The Mercedes CLS coupé is designed to blend desirability with practicality. But how does it score when looking at it from the golfers point of view? Sport Psychology Ltd have adapted the power of the Psy-Kit process to look at how well different models of car meet the needs of the golfer

As with all our scientific methodologies the scoring is normed and given as a percentile comparison against other similar vehicles. 100 is perfect 1 is the lowest score with 50 being the average- think of it as a percentage for easy reference. Please note that you cannot add and average percentiles due to their non linear nature- before one of you notes that the average of the individual elements does not add up to the overall score.

Overall                            74^th%ile

A car to impress your buddies down at the club or the range. For the individual golfer it has nearly everything that you could want

1. Style                           96^th%ile

No complaints here it is a is a sleek, low-slung four-door luxury motor that draws admiring glances from your fellow golfers when arriving in the car park. Sophisticated and understated elegance

2 Luxury                          97^th%ile

It extremely well fitted out with all the extras that one would like in any luxury vehicle. Particularly enjoyed the heated seats in the cold snap to warm up golf muscles on the way to the course.

3 Reliability                     75^th%ile

Its German so no issues here… well yes and no. Mechanically perfect but had lots of irritating warnings about problems that did not exist due to overzealous sensors. Yes, it always gets you to the course but having lots of worries about the electronic gremlins does not set the golfer off in a good frame of mind. Not helped by having no printed owner’s manual – the electronic one was not particularly easy to use when trying to sort problems

4 Boot (Trunk) Test        55^th%ile

One of the most important elements of the car for any golfer-  “Can I get my clubs in?” The compartment is actually quite small for its class (550 litres with seats in place). However, the lip is relatively low creating easy loading and it has more than enough room for an electric trolley (Motocaddy S1) and a Ping DLX trolley bag with a full set of Ping clubs and packed for a British winter. However, it did not pass the “Driver Test” as this club needed to be removed to get the clubs in – see picture. It really only copes with the kit for one player.

5 Golfers On Tour           58^th%ile

Despite the luxury the lack of space means that this car could only cope with the kit and luggage for 2 players comfortably. You might get 3 in with the splits seats down and no electric trolleys but it would feel cramped. As a second vehicle it also struggles as it only has 4 seats (no middle seat for passenger 5 in the back) so it does not really work for the apres golf trip out to the local night life with a designated driver- of course. You will however, impress the locals as you arrive.