, and many other manufacturers have started marketing 4-door cars as coupes, even the SUVs.
The Mercedes Benz Coupe line-up consists of the CLA Coupe, C-class Coupe, E-class Coupe, CLS Coupe, and the discontinued S-class Coupe. The coupe SUV line-up consists of coupe variants of the GLC and the GLE. Furthermore, the AMG GT 2-door and the AMG GT 4-door variant are sports car coupes.
Traditional Mercedes Coupes
In the traditional Mercedes Coupe line-up, the entry-level coupe is the C-class Coupe. Initially, the C-class was offered in sedan or estate variants. But in 2000, Mercedes debuted the C-class Sport Coupe version that was renamed as the CLC until 2011, when Mercedes started using the C-class Coupe designation.
The current C-class Coupe starts as the C300 at around $50k and the top-of-the-line C-class coupe is the C 63 S AMG, which starts at around $80k. The next in line is the mid-size E-class Coupe which was introduced in 1996, and soon after became one of the most popular Mercedes Coupes ever built.
The current E-class Coupe starts with the E450 Coupe at around $65k. The top-of-the-line E-class Coupe is the E450 4-Matic that costs around $68k. It’s worth mentioning that Mercedes only offers the E63 AMG variant for the sedan or the estate variant, not the coupe.
The top-of-the-line Mercedes Coupe used to be the S-class coupe, which was discontinued in 2021 at a starting price of $141k for the S 560 4-Matic and around $173k for the S63 AMG Coupe. Recently Mercedes released the new S-class (W223), but it’s still unclear if Mercedes is planning to release the coupe variant at all.
Mercedes SUV Coupes
In 2008, BMW released the X6 as the top-of-the-line sporty “coupe-ish” SUV, and ever since then, the Coupe SUV segment has seen an incredible boost in popularity. Mercedes soon recognized the appeal the X6 is getting and in 2015 Mercedes pulled the cover of the brand new GLE Coupe and many other manufacturers were soon to follow.
The smallest Coupe SUV offered by Mercedes is the GLC Coupe, a sleeker version of the GLC that was released in 2019. The range kicks off with the GLC 300 4-Matic Coupe at around $51k. The highest-trim all singing all dancing GLC Coupe is the GLC 63 AMG S Coupe that costs around $85k.
The next in line is the aforementioned GLE Coupe. The GLE Coupe was introduced in 2015, and since has become a fairly popular Mercedes SUV. It’s somewhat like a mixture of an E-class Coupe and the regular GLE SUV.
The range kicks off with the GLE 450 in Europe, but in the US the entry-level is the GLE 53 AMG at around $76k. In both cases, the top-of-the-line GLE Coupe is the GLE 63 AMG S Coupe that costs around $128k base price.
Mercedes sports car coupes
Mercedes currently offers two different body style coupes for its sports car segment, the AMG GT 2 door, and the AMG GT 4 door. These cars are mostly a product of the AMG department and they are primarily focused on bringing the highest performance capabilities of any Mercedes models.
The 2 door AMG GT starts off as the GT coupe at around $120k and goes all the way up to the seriously pricy AMG GT Black Series which is expected to cost around $400k. The AMG GT is the pinnacle of Mercedes sports car engineering and it’s also coming to the end of its lifeline.
The 4-door coupe version of the AMG GT is somewhat of a mixture of the CLS and the aforementioned AMG GT. The 4-door AMG GT Coupe starts with the AMG GT 43 4-door Coupe at around $90k. The top of the 4-door version is the AMG GT 63 S 4-door Coupe that costs as much as $171k base price.
When a coupe isn’t a coupe
Is Mercedes wrong to call a 4-door car or SUV a coupe?
Technically, Mercedes is wrong. But so is every other manufacturer that does this. The coupe designation was, as the name would originally suggest, a 2-door sloped roofline car, but nowadays it’s a marketing tool for increasing the appeal and making the line-up seem more diverse than it truly is.
An SUV is not a coupe, but if it works favorably for the sales department, and it does, then it is a coupe. It’s an SUV-infested reality we live in, and its only starting to ramp up, so you can expect tons of “coupe” SUVs to reach the market in the upcoming years.
What’s the difference between the CLS and the AMG GT 4-door coupe?
At first glance, these two seem to check the same boxes, so it might seem like Mercedes created two different cars for the same purpose. And to an extent, that is actually true, but Mercedes is making sure not to offer the CLS as the 63 AMG version because it might disturb the sales of the AMG GT 63 4-door.
The CLS is being pitched as a more luxurious-old man-special type of car, and the AMG GT 4 door is being pitched as a more exciting sports car more akin to the 2-door AMG GT than it is to the CLS.
What’s the future like of the coupe car segment?
As mentioned previously, we live in an SUV-ruling reality that is only starting to ramp up. Many car manufacturers are developing more and more SUVs, and the less popular segments (one of which is the coupe segment), are slowly being discontinued.
A clear indication of this is the uncertainty of the S-class Coupe release. As it seems right now, the chances of seeing a new S-class Coupe are slim to none. The traditional Mercedes Coupe segment that once saw excellent and impressive sales numbers is showing significant signs of decline in popularity.
