Mercedes-Benz CLA Shooting Brake 2015 Review - International

Mercedes-Benz CLA 250 Sport 4MATIC and 45 AMG 4MATIC Shooting Brake

The CLA Shooting Brake is the last of five body styles to be built from Mercedes-Benz's small car architecture — at least in its first iteration. And it's very likely that the German luxury brand has saved the best to last.

More practical, better looking, with a more resolved ride and zero handicaps in terms of drivability, the five-door mini-sportswagon is many things the CLA 'four-door coupe' isn't. Although the design is not as capacious as the B-Class MPV, the Shooting Brake is infinitely better looking and will be easier to live with than its coupe counterpart, A-Class hatch or GLA crossover.

Quite apart from the wide, low and long load area that comes along with the wagon packaging, there's 40mm more headroom in the rear seats and the back door opening is reprofiled to make access easier. It's still no Pullman, but in this respect the difference between coupe and wagon is appreciable and appreciated.

And then there are the looks. Gone is the banana-bent coupe's silhouette, replaced instead with a purposeful estate profile that eschews the four-door's droopy bum for a multi-lite side view that looks smart even in the most mundane model.

Equipment levels across the CLA Shooting Brake range mirror the coupes but there's a $1500 premium for the pleasure of opting for the Shooting Brake — much of it the result of Australian cars including a powered rear hatch as standard. Our local spec also adds luggage rails and a 'cargo' option for the rear seat, which frees up a little extra luggage room by allowing you to lock the rear seat squab almost vertically.

In standard trim the Shooting Brake's cargo volume is 495 litres which increases to 1354 litres when the rear seats are tumbled. The abovementioned cargo position increases available volume (with rear seat passengers) to 595 litres.

Of interest to many buyers, however, will be the effective floor area the Brake offers. Benz claims the 1328mm width of the load area is class leading. As the rear seats tumble fully flat, there's room for even the most active buyers' sports and leisure accoutrements.

That 60:40 split-fold rear seat is described by Benz as "2+1", meaning it delivers bucket style comfort to the outboard occupants and a perch for the unlucky centrist. Suffice it to say, like almost every car is this size segment, unless you're seating kiddies, you'll limit five-up trips to short commutes rather than interstate tours. A ski port is standard.

The Shooting Brake lugs around an extra 30kg when compared to the coupe, which translates to a few extra tenths on gazetted fuel economy figures and 0-100km/h times.

The experts will note it also changes the front/rear weight distribution for the better — from 60:40 to 58:42. If you can pick the difference in the real world, you've got a more finely tuned bum than this tester.

Of more consequence is the suspension retune Benz and AMG engineers have undertaken. Both spring and damper rates have been adjusted (softened!) to deliver a more 'grown up' ride than we remember in the CLA coupe. This is especially noticeable on the CLA 250 Sport and red-hot CLA 45 AMG variants.

Mercedes-Benz Australia (MBAu) has priced the local CLA Shooting Brake range to kick off at $52,400 plus on-road costs for the CLA 200 petrol variant. Powered by a stop-start equipped 115kW/250Nm 1.6-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine coupled with seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, the 200 is rated at 6.0L/100km and accelerates 0-100km/h in 8.8sec.

Standard equipment includes 18-inch five/twin-spoke alloy wheels, bi-xenon headlights, active park assist with parktronic (90-degree and parallel self-parking), Artico-trimmed sports seats, Becker MapPilot navigation, media interface, thermotronic climate-control and blind spot assist.

That last item will come in handy given the Shooting Brake's comparatively poor rear-three quarter vision. Nine airbags, a reversing camera and autonomous emergency braking via Benz's Collision Prevention Assist Plus are also all standard

The single turbo-diesel in the range, the CLA 200 CDI, is identically equipped to its petrol counterpart but is $500 dearer ($52,900). Its 2.2-litre turbo-diesel four pumps out 100kW and 300Nm. Combined fuel economy is rated at 4.4L/100km and 0-100km/h time is a claimed 9.9sec.

At the Frankfurt first drive of the CLA Shooting Brake motoring.com.au sampled the $66,400 CLA 250 Sport which, says MBAu, will likely be the top seller of the range. It features a 155kW/350Nm 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four, which in this case consumes 6.8L/100km and sprints to 100km/h in 6.8sec.

A six-speed manual version of the front-drive only A 250 Sport has been mooted but the 4MATIC CLA Shooting Brake and Coupe 250s will remain dual-clutch equipped for the foreseeable future.

AMG-badged goodies in the 250 Sport include 18-inch AMG wheels, an AMG body kit including silver diamond grille, AMG interior trims and an AMG sports steering wheel. Also standard are panoramic sunroof, intelligent lighting system, rear privacy glass, red brake calipers, anti-theft alarm, sports seats in black red-cut leather, Artico upper dash and electric heated memory front seats.

Sitting at the head of the CLA Shooting Brake range is the CLA 45 AMG at $89,900 plus ORCs.

Leveraging what Mercedes-Benz and AMG claim to be the world's most powerful production four-cylinder, the 265kW/450Nm all-wheel drive CLA 45 wagon is rated at around 7.0L/100km and can hit 100km/h in just 4.7 – 0.3sec slower than AMG's mental A 45.

The top-shelf CLA scores all of the equipment outlined for the 250 Sport plus 19-inch multi-spoke AMG wheels, the AMG Driver's Package (with derestricted 270km/h top speed), AMG night (black-out) package, AMG Performance exhaust, a twin-blade grille, distronic plus radar cruise, lane keep assist, metallic paint, AMG performance seats in black red-cut leather, AMG performance steering wheel, COMAND navigation and Harman Kardon Logic 7 audio with digital radio.

As noted above we tested the two sportiest CLA Shooting Brake variants, the 250 Sport and 45 AMG, both all-wheel drive and largely matched in terms of suspension performance.

The softened ride of the cars answers criticism that the initial tune on the high-performance A and CLA-Class models was too harsh.

Unlike their A 45 AMG counterpart, the ride on both all-wheel drive CLA wagons was firm but not crashy. Body control was of a very high standard and the cars managed to blend quick, consistent response in the tight stuff and very high levels of stability at 240km/h on the autobahn.

In the latter case, in the 45 AMG, that speed was limited by the fitment of winter-spec tyres. The very same rubber proved its worth when we encountered snowy and icy roads for part of our day two drive loop. And even in these conditions grip levels were very high.

Benz's latest four-cylinder turbo engines are excellent examples of the breed and in the CLA 250 Sport provide decent performance through the normal speed ranges you're likely to encounter in Australia. Of course, the CLA 45 is the (considerably) quicker of the pair but the amount of times you'll 'need' the extra urge Down Under is debatable.

'Want' is (of course) a very different matter...

While Mercedes-Benz and AMG boffins at the Frankfurt launch would not admit to any substantive changes in the seven-speed dual-clutch box used across the CLA Shooting Brake range, this writer's pretty sure there have been software tweaks at the very least. Not only did shifts seem faster, they also seemed more precise.

The new CLA Shooting Brake's styling will likely polarise buyers but as an unabashed wagoneer, I reckon its spot on.

MBAu thinks the Shooting Brake could add 50 per cent to the CLA's volume Down Under but I'm not sure it's not significantly under-calling demand. For the life of me, I don't know why anybody would now choose the coupe.