Mercedes-Benz CLA Review (2019-present)
Mercedes-Benz CLA cars for sale
4.0
Expert review
Pros
Stylish and distinctive looks
Lots of engines and specs to suit different needs and budgets
Shooting Brake is surprisingly practical
Cons
AMG models are very expensive to run
Reliability has to be a concern
Four-wheel-drive cars have higher fuel bills
The CarGurus verdict
If you’re looking for a small, stylish premium car that gives you a modicum of driving fun while retaining comfort levels, then the CLA is well worth checking out. The Shooting Brake adds an extra layer of practicality without turning frumpy, and there are enough choices of trim and engine to satisfy varying tastes. Reliability, as with all modern Mercedes, might be a concern, but no more so than rivals BMW and Audi, and at the time of writing all cars will be covered by a manufacturer warranty. So we’d definitely recommend considering it alongside an Audi A3 Saloon or a BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe.
Choosing a car often comes as a result of deciding where your priorities lie. Looks? Practicality? Fuel economy? Time and time again though, research tells manufacturers that looks sit very high on customers’ priority lists. Which is where cars like the CLA come in.
When it comes to buying a small Mercedes saloon, there’s already a choice. The A-Class hatchback also comes in saloon form. So what does the CLA do differently? Why, it puts on a sharp jacket, gets an immaculate haircut and wears sunglasses. Mercedes has taken the same mechanical underpinnings as the A-Class and put a sleek, coupe-inspired saloon body on top of it. It even calls it a four-door coupe (coupes traditionally have two doors), much like its larger sibling, the CLS. And also like the CLS, there’s an estate version, or rather a shooting brake version (as four-door coupe is to saloon, so shooting brake is to estate).
Styling-wise, the Mercedes CLA has a more sweeping roofline than the A-Class saloon, and it’s ever so slightly longer too. The rear lights are different, and so are the bumpers. But overall, you’d be slightly hard pressed to tell them apart.
Another surprise is that it drives rather well. This is the second generation of CLA, and while the experience behind the wheel of the first generation model wasn’t particularly impressive, it’s a much more positive story this time around. Mercedes has tried to tune the new CLA to be a bit more dynamic and sporty than the A-Class, but keeping an element of comfort. It’s definitely not a hot hatch, but it does have a streak of zing to it, with poised handling but a comfortable enough ride.
Both front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive versions of the CLA are available, and there are a couple of performance versions from Mercedes-AMG too, in the shape of the CLA35 and CLA45. They up the excitement factor, but also up the price quite a bit.
Engine choices start, on the petrol side, with the 1.4-litre, 134bhp CLA180. The CLA200 has the same engine but tuned to 161bhp and the 2.0-litre CLA220 has 187bhp. The CLA50, also a 2.0-litre, has 222bhp. If you want a diesel, your choice is limited to just the CLA220d, which uses a 2.0-litre engine to produce 221bhp.
Turning to the all-wheel drive sporty models, the AMG CLA 35 has a 2.0-litre turbo engine with 302bhp, while the CLA 45 S makes 415bhp, which is starting to get well into hardcore sports car territory.
All non-AMG petrol models come with a seven-speed automatic gearbox, while the diesel and the AMG cars have an eight-speed automatic.
From mid-2020, Mercedes slimmed down the range somewhat, with all-wheel drive (known as 4matic) only available on the AMG models, and the CLA220 dropped from the line-up. However, they also introduced a plug-in hybrid version of the CLA, called the CLA250e, available in both body styles. It mixes a 1.3-litre engine with an electric motor to produce 215bhp, and can travel on electric power alone for around 35 miles.
Trim levels in the standard cars start higher than in the A-Class, reflecting its more premium positioning, so your choices are three variations of the sporty AMG Line – AMG Line, AMG Line Premium and AMG Line Premium Plus.
With the CLA sitting in a more premium space than the A-Class, it’s more expensive accordingly, with no bare bones entry-level model. The Shooting Brake model costs more still. As it’s still relatively new on the market it’s not yet clear how well it’ll hold on to its value.
When it comes to fuel and emissions, the CLA220d should get you up to 57.7mpg (WLTP) according to official fuel economy ratings, and is compliant with the latest RDE2 regulations, which means it avoids the 4% diesel surcharge on company car (BIK) tax.
The plug-in hybrid models will also appeal to business drivers, with CO2 emissions as low as 31g/km. The official fuel economy says you’ll get as much as 202mpg, but that will depend entirely on how you run the car. If you do mainly shorter journeys and have somewhere to plug it in, you can do most of your driving on electric power only, which means no fuel costs. But if you do long journeys and don’t keep the battery full, you’re just lugging around a heavy electric motor with a petrol engine, and your fuel costs will soar.
In the petrol models, both the CLA180 and CLA200 use the same size of engine and have near identical mpg figures and emissions, being up to 46.3mpg and 139 and 140g/km respectively. The CLA250 will give you up to 41.5mpg and 154g/km.
Both AMG models will drive up the running costs, not least because they’re more expensive to buy, but also because they’re tuned for performance over frugality. Expect 36.7mpg and 33.6mpg respectively, but only if you drive them very carefully. Pilot them as Mercedes intended and you’ll see those figures plunge.
Mercedes cars have flexible service intervals, depending on how they’re used. The car will flag up when a service is due, but generally you can expect the first service after a year and then every two years after that. Servicing a CLA won’t be cheap, but Mercedes offers fixed-price servicing deals, which you can pay up front or over a period of up to four years. As an example, a plan for a CLA under a year old, covering up to 15,500 miles a year, could be covered for two services for £720, three services for £1,080 or four services for £1,440.
There’s no way of sugarcoating this - Mercedes does not have a good reputation for reliability. As a brand it regularly sits towards the bottom of independent studies, and has done for some years. But having said that, it often outperforms its premium rivals like BMW and Audi, who are as bad if not worse.
The latest CLA is too new to have any meaningful data on its reliability, but there’s some hope in that the A-Class, upon which the CLA is based, appears to be faring relatively well, although not spectacularly, in customer satisfaction surveys. So we’d hope that the CLA will follow that trend.
Should anything go wrong with your CLA, it’s covered by a three-year, unlimited mileage warranty from new, which is the same as Audi and BMW offer. You’ll also get Europe-wide roadside assistance during that time too.
- The CLA Shooting Brake has more space in the back than the larger C-Class Estate… sort of. With the rear seats in place it has 505 litres of capacity for your assorted stuff, vs 440 litres in the C-Class. However, if you fold the rear seats down then the C-Class wins for space, with 1,460 litres against 1,370 in the CLA Shooting Brake (and less in the AMG models).
- While Mercedes has tried to make the CLA noticeably different from the A-Class, the interior is almost identical. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it’s sharp, contemporary and well-made, and loaded with technology if that’s your kind of thing. Check out the wide tablet-like screens and the built in Siri/Alexa-like voice command feature.
- If you’re looking at the CLA as a family car then you’ll be pleased to know that it was awarded the maximum five stars in crash tests by safety organisation EuroNCAP. All models also come with a decent stack of safety features, including automatic emergency braking, lane-keep assist and a speed limit recognition system. If you want more, new buyers can add a Driving Assistance pack, which gives you a blind spot warning system and a certain level of autonomous driving capability. Various features work with each other so that on motorways the car will accelerate, slow down and steer for you. You always need to keep your hands on the wheel, however.
- If you want bonkers speed: The Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 S is a monster of a machine, with 415bhp and a zero to 62mph time of four seconds dead. That’s very fast indeed, and with all-wheel drive as standard it’ll rocket off the line in a manner guaranteed to raise a smile. Or a grimace, depending on your constitution.
- If you want maximum practicality: The Shooting Brake version of the CLA is much more practical than the four-door Coupe, and gives you back some of the rear headroom lost compared with the A-Class. And there’s a big boot too, even if the aperture at the lid is a bit small. But it’s still got that rakish CLA style.
- If you’re doing long journeys: While there’s a good choice of petrol engines, we’d still opt for the better fuel economy of the diesel if we were doing regular motorway schleps. It’s a strong engine and the eight-speed gearbox is better than the seven-speed found in the petrol cars.
- If you want to watch the cash: There are three different trim levels in the non-AMG CLAs, all (confusingly) called AMG Line or a variant of. For our money though, the entry-level AMG Line model has all the features you’ll need, including 18-inch alloy wheels, a 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system and wireless charging for your phone.
