For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Mercedes AMG CLE have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision and force limiters to limit the pressure the belts will exert on the passengers. The BMW 8 Series doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the AMG CLE are reminded to check the back seat. The 8 Series doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The AMG CLE has a standard front seat center airbag, which deploys between the driver and front passenger, protecting them from injuries caused by striking each other in serious side impacts. The 8 Series doesn’t offer front seat center airbags.
To provide maximum traction and stability on all roads, All-Wheel Drive is standard on the AMG CLE. But it costs extra on the 8 Series.
Earlier warning of stopped traffic, traffic signals, dangerous road conditions, weather, or accidents, can keep driver's safer and prevent crashes. The AMG CLE has Car-to-X Communication, a system that seamlessly communicates important warnings to the driver about impending danger, if they're available. The 8 Series doesn’t offer a system that can receive automated systems from infrastructure or other vehicles.
The AMG CLE has a standard blind spot warning system that uses sensors to alert the driver to objects in the vehicle’s blind spots where the side view mirrors don’t reveal them. A system to reveal vehicles in the 8 Series’ blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the AMG CLE has standard Rear Cross-Traffic Alert and Active Brake Assist automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. BMW charges extra for Cross Traffic Warning on the 8 Series and the 8 Series’ Cross Traffic Warning does not include automatic braking.
Both the AMG CLE and the 8 Series have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, post-collision automatic braking systems, daytime running lights, rearview cameras, driver alert monitors and available lane departure warning systems.