ROAD TEST
2 1 AUGUST 2019 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 31
All UK-market CLAs get Mercedes’ 10.3in touchscreen MBUX
infotainment and most trim derivatives have a digital instruments cr e e n of th e s a m e s ize j o i n e d to i t , a s p a r t of a n a p p a r e ntl y
seamless sweep of the very latest and most sophisticated display
technology you could hope for in a £30,000 car.
The navigation system includes augmented reality video
overlays, which help you to pick the right exit at roundabouts,
and setting a destination is made particularly easy by the Hey
Mercedes voice recognition system, which, based on our testing,
accepts the correct destination at the first time of asking and is
also particularly good at suggesting destinations from its online
points of interest database.
In some global markets, the voice recognition functionality
even extends to answering questions about sport, business, news
and general knowledge using online search feeds – so you can ask
w h e th e r yo u r fo o tb a l l te a m wo n o r yo u r s h a r e s a p p r e c i a te d. S a d l y,
as far as we could tell at least, the UK isn’t one of those markets.
z Looping ‘design feature’ interior door handles are
easy to grab, but they do eat into your knee room –
more so in the outer second-row seats than up front.
z Touchpad for the infotainment replaces a rotary
controller. It’s a bit unintuitive but isn’t the only way to
interact with, say, the audio and navigation set-ups.
z Interior materials palette is limited to a black
leather-look dashboard with grained aluminium trim,
although there is multi-coloured ambient lighting.
Multimedia system AAAAB