The new CLA "coupe" isn't technically launched yet, but we bet the Shooting Brake is less than six months away, and we couldn't be more excited. Even the spyshots lead you to believe it's a car for hipster car enthusiasts.
To be a hipster, you have to claim that you're either ahead of the trend or against it entirely. The shooting brake/wagon design is the perfect anti-statement in a market dominated by SUVs. You could say that Kia beat them by offering an affordable shooting brake first, the Proceed, but the CLA SB has been around since 2015, and we'd never call it "affordable."
Still, ordinary wagons have gotten a lot more expensive recently. You can easily pay over €40,000 for something as ordinary as a Golf Variant, but you see a lot of those at tuning shows like the big one in Essen or the Worthesee lakeside meet.
With this latest set of spyshots, you feel like Mercedes is taunting that sort of crowd. "Look at me, I have a roof box and my stance is pretty low," says the 2020 CLA Shooting Brake prototype as it passes the lens of Stuttgart spotter Walko. This is not an AMG model, but it has about 1cm chopped from its suspension and a puzzling wing in the middle of its hatch.
There's no question in our mind that the new CLA is better looking. It looks broader and sportier, not to mention the interior is way more interesting than most of its rivals, which you couldn't say before. The engines are going to receive a significant boost as well. Mercedes dropped big bucks to have a competitive 2-liter diesel, but our sweet spot is the A35 AMG 4Matic. WIth 306 HP, it's a perfect Golf R Variant alternative.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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