The Mercedes-Benz compact family is a crowded place, and where there's this much competition, making yourself noticed can become a mammoth task.
The upcoming CLA-Class seems to have that in the bag already, and it's what you would expect from a so-called four-door coupe competing with hatchbacks, regular sedans, mini-minivans, crossovers, and reasonably tiny SUVs. As long as there are no purebred coupes, sports cars or convertibles, the spotlight is guaranteed to shine on the four-door coupe, no matter how tough of a fight the hatchback and sedan might put up.
If you've followed the evolution of the all-new A-Class, then you'll know it's a pretty damn attractive car. Brand preferences aside, you would have to be blind or ill-informed to pick any other premium hatchback over Daimler's latest offering. Inside and out, the 2019 A-Class is just that good.
The CLA will simply take everything Mercedes did well with the hatch and pour it into a mold with a much smoother shape. And speaking of that mold, the company might have just obtained it by shrinking the one used for the new CLS-Class by 20 percent or so. The two models seem to be strikingly similar, or at least to a much higher degree than the previous generations.
This Mercedes-Benz trend of bringing the lower-end models higher up the luxury ladder is just as obvious on the inside. With the addition of the A-Class sedan, that enables the CLA to act as a sort of halo model for the entire compact range, meaning we might get to see it restricted to the higher-level trims and powertrain options.
It will still be based on the MFA2 platform, so interior space should be restricted, but apart from that expect to see levels of poshness unheard of so far in vehicles this size. All coming with an adequate cost, of course, because noblesse oblige.
The A-Class currently has a very limited engine range with two gasoline units developing 163 and 224 hp respectively, and a single diesel option with a lowly 116 hp from a Renault 1.5 dCi engine. That's obviously going to change soon as more engines become available, including the AMG versions (yup, there'll be two) with outputs of more than 300 and 400 hp.
Some of those new powertrains should arrive before the launch of the CLA-Class, or even coincide with it because we really don't see this car running on a 116 hp diesel that's known for two things: being very efficient and making a lot of noise.
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