Mercedes-Benz CLA 200 2020 Review

Stylish, clean lines, decent space and the best cockpit in the business… There’s a lot to recommend the latest generation of Mercedes-Benz pocket four-door coupe, the CLA-Series.

In CLA 200 form it is frugal, fast enough and priced to compete against cars with less storied badges and yet presents as a proper Benz – with fit and finish to impress. Just watch the expensive option packs as the dollars add up.

Mercedes-Benz and four-door ‘coupes’ is a bit of a saga. It claims to have invented the genre with its original CLS-Class vehicles. Based on E-Class mechanicals, they were restyled and repriced – at a premium. And yet, they readily attracted a following in style-conscious markets including the USA.

Then the German marque ‘democratised’ the concept with a baby four-door coupe based on the A-Class hatch, dubbed the CLA-Class. It wasn’t quite as successful, but now with a second generation, Benz is seeking to remedy that.

Enter the latest 2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA 200, with which Mercedes-Benz has evolved the concept and delivered a relatively roomy, and yet remarkably stylish small luxury sedan that looks like it should cost significantly more than it does.

The 2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA 200 is priced from $59,500 – around 10 per cent up on the ‘old’ car.

Justifying this price increase is not just more space, but a substantial upgrading of cabin quality and standard equipment – from infotainment right through to autonomous functions and active safety aids.

The A-Class upgrade in 2018 brought a new normal to the connectivity and electronics offered in small cars and the CLA-Class benefits from that. Two large 10.25-inch landscape screens deliver all the info you’re likely to need in crystal clear high resolution and the MBUX interface offers a suite of natural language voice activated operations.

Just utter the word Mercedes and it’s at your service. Whether you want it or not…

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity are supported and standard equipment includes DAB+ digital radio tuner, active parking assist, auto lights and wipers, LED headlights and multi-function ambient interior lighting. Frankly, MBUX is good enough that you’ll likely not even bother with the smartphone connections.

Low-speed camera-based autonomous emergency braking is standard. So too are adaptive high-beam assist, blind spot assist with exit warning assistant, active lane keeping assist, traffic sign assist, and Mercedes-Benz’s PRE-SAFE. As you’d expect from Mercedes-Benz, they all appear to work well – I chose not to drive into any stationary traffic to test them out.

Our test CLA had a retail price just over $73K thanks to a number of options, the most expensive of which were the AMG Exclusive ($3190), and Communication and Vision Packages (each $2490). The extra dollars don’t affect my contention that the CLA presents like a more expensive car.

As noted above, it’s a classy package that I believe will drag people up from mainstream brands and perhaps have some downsizing Benz faithful questioning whether they need to spend six figures.

The CLA is still based on the Mercedes-Benz A-Class platform but compared to the first generation CLA, it’s significantly bigger – try 48mm longer, 53mm wider, riding on a 29mm longer wheelbase. Front and rear tracks have also been increased – by a significant 63 and 55mm respectively.

Indeed, in some measurements the latest version of the CLA-Class has passed the mid-sized C-Class sedan that it sells alongside. The CLA is now 2mm longer, has larger tracks front and rear and is wider than the C!

Occupants are the chief benefactors of this upsizing. There’s more space both front and rear – enough to make the new 2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA 200 much more of a proper four-seater than the car it replaces.

Although headroom is limited (so much so Benz does without grab handles and uses flush coat hooks), the boot is right-sized and at 460 litres challenges some cars a class bigger.

This extra room broadens the appeal of the CLA 200 – to the point that I wonder about the need for the CLA sedan. Even at first glance, the second generation of the Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class looks like a much more mature vehicle.

In its first iteration, the CLA-Class didn’t quite gel. It looked a little like it was bent in the middle… Or that it was a plastic toy left on the rear parcel shelf on a summer stinker.

The smooth, dare I say, grown up lines of the new version are a breath of fresh air given the fussy styling we’re seeing on many new cars. It also makes the ‘old’ CLA-Class look, well, old…

The CLA delivers much of the big Mercedes-Benz experience at a price that is affordable for many. There is real quality exhibited in the cabin and I love the big screens and the way the MBUX interface works day to day.

If the above pushes your buttons (pun intended), then it’s worth a look.

In the real world, the engine on the Mercedes-Benz CLA 200 can be a little laggy from the lights. It is after all only 1.3 litres and particularly with four people on board it takes a little time to get to its stride.

It is however deceptively quick on the highway. Many buyers will have no idea the engine is small than many motorcycles.

Overall, the turbo lag isn’t so much the issue around town as the interaction between the engine and the dual-clutch transmission. There can be the odd misstep here as the transmission searches for the right gear, sometimes with a hearty thump. This is one of the few things which take away from the Mercedes-Benz CLA 200’s overall impression of refinement.

The bonus of the diminutive capacity are fuel numbers. Even after a week of commuting with limited open road economy running I still registered an average fuel economy of under 8.0L/100km

The real story here though – and we coming back to it – is looks. I’m not sure there’s a better resolved four-door under $100K – certainly not the CLA’s new nemesis, the BMW M235i xDrive Gran Coupe.

The beauty of the CLA 200 is more than skin deep, but that could be more than enough for some buyers…