It’s been nearly 500 years since the passage of the
Reinheitsgebot, the “German Beet Purity Law” decreeing that beer shall be made
from only three ingredients: water, barley, and hops. (And yeast, of course,
though its contribution to the fermentation process wouldn’t be understood
until a few centuries later.)
The letter of the land until 1988, it holds considerable
sway over brewers even today, a testament to the country’s mania for integrity
and tradition. It’s this same sort of obsessive attention to detail that we so
often admire in German luxury sedans, at least the ones we find as satisfying
as a stein of authentic lager.
Visually, the CLA
is the most interesting thing to come out of Stuttgart in a decade
This newest four-door from the fatherland, the Mercedes-Benz
CLA, comes off more like Bud Light in comparison. Indeed, the CLA is a potion
pitched at mainstream America, a less intoxicating – and less costly – take on
the company’s “four-door coupe” trope. Its MSRP starts at just $29,900 before
the $925 destination charge. While this is important for landing it on those
“Best Cars Under $30,000” slide shows that pass for shopping advice on the web,
that’s nearly six grand less than the price of the C-class, the car that’s
spent the last two decades serving as the Mercedes of choice for Americans who
can’t really afford one.
Inside, there are
some nice touches. The CLA’s dashboard borrows heavily from the Mercedes parts
bin, with the main instrument cluster and air-vent designs similar to those in
pricier models
Not surprisingly, then, a base CLA is a few longnecks short
of a case. Options include equipment that might be taken for granted on
something with a three-pointed star in its grille: leather ($1500), a sunroof
($1480), and heated seats ($580). Yes, you will be upsold. Our test car was
ordered with the $2200 Premium package, which seems unlikely to be left off any
car destined for a dealer lot and includes an iPod connector, garage-door
opener, compass, auto-dimming mirrors, satellite radio, dual-zone climate
control, a Harman/Kardon-branded sound system, and heated seats. Gotta have
that compass. A loaded CLA does include trickle-down tech like adaptive cruise
control (bundled with other assistance features in a $2500 package) and
automated parallel parking ($970), but it stickers for more than $45,000.
Visually, the CLA is the most interesting thing to come out
of Stuttgart in a decade. The refreshing lack of straight, for-mal lines gives
the car a distinct identity, rather than the look of a smaller progeny. Sitting
still, the CLA looks like an arrow that has just left the bow-string, styling
that should hit the target market the way William Tell split his apple. The CLA’s
convex curves and droopy fascias aren’t new ideas, but they all work better
here than on similarly styled products from BMW and Volkswagen, or even the
Mercedes CLS that served as inspiration. Those who say these sorts of lines
demand a larger canvas, like the new S-class, or grouse about the CLA’s tall
hood and stubby ends are as wrong as nonalcoholic beer.
The sole
transmission, a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, shifts smoothly in standard
mode, keeps the direct-injected engine ticking and buzzing along at higher revs
in sport, and offers a manual mode for deploying the paddle shifters
The CLA is the first front-drive Mercedes to appear in the
American market. (A four-wheel-drive CLA will be available in early 2014.) As
it turns out, this move from rear-drive is not the worst affront to tradition.
The transversely mounted, turbo-charged 2.0-liter four-cylinder is well matched
to the car, its 208 horses enough to do the zero-to-60-mph chug in 6.3 seconds.
The sole transmission, a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, shifts smoothly in
standard mode, keeps the direct-injected engine ticking and buzzing along at
higher revs in sport, and offers a manual mode for deploying the paddle
shifters.
The CLA exhibits no trace of torque steer unless you really hammer
it mid-turn, in which case it will overwhelm the front tires, even if they’re
the optional summer performance Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2s on 18-inch
wheels ($500). The subsequent stability-control intervention is more of an
event here than it is in a rear-drive Mercedes, but the CLA is a good handler
overall, pulling 0.90 g on our skidpad. It also stops well, decelerating from
70 mph in 160 feet.
But those numbers don’t really reflect how the CLA drives.
The typical light and fluid Mercedes steering feel is inverted, so rather than
boosting assist to make a big car feel smaller, the CLA’s heavy helm stands in
for more substance. Its on-center heft means the CLA tracks resolutely straight
but feels isolated from the driver. Once you dial in some steering effort, the
wheel is more playful, though feedback doesn’t improve much.
