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Drive

Full details: Benz's baby sedan

Greg Kable
April 20, 2012
Official pictures of the Mercedes-Benz CLA small sedan. Click for more photos

Mercedes-Benz CLA

Official pictures of the Mercedes-Benz CLA small sedan.

  • Official pictures of the Mercedes-Benz CLA small sedan.
  • Official pictures of the Mercedes-Benz CLA small sedan.
  • Official pictures of the Mercedes-Benz CLA small sedan.
  • Official pictures of the Mercedes-Benz CLA small sedan.
  • Official pictures of the Mercedes-Benz CLA small sedan.
  • Official pictures of the Mercedes-Benz CLA small sedan.
  • Official pictures of the Mercedes-Benz CLA small sedan.
  • Official pictures of the Mercedes-Benz CLA small sedan.

Concept almost certain to go into production.

Mercedes-Benz has officially unveiled its sleek new CLA sedan at an art house event in Los Angeles.

The Concept Style Coupe is a forerunner to a new junior Mercedes-Benz sedan that is set to go on sale in Australia in 2013 at a base price of about $40,000.

Following its brief showing in Los Angeles, Mercedes-Benz will fly the one-off concept car to China, where it will make a more formal debut on the German car maker's stand at the Beijing motor show on April 23.

Advancing the look first established on the F800 Style concept wheeled out at the 2010 Geneva motor show, the Concept Style Coupe is clothed in a four-door body that makes extensive use of concave and convex surfaces to provide its exterior with what Mercedes-Benz design boss, Gorden Wagener, describes as "an almost fluid appearance and constantly altering depth within the panels when viewed in changing light conditions and/or on the move".

With a large gaping grille known to insiders as a soft nose treatment, striking headlamps with LED graphics,a heavily curved roofline, shallow glasshouse, high waistline, frameless doors, trio of sharply creased swage lines along its flanks, curvaceous rear pillars, tapered rear and a sloping boot line, the new car possesses a clear visual connection with the larger CLS.

The CLS's success, both as as a stylistic figurehead for the rest of the Mercedes-Benz line-up and at showroom levels, heavily dictated Mercedes-Benz's decision to add the less mechanically complex and more affordable CLA to its line-up.

Commenting on the appearance, Wagener, says: ""The almost production standard Concept Style Coupé sets a new benchmark for design in the executive segment. Its proportions, surfaces and lines are an expression of our dynamic design idiom."

Although Mercedes-Benz is quick to point out the Concept Style Coupe is a one-off show car, Drive sources privy to the final appearance of the CLA confirm its styling is largely faithful to the production version of the new sedan. "Certain design elements have been subtly altered to lend a more powerful look for added presence on the show stand, but as a whole the exterior and interior reflect the true design of the car we will build at our new manufacturing plant in Kecskemét, Hungary."

Mercedes-Benz undertook a similar approach to the unveiling of its new third-generation A-class, which was previewed by the Concept A-class show car at last year's Shanghai motor show. But as one source hinted, "You will see less change in the transformation of the Concept Style Coupe to the CLA as in the Concept A-class to the new A-class. It really does set the tone and capture the intrinsic visual character of the production car."

Among the mild stylistic changes the Concept Style Coupe is expected to undergo be before the CLA lands in showrooms is the adoption of sturdy middle pillars for added structural integrity, less flamboyant bumpers - particularly at that at the front, altered headlamp graphics (the Concept Style Coupe's headlamps glow red in standby mode), more conventional exterior mirrors, the same pull out door handles as those seen on the new A-class and smaller wheel and tyres than the towering 21-inch items that adorn Mercedes-Benz's latest show car.

Underlining the importance Mercedes-Benz has attached to the new car in boosting its sales at the lower end of its line-up, chairman Dieter Zetsche says, "We are staking our claim very clearly here. This is the model against which vehicles in the executive segment will have to measure themselves in the future."

While the new Mercedes-Benz CLA, as previewed by the Concept Style Coupe, and existing second-generation CLS share the similar exterior styling and overall proportions, they boast vastly different mechanical packages.

The CLA is set to employ a range of four-cylinder engines and offer the choice of either front-wheel drive or, on selected engines, four-wheel drive. The CLS, on the other hand, uses a longitudinal engine layout and comes with standard rear-wheel drive and, in selected left-hand drive markets, optional four-wheel drive.

Inside, the Concept Style Coupe uses an upgraded interior borrowed from the recently unveiled A-class. The same basic appointments will be used on the CLA, albeit in a tone down form. As with versions of it hatchback sibling equipped with a seven-speed dual clutch gearbox, Mercedes-Benz's latest concept forgoes a traditional centre console mounted gearlever in favour of a column mounted shifter.

While the production version of the new entry level Mercedes-Benz sedan will receive a five seat layout, the concept car boasts a two-plus-two seating arrangement with the individual rear seats divided by a prominent centre console. A similar arrangement may be offered as optional equipment on the CLA.

Long billed as a junior CLS, the CLA will sit below the existing C-class sedan on price and features in the Mercedes-Benz line-up. However, the Concept Style Coupe show car hints Mercedes-Benz's new entry level sedan will be 47mm longer, a considerable 121mm wider and, thanks to its swoopy turret, some 47mm lower than its long established four-door stablemate at a respective 4637mm, 1891mm and 1398mm.

Mercedes-Benz insiders have confirmed to Drive that the introduction of the CLA will see the next-generation C-class, due out in 2014 and set to retain standard rear-wheel drive, move up in both size, positioning and price.

"There will be a shift in where the C-class sits in the line-up. It will move further up-market".

The official measurements quoted for the Concept Style Coupe also suggest the CLA will be 345mm shorter, the same width and 35mm lower than the new A-class - a car with which the CLA shares its platform, chassis and driveline architecture.

Based on the German car maker's new platform already used beneath the third-generation A-class and second-generation B-class, it will also use a 2699mm wheelbase - 59mm shorter than the fourth-generation C-class but the same as the A-class.

For its initial unveiling in Los Angeles and at the Beijing motor show next week, the Concept Style Coupe has been fitted with the same turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder direct injection engine confirmed for the new A250 at the Geneva motor show back in March.

The aluminium block unit kicks out a Volkswagen Golf GTi equaling 155kW. Drive is channeled through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox to all four wheels.

In production guise, the CLA will also offer the choice of either standard front-wheel drive or optional four-wheel drive. Gearboxes will include a standard six-speed manual or the same seven-speed dual clutch unit as the Concept Style Coupe as optional equipment - as in the new A-class and B-class.

Alongside the 155kW 2.0-litre unit showcased in the Concept Style Coupe and set to see light of day in a planned CLA250 model, the new junior Mercedes-Benz sedan is also set to offer at least two further turbocharged four-cylinder direct injection petrol units. Nothing is official just yet, but going by the engine line-up in the new A-class and B-class they are likely include a 90kW 1.6-litre in CLA180 and 115kW 2.0-litre in the CLA200. Whether all three engines are to be offered in Australia is not yet clear.

Also planned are three common rail diesel engines, although again it is unclear whether they will all be made available here. They include two 1.8-litre units with 80kW in the CLA180 CDI and 100kW in the CLA200 CDI as well as a larger 2.2-litre engine with 125kW in the CLA220 CDI.

The highlight of the new line-up, however, will be a planned four-wheel drive AMG model running a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder with up to 250kW. Secrecy surrounds the name of the new range topping CLA model.

However, insiders suggest it may take the designation CLA45 AMG into production as a nod to the Mercedes-Benz performance off-shoot's 45th anniversary.

Among the CLA's four-door rivals will be a new sedan version of the new third-generation Audi A3 also due out in 2013, and a secret new sedan version of the BMW 1-series that is presently undergoing conceptual development with a view to introduction in 2015. Also set in its sights is the Volkswagen Jetta - a car Mercedes-Benz officials suggest they will target heavily in North America and China, markets that are considered crucial to the CLA's chances of sales success.

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25 comments so far

  • Good to see Benz moving the style and engineering quotient forward, when its rivals are churning out spit and polish derivates. Looks like the gaping front from the Peugeot 407 styling is not out yet, even though Peugeot have wrongly dropped the style. Unsurprisingly, the new car paves the way for the C-class to become pricier, same with the new 3 series. Cars are not actually becoming cheaper, just an illusion of affordability.

    Commenter
    wigster
    Location
    melbourne
    Date and time
    April 20, 2012, 9:17AM
    • I'm sorry but I don't see even the tiniest resemblance to the hideous gaping mouths of recent Peugeots. The Pugs have a stupid looking high bumper line with a huge gaping maw below it, which makes them look unbalanced. This has a much more conventional split-grille front end.

      Commenter
      MotorMouth
      Location
      Sydney
      Date and time
      April 20, 2012, 11:45AM
  • I WANT ONE!! (as long as its built in Germany... none of that Sth African or American built stuff please Mercedes... if I wanted a car built in the third world, id buy a Kia)...

    Subject to that, where do i sign!!!

    Commenter
    ian
    Location
    Date and time
    April 20, 2012, 9:25AM
    • If you'd bothered to read the article, you'd have seen that it will be built in a brand new factory in Hungary. Hungary seems to be a popular place for setting up factories, the engines in my last two cars were made there.

      Commenter
      MotorMouth
      Location
      Sydney
      Date and time
      April 20, 2012, 11:40AM
  • It's all fluff and bubbles and mind your skull when you get into it

    Commenter
    Fred Bloggs
    Location
    Castlemaine
    Date and time
    April 20, 2012, 10:01AM
  • I have to say I'm surprised this was built by M-B, it actually looks really good.

    Commenter
    the watcher
    Location
    Date and time
    April 20, 2012, 10:45AM
  • By the time they launch it im sure it will look as ugly as the CLS, would love to see it look like this though!! The power bulges look like the new C63, so I would assume these will be reserved for the AMG version too.

    Commenter
    C63
    Location
    Pyrmont
    Date and time
    April 20, 2012, 10:48AM
    • Why? If you read the article, they seem to have very specific knowledge of what will change for production and it doesn't add up to it being much different to this at all.

      Commenter
      MotorMouth
      Location
      Sydney
      Date and time
      April 20, 2012, 1:11PM
    • Exactly my point. Replace mirrors with those from the new A, change the body kit, remove the power bulges, Add middle pillar and remove the nice wheels, they didn't mention it but you would also assume the exhaust system here is from the hot version. Now you are left with the i45! Then sell out the AMG brand by adding a 2ltr turbo to round it off!

      Commenter
      C63
      Location
      Pyrmont
      Date and time
      April 20, 2012, 2:20PM
  • Looks great - will trade my VW for one.....

    Commenter
    dexxter
    Location
    MELBOURNE
    Date and time
    April 20, 2012, 11:24AM

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