The Vision CLS concept was shown in Frankfurt in 2003 and the production car a year later. The CLS is a European car, so the Japanese examples are left-hand-drive imports. Japanese-market version names follow the American ones: the CLS 550 is the same 4.7-litre M278 twin-turbo V8 that Europe knows as the CLS 500. Of the 234 entries in our catalogue 111 are C218, 67 C219 and 55 C257, and one carries no type code. Not one of them has a manual gearbox.
C218, 2011 to 2017
The most common generation: 111 of the 234 entries in our catalogue (probed 2026-09-09), with a median mileage of 97,000 km, 53 entries above 100,000 km and a median starting price of 690,000 yen. The bulk of the supply is the CLS 350 family, 64 entries, mostly the CLS 350 BlueEFFICIENCY with the naturally aspirated 306 PS M276 V6 and the AMG Sports package. After that come the CLS 400 with the 333 PS twin-turbo V6 (20 entries), the CLS 550 with the 408 PS M278 twin-turbo V8 (19) and eight CLS 63 AMG with the M157, all model year 2011. The 2014 facelift brought MULTIBEAM LED headlights and the nine-speed 9G-TRONIC on every version except the CLS 400. The Shooting Brake body from October 2012 is a separate model in the catalogue with its own page.
C219, 2004 to 2010
The first generation, the one that invented the segment, and the most interesting on the numbers: 67 entries, of which 35 are the CLS 55 AMG with the 5.4-litre supercharged M113 V8, 476 PS and 700 Nm, built only from 2004 to 2006. Those CLS 55 have a median mileage of 72,000 km and 15 of the 35 carry an auction grade of 4.5 or higher. The rest are the CLS 350 with the 272 PS M272 V6 (14 entries), the CLS 500 with the 306 PS 5.0-litre V8 (9) and the CLS 550 with the 387 PS 5.5-litre M273 V8 (4). The CLS 63 AMG with the naturally aspirated M156 is rare here: five entries from model year 2008 are in fact a single car that returned to the Osaka auction week after week through August and September 2026. The facelift arrived in 2008, and the SBC brakes left the range in 2006.
C257, 2018 to 2023
The current generation and the first five-seat CLS: 55 entries, 54 of them the CLS 450 4MATIC with the 3.0-litre M256 turbocharged straight six and 48 V EQ Boost mild hybrid, 367 PS and 500 Nm plus a 16 kW starter-generator. This is the newest and best-kept part of the supply: 22 of the 55 entries are under 50,000 km, only one exceeds 100,000 km, and 33 carry a grade of 4.5 or higher. The median starting price of 2,680,000 yen is almost four times that of the C218. The CLS 53 AMG of this generation is not among those 55 entries: it is filed under the Mercedes-AMG make in the catalogue.
