……this time.
If you’d like a premium and practical wagon, there are many other options on the market that fill that criteria a lot more convincingly, but if you’d like to have said car be affixed with some Benz badge snobbery, then here’s one more your shortlist.
The newest 2nd-generation version of the CLA-Class (C118) has now spawned a Shooting Brake variant, adding a passable amount of additional cargo carrying ability to an objectively less-than-practical car, itself a 4-door coupe interpretation of Mercedes-Benz’s smallest hatch.
Revealed at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, the new CLA Shooting Brake certainly looks much better balanced than the one that preceded it, though that’s due to them doing a far better job with the design of the A-Class family as a whole.
For many, the previous CLA Shooting Brake was the only flavour worth having as the 4-door coupe version’s visual eccentricities were not all too endearing. Here, Mercedes-Benz have hit their stride with this body style, and it seems like the more canonical option for the prospective buyer.
Past the back seats there now is more space to be used in general as the result of the roofline being extended. Overall length increases too and its lower height lends it some added sporty appeal, but we suspect rear headroom is only marginally improved over the 4-door coupe on account of how much the roof tapers, and how quickly from the front portion.
If we step back from the fact that it looks aces thanks to its Shooting Brake-ness, there’s really not much left to dissect about this new CLA because it is otherwise identical to the standard CLA with its four-door coupe body style.
Therefore, mechanically, the CLA Shooting Brake shares its engine and powertrain package and, we presume, is in lockstep with it on grade and trim levels as well. For now, Mercedes-Benz says the range-topper is the CLA 250 with its 165kW and 350Nm generated by its 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder. Drive reaches the front wheels via a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission.
Although, by the time they expect to have the CLA Shooting Brake launched in most major markets, Mercedes-Benz themselves say they would have a wider selection announced, including those equipped with 4Matic all-wheel drive and perhaps even hot AMG versions.
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