120mph25.2s
110mph20.8s
0 10s 20s30mph 40mph 50mph 60mph 70mph 80mph 90mph 100mph2.9s 3.9s 5.3s 6.8s 8.9s 11.2s 14.0s 17.1s
9.0m 25.3m 49.4m
30mph-0 50mph-0 70mph-00 10m 20m 30m 40m120mph27.8s
110mph22.3s
0 10s 20s30mph 40mph 50mph 60mph 70mph 80mph 90mph 100mph3.0s 4.2s 5.5s 7.4s 9.4s 11.7s 14.7s 18.2s
30mph-0 50mph-0 70mph-09.3m 25.1m 49.2m
0 10m 20m 30m 40mAssisted driving notes AAAAC
The CLA offers more ‘semi-
autonomous’ driving tech than most
cars of its size, type and price, and
more effective assisted driving tech.
Spend £1495 on the Driving
Assistance pack and you’ll get a car
that can change lanes by itself on the
motorway, but only when it’s safe to
do so; can intervene with braking to
prevent you wandering into the path
of a car coming either head-on or at a
T-junction; and can adopt temporary
gantry speed limits by itself.The speed limit detection system
doesn’t quite catch every posted limit
and usually waits until passing a sign
b efo r e st a r ti n g to a d j u st s p e e d b u t i t
can be relied on by and large. Some
will find the car’s default reactivation
of its lane-keeping and autonomous
braking systems with every restart
annoying. But generally, the CLA’s
assisted driving systems work
well when they’re on, are cleverly
and progressively tuned, and are
switchable and tunable to your tastes.
EMERGENCY BRAKING
z Is the system more than averagely
prone to ‘false positive’ activation? ✓
z Can its sensitivity be adjusted? ✓
z Can it be deactivated entirely? ✓
LANE KEEPING
z Does the system keep the driver
engaged when activated? ✓
z Can you easily avoid a pothole without
deactivating it? ✓
z Does it progressively warn, then
intervene, to prevent you changing lanesi nto th e p a th of a n ove r t a k i n g ve h i c l e? ✓
z Does it work equally well on single-
track roads as motorways? ✗
z Once deactivated, does it stay off
even after restart? ✗
INTELLIGENT CRUISE
CONTROL
z Can the system recognise and
automatically adopt speed limits on
posts and gantries? ✓
z How consistently does it work? 80%
z Does it prevent you undertaking? ✓
ROAD TEST
2 1 AUGUST 2019 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 33
tastes without quite bringing enough
feel in to make the trade worthwhile.
COMFORT AND ISOLATION
AABCC
At a basic level – in respect of
what’s afforded by its seats and
the orientation of its controls – the
CLA is a pretty comfortable car and
its wind insulation is competitive,
too. However, its ride comfort and
isolation are notably short even of
that of the better examples of the
current A-Class that we’ve tested,
which means that it trails its better
d i r e c t r i v a l s i n t ho s e r e s p e c t s b y
some distance.
Muc h a s t he c a r ’s e n g i ne i s mor e
noisy and strained than you would
l i k e w he n it ’s w ork i n g at h i g h r e v s ,
so does its suspension seem oddly
c onduc t i v e ov e r r ou g h bit u me n. It ’s
also restive and given to rebound
over uneven roads, and more clunky
over bigger, sharper edges than is
becoming for a premium saloon –
e v e n i f it do e s h app e n t o b e one w it h a
pseudo-sporting brief.
There’s a fairly insistent amount
of ba c k g r ou nd noi s e t o t he c a r ’s r ide
on certain surfaces, which makes
Mercedes’ decision to adopt those
hydraulic front suspension bushes
look like a bit of a half-measure. Add
one or two sharper edges, expansion
joints or bits of broken roadway into
the mix and the sense of brittleness
that the CLA’s suspension suffers
with becomes plain enough foranyone in the car to notice it.
On well-surfaced sweeping
A-roads, you are kept retained and
are well supported by the car’s seats
and by its resistance to body roll, and
the CLA makes fairly fast progress
seem slick and unwearing. But as the
road topography deteriorates, so does
that sense of slick composure – and
quite sharply and starkly, too. Over a
testing B-road, the suspension seems
to have insufficient compliance
and dexterity to absorb even
medium-sized intrusions taken at
a moderately keen pace, instead
running short of travel and tending
to bound from one bump to the next,
while inputs working one side of its
axles and not the other often elicit a
s u r pr i si n g a mou nt of he a d t o s s f r om
what is a fairly low-slung car.
BUYING AND OWNING
AAAAC
Your view on the value offered by the
CL A w i l l de p e nd on w he t he r y ou s e e
it as a car that belongs among the
style-conscious alternative compact
saloons of the moment – the Volvo
S60, Peugeot 508 and Alfa Romeo
Giulia, perhaps – or as a dressy,
stretched family hatchback with a
s e pa r at e b o ot. I f y ou’r e i n t he l at t e r
c a mp, t he de c i sion of Me r c e de s U K
to offer the car with only AMG Line
trim and above may not endear it
t o y ou , a lt hou g h t h at do e s e n s u r e a
quite generous roster of standard
equipment. There is still more than
£3000 between equivalent trim
levels of the A250 and CLA 250 in the
UK, though, which, given what you’re
getting here, may seem like a lot.
Mercedes’ competitive finance
deals on the CLA make it more
affordable on a monthly basis than
the list price of our test car might
suggest, though. Meanwhile,
running costs should be impressively
low. The CLA 250 beats an outgoing
Vol k s w a ge n G ol f GT I w it h a D S G
gearbox on lab-test CO 2 emissions,a lt hou g h it ’s n a r r ow l y b e at e n b y a
petrol-powered 508 GT.
For daily fuel economy, Mercedes’
attentive focus on the CLA’s
aerodynamic efficiency pays
dividends by delivering real-world
fuel consumption that’s rarely below
40mpg on a longish run and it rose
to nearly 50mpg on our touring
economy test. This being a turbo
petrol car capable of sub-7.0sec
0-60mph running, that’s a very
creditable result indeed. ◊
ACCELERATION
Kia Stinger 2.0 T-GDi GT-Line S (8deg C, damp)
Mercedes-Benz CLA 250 AMG Line Premium Plus (24deg C, damp)
BRAKING 60-0mph: 2.88sec
Kia Stinger 2.0 T-GDi GT-Line S (8deg C, damp)
Standing quarter mile 15.7sec at 93.0mph, standing km 28.1sec at 120.3mph, 30-70mph 6.4sec, 30-70mph in fourth 10.6sec
Mercedes-Benz CLA 250 AMG Line Premium Plus (24deg C, damp)
Standing quarter mile 15.4sec at 95.0mph, standing km 26.8sec at 122.0mph, 30-70mph 6.1sec, 30-70mph in fourth 8.2sec