Phone, GPS and Tablet Mounts for a Mercedes-Benz CLS 450

Mercedes-Benz CLS 450The Mercedes-Benz CLS 450 has a mighty nice looking interior.  Sleek lines, all leather and lots of technology.  We’re going to look at good places to mount a phone, GPS or tablet in a Mercedes-Benz CLS 450.

Mount Analysis

A photo of the Mercedes-Benz CLS 450 interior accompanies this article.  We took a good look at what will and will not work in this vehicle and quickly realized this is not an easy vehicle to mount a device.  It’s almost as if the engineers got together with a design principle of making it as difficult as possible to mount a device.

Our next go-to location is usually the vent.  Take a look at those vents.  No good easy way to use a vent mount in the Mercedes-Benz CLS 450.  The vents are small, round and chrome.  All work against this location for a mounting point.

Perhaps we can use the dash?  It’s going to be difficult.  The severely sloped windshield leaves little room between the dash and windshield.  You might be able to get away with the adhesive dash disk that comes with the Arkon Slim Grip Ultra mount we just discussed.  It would need to be used towards the front middle dash and the phone placed in landscape.  Forget about using this location for a tablet.

The CD player slot often makes a convenient location for mounting a smartphone.  Not here.  The CD slot is located close to other controls and displays and will block access.  Avoid this location.

A cup holder is often recommended as a good spot for a small to midsize tablet.  Mercedes-Benz has a habit of using shallow or hidden cup holders.  Both make poor candidates for a cup holder base.  The cup holders in the Mercedes-Benz CLS 450 aren’t going to work well as a mounting location.

We’ve reviewed a few Mercedes-Benz models in the past and don’t remember having this many challenges in finding acceptable mounting locations.

Best Location is the Windshield

After checking out the interior, it’s clear the best place to mount a phone will be the windshield.  The Mercedes-Benz CLS 450 has a significantly sloped windshield.  While you won’t need a particularly long mount in this vehicle, you will need one that has an adjustment point at the base so that the phone cradle can be tilted downwards and a bit to the left.  It’s also apparent that a mount that facilitates a swivel for landscape use is necessary.  The significantly sloped windshield may prevent a large phone placed in portrait mode.

Consider the Arkon Slim Grip Ultra Travel Mount for smartphones. The cradle opens to over seven-inches which is large enough to hold a phone with or without a case (including a big thick Otterbox Defender).  It has an expandable cradle with legs that can be moved from side to side to leave any port on your phone exposed for cables.  The mount can be adjusted at the base and cradle.  It rotates 360 degrees.

If you would like to use a Garmin GPS in this vehicle, remove the cradle from this mount.  That uncovers a 17mm ball which is the exact size necessary to fit the socket on the back of a Garmin GPS cradle.

The windshield, assuming it is legal in your state to mount a device here, will work the best for a smartphone or GPS.  A tablet is not recommended as it will cover too much of the viewing area.

Summary

Summing up the situation, the windshield is the only recommended location to mount a smartphone or GPS in a Mercedes-Benz CLS 450.  The cup holder, vent, dash and CD player aren’t recommended.  And lastly, while we tried to find a place for a tablet, it’s just not going to fit in this vehicle.