Benz puts Brakes on CLA

What do you do when your smallest sedan is criticised for having no interior space? You could make a wagon version, but instead Mercedes-Benz prefers to turn its 'CL' branded swoopy sedans into Shooting Brakes.

So say hello to the latest front and all-wheel drive MFA-platformed small, Mercedes-Benz, the CLA Shooting Brake – about to be launched in both standard and AMG forms, complete with more luggage space and more rear headroom than the standard sedan.

Canned for its lack of rear space, the CLA sedan is longer than the just-superseded C-Class sedan but has far less interior space. Although the Shooting Brake does nothing to address its legroom constraints, it has delivered a 40mm improvement in rear headroom, taking it up to 947mm.

The five-door layout stretches the car slightly to 4630mm long, though it delivers 495 litres of luggage space which can be pushed up to 595 litres with the rear seats in their most vertical 'cargo' setting (which means you can't really sit in them. Folding the rear seats flat boosts that again, up to 1354 litres.

Mercedes-Benz has spent time working on the cargo area's layout, too, with a 12-volt socket, a collapsible box and a side stowage net all featuring in the standard equipment range, while a pair of aluminium rails is optional.

"Like its big brother, the CLS Shooting Brake, the CLA Shooting Brake is targeted at active customers who are looking outside of the mainstream for a car that impresses with a high utility value," Mercedes-Benz board member for Sales and Marketing (and ex-AMG chief), Ola Kallenius, said.

Mercedes-Benz will take the CLA Brake to market in Europe in March 2015, complete with a pair of turbo-diesel motors and three different petrol models, plus all-wheel drive versions of all but the smallest petrol engine.

The least powerful petrol engine will come in the CLA 180, with the 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo motor delivering 90kW and 200Nm. It's a 9.3sec proposition to 100km/h and uses 5.3L/100km.

The same engine is the basis for the CLA 200, with 115kW and 250Nm, but the exact same consumption and emissions figures as the CLA 180.

The range climbs to the 2.0-litre CLA 250 to find its strength, chiming in with 155kW/350Nm and a 6.9sec sprint to 100km/h. It loses little in economy, bringing a figure of 5.5L/100km to the NEDC cycle.

The diesel motors share their 2143cc, four-cylinder turbo layout, with the CLA 200 CDI beginning with 100kW/300Nm and the 220 CDI bringing 130kW and 350Nm and, bizarrely, using less fuel (4.0L/100km) to do it.

The strongest member of the new Shooting Brake family comes from AMG, with the CLA 45 AMG Shooting Brake. It brings the storming little 265kW/450Nm turbo four from the A 45. It's enough power to convince the wagon to hit 100km/h in just 4.7sec on its way to a 250km/h top speed, yet it uses only 6.9L/100km on the NEDC cycle.

The changes to the styling have pushed the CLA's drag coefficient out from a class-leading 0.22 to a slightly more turbulent 0.26Cd, though that's still class leading for estates in the small class.

"The new CLA Shooting Brake offers a contemporary interpretation of sensual purity and represents the perfect synthesis between the emotionality of a coupe and the intelligence of a shooting brake," Daimler Head of Design, Gorden Wagener, said.

"The styling of our CLA Shooting Brake is extremely progressive as well as unmistakable," the Benz style chief stated.

The CLA Shooting Brake is scheduled to arrive Down Under during the second quarter of next year. Pricing and specification will be announced closer to the local launch, although, as an indication, the price premium for the Shooting Brake is expected to be in the same ballpark as the premium payable for the C-Class wagon over the sedan – a difference of around $2500.