[bavarian19]

Minus the mini-ipad stuck on the dash, I like the Merc much better if that is a true comparison.

[termigni]

decisions decisions...

[i001947]

The only thing they both have in common is that they are both ugly!

[Roundown]

Originally Posted by Walkabout

355 hp from a 2 liter engine? That's crazy. Impressive by Mercedes.

Agree, props to MB. This is great for the segment... likely responsible for an M2, if we get one.

[LateralG]

I think the MB looks a generation newer than the bimmer.

[a burrito]

CLA looks much better inside and out than the 2.

[yian77]

The CLA will sell a hell of a lot of units. In most countries including many in the EU the price of a car, actually the tax you pay for a new car is based on cc capacity and CO2 emissions. The difference in the price between the two will be huge.

CLA45 AMG 2.0L and 161 g/km CO2
M235i 3.0L and 189g/km CO2

[///Matthew]

The rear of the CLA looks... constipated.

[cc167]

I prefer M235i better.

[vladberca]

CLA doesn't look so good.
M235i is not at the superior limit of power it's just near S3 (sedan).. Taking into account these values, the future M2 and RS3 will be faster.
I don't think that CLA 45 will perform better on a track than M235i. I like to see the 'ring times to understand who has better driving dynamics

[drGK]

I think amg pushed their engine to the limit with this car. Whereas in n55 you can bump it up to close to 400hp with basic bolt ons and a tune.

If you think the 2 has a better interior than the cla. Please see a doctor.

Top gear will be all over this. Guaranteed.

[bradleyland]

It's kind of silly to believe that the Merc engine is pushed to the limit. Define "limit"? If it's materials strength everyone is talking about, I really doubt it. Tuners have been reliably generating that much HP from turbocharged engines for a long time, and they don't have factory engineering backing them.

The limit isn't materials engineering, it's the character of the engine; the way it drives. Supposedly the twin-scroll turbo arrangement makes the 177.5 HP/liter Merc beast a livable engine day-to-day, but as someone else has already pointed out, the flexibility of the M133 engine is still in question. That's proved by the numbers (in-gear highway acceleration).

It's not that the engine isn't performant, it's that it requires the driver to keep the engine in the right RPM range to deliver power. That's not a bad thing for a race car, but for a daily driver, it can be tiring. DCT offsets that burden quite a bit, however, so it will be interesting to see how the car drives in a daily commute scenario. If a car drives poorly in a day-to-day scenario, consumers will reject it.

If the gearbox is reluctant to downshift, it will be frustrating. Reluctant gearboxes are becoming more and more common as fuel economy requirements squeeze engineers to tune parameters to pass regulated fuel economy tests. Hopefully Mercedes provides a sane "sport" mode falls somewhere between holding every gear to redline and granny mode where shifts occur at 2.5k RPM.

[Ash83]

That AMG is really sxy except the weird navi on the dash!!

[JHOOPS2]

Car and Driver just ripped out a 4.2, 0-60 from the CLA45. Nice!

[buumer]

Originally Posted by Blipit_

The $4k price difference is very deceiving.

The difference increases quite a bit more as you add options. For instance the CLA45 Recaros in leather is a $3,450 option. A fully loaded CLA45 is $68k+. A fully loaded M235i won't be anywhere near that.

The leather ones are 3450, the non leather ones are a grand cheaper. A fully loaded cla45 is pretty silly unless you don't care about price, we are talking about a 4k package to simply add carbon styling bits. You can get the amg exhaust, the night styling pack, and the amg drivers pack with 19 rims for 4k all in all. Will anyone cross shopping these two cars really need the Arabian dark walnut inlays with African elephant trim for 6k?

[emathis]

Not only this Benz is ridiculously ugly, but it's ways too expensive.
TMO this is one of the ugliest cars ever released in the history if automobile construction.....

[jcardenasmzl]

I have a VW gti 2.0T so I know the deal with the mazdaspeed 3 having 65 more hp than us and now with the genesis coupe 2.0t the gti is falling behind. Keeping that in mind the gti would always be the better choice, the engine has a great potential for upgrade not like the one in the mazda or genesis, the engine of that cla is pretty much maxed out, theres no way they can increase the hp without getting into the internals, idk how well they tested that engine but i can see a lot of problems with the hpfp or the turbo itself. Tastes are different but i personally think the m235i looks better, it's very sporty but keeps it classy especially the interior, the cla is too flashy for me i can see a lot of spoiled teenagers with rich parents getting it because of its hp numbers. Both are great cars but the fact that the m235i comes with a 6 speed does it for me i'm really hoping for a CG I think it would look great and there's space in the market for it.

[Vervain]

The CLA45 AMG does 0-60 in 4.5s, not 4.6s..

[sttlondon]

is ti just me or does the rear end of the 235 remind you of a honda civic? the lights (when lit) have a broad band of light much like the civic. almost the same shape too.

[vinny84]

I was very interested in the CLA 45 AMG until I saw it at the NY auto show this past year. :

Didn't do it for me. The only thing I liked about the interior were the seats and gauges. Everything else I did not care for. Also, after closer inspection, the quad exhaust is actually a facade for dual exhaust pipes. Pretty lame IMO. Not sure if that was a pre-production thing or not but it looked cheap.

Plus learning that it's a Haldex based setup and not their true 4 matic was also a turn off.

However, for the price, if you keep the options down, it's not a bad deal.

[pinemind]

Anyone else notice how large and how many buttons are on the doors related to adjusting your seats on the MB CLA45? Seems like a terrible place to put them. So much cleaner on the BMW.

[josephr25]

I'll take the M235 at this point; manual transmission and better looks (subjective), and a cheaper starting price.

The only things I would prefer from the CLA are the seat and wheel options