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Written by Stephen Dobie
If the sign of a successful car is an invisible facelift, then the Mercedes CLA is doing very well indeed.Midway through its life, Merc has bestowed the makeover treatment upon its four-door coupe, as well as its younger Shooting Brake version.And even its own dealers might struggle to tell the difference. When the marketing material refers to a new coat hook that"s incorporated into the CLA"s grab handles, you know the thrust surrounds evolution rather than revolution.There are highlights, of course, and quite literal ones at that: new LED high performance" headlights use less than half the energy of equivalent xenons, while they apparently offer illumination that"s much closer to natural daylight, too.The suspended-in-mid-air touchscreen is also smarter and more slender this time around. It still looks a bit odd, but trust us, it"s good for sitting in your line of vision.You want engines? Good, because the new CLA has some. The thriftiest is the CLA180 diesel, which emits just 89g/km of CO2 - about the same as a Prius - and comes only with front-wheel drive and a manual gearbox.AWD and automatic transmissions appear as you head up the range, culminating in the exceedingly boisterous CLA45 AMG models, pictured up top in white. They get the same, updated 376bhp 2-litre petrol turbo engine as the A45 AMG, enough to get the Coupe from 0-62mph in 4.2secs, while the Shooting Brake takes 4.3secs. Both will probably do it faster in the real world.They get more slippery aerodynamics than before, while those natty LED lights come as standard. And if they"re anything like the A45 AMG post-facelift, they"ll be rather more fun to drive than before, too.The covers come off the Coupe at next week"s New York motor show, while the Shooting Brake debuts in April, somewhat oddly at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Berlin. Deliveries of both start in July.
Date written: 15 Mar 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 2579
If the sign of a successful car is an invisible facelift, then the Mercedes CLA is doing very well indeed.Midway through its life, Merc has bestowed the makeover treatment upon its four-door coupe, as well as its younger Shooting Brake version.And even its own dealers might struggle to tell the difference. When the marketing material refers to a new coat hook that"s incorporated into the CLA"s grab handles, you know the thrust surrounds evolution rather than revolution.There are highlights, of course, and quite literal ones at that: new LED high performance" headlights use less than half the energy of equivalent xenons, while they apparently offer illumination that"s much closer to natural daylight, too.The suspended-in-mid-air touchscreen is also smarter and more slender this time around. It still looks a bit odd, but trust us, it"s good for sitting in your line of vision.You want engines? Good, because the new CLA has some. The thriftiest is the CLA180 diesel, which emits just 89g/km of CO2 - about the same as a Prius - and comes only with front-wheel drive and a manual gearbox.AWD and automatic transmissions appear as you head up the range, culminating in the exceedingly boisterous CLA45 AMG models, pictured up top in white. They get the same, updated 376bhp 2-litre petrol turbo engine as the A45 AMG, enough to get the Coupe from 0-62mph in 4.2secs, while the Shooting Brake takes 4.3secs. Both will probably do it faster in the real world.They get more slippery aerodynamics than before, while those natty LED lights come as standard. And if they"re anything like the A45 AMG post-facelift, they"ll be rather more fun to drive than before, too.The covers come off the Coupe at next week"s New York motor show, while the Shooting Brake debuts in April, somewhat oddly at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Berlin. Deliveries of both start in July.
Date written: 15 Mar 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 2579
