The Mercedes-Benz CL550 was a variant of the C216 CL-Class that debuted for the 2007 model year. The CL550, which was sold as the CL500 outside of Japan and North America, was a series of luxury coupes offered in rear wheel drive and all wheel drive (4MATIC) configurations. Upon its release, the CL 550 was powered by Mercedes' M273 engine, which was a 383hp 5.5L V8, but from the 2011 model year, these cars were equipped with Mercedes' M278 engine, which was a 429hp 4.7L V8. Both engines were paired to a 7 speed automatic transmission. Production of the C216 CL550 ended in 2014, when Mercedes discontinued the CL-Class. As the CL-Class had been S-Class based, Mercedes decided to return these cars to the S-Class, beginning with the C217 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupes.