You must know what you’re getting yourself into when purchasing a Mercedes-Benz CLA, a car that apart from the styling and badge is, worlds away from any Three Pointed Star sedan to come before it. It’s front-wheel drive, it’s not particularly spacious or practical, nor is it as cosseting as a Benz should be to drive or/and be in.
These are some of the conclusions drawn in this first drive of the CLA done by Consumer Reports. Their car is a CLA250 model, the one most will go for in the States, though they called it poorly equipped in and around its base price of just under thirty grand.
They moved that closer to forty ($36,500) by ticking not that many boxes at all: a ‘premium package,’ special paint, opening panoramic glass roof, wood trim inside and bi-xenon headlights.
In the end, they were not won over by it, primarily because it doesn’t feel like a Mercedes ought to and the attractively low youth-corrupting starting price quickly rises and the CLA almost ends up costing just as much as the proper rear-wheel driven Mercs that we’re used to.
Check out the full video below.
By Andrei Nedelea
VIDEO