My Rental For The Day!

Started by cawimmer430, January 13, 2022, 11:19:27 AM

cawimmer430

My A250 was getting a major service (new oil filter, fresh oil, new air filter, new spark plugs etc.) and as usual I like to rent Mercedes' cars and drive them. Originally I was scheduled to get an A-Class, but they gave me a CLA200 AMG Line instead - with winter tires and non-AMG wheels.

The funny thing is, this car basically had the exact same trim level as my A250: Polar White, Night Package, AMG Line trim and the interior was basically 99% similar to my car.

Ok, so seating position, steering and brake feel are 100% identical to my car. The biggest differences are the engine and suspension and handling.

The 1.33-l turbo 4-cylinder (163-hp) is simply amazing in terms of smoothness. I kid you not, this thing has inline-6 vibes in terms of NVH. When I left the dealer I was preoccupied with some other thoughts and didn't frigging notice how at red lights the engine turned off and then turned back on - the transition is so smooth and refined. On my car there's always a little engine shake when the motor turns off and later on during Start-Stop. The motor is quiet and refined, but under harsh acceleration it does sound a little buzzy. But when you just cruise the motor is quiet. Very quiet. I was trashing the car around and really driving in a zippy and aggressive manner: 7.1 L / 100 km (33 mpg) - not bad at all. This is the same engine found in my dad's B200 and it's a fuel sipper. Very efficient.

Handling... was better than my car! At least the CLA felt more tossable. The A, B, CLA, GLA and GLB are all based on the same platform, and of these the CLA is intended to be the sportiest of them all. It shows. It drives better than my car and in the corners feel better planted. I suppose this is due to some suspension tuning on MB's part and the lower center of gravity of the CLA "Coupe". On poor roads (there are many in Germany) the suspension was a bit harsh, hard and loud, however. I feel that here my Adaptive Suspension does a much better job at eliminating these noises and intrusions from the road.

I had 250 km of free kilometer driving and almost achieved this. I had a lot of fun with the car. It was really fun to drive and it handled so well for a FWD car without LSD (my car has LSD). However the 1.33-l engine, as good as it is, lacks that explosive low end acceleration which I so love in my car. I'm thinking a CLA250 AMG Line or even CLA35 AMG 4Matic would be a fun performance sedan for me in another dimension. :lol:

Overall, a fun car. I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is the second CLA I've driven, the first being a CLA180 (1.33-l turbo-4, 136-horsepower) which also drove well and offered adequate daily driving performance and also handled well, but the CLA AMG Line handled clearly better.











Great driving position and view.





Gotta say, the driving position in the CLA is very nice. Despite having the same cockpit as my car, the overall feel was sportier, probably because of those awesome power domes on the hood. They just add some cool flair to the car and they just look nice.





I wanted to test the top speed but at 210 km/h the winter tire limiter activated. I wasn't sure what speeds the winter tires were rated at so I didn't deactivate it manually. Let's just say that at 210 km/h this thing felt.... SLOW. It was so stable and well-planted on the Autobahn. It's amazing how these speeds are not felt in what is basically a compact car. The CLA drives so nicely.





The menu is more or less similar to my car, but this car had 64 interior ambient lighting and... a "car wash mode", which limits your speed to 20 km/h and I don't know what else it does... :lol:





Returned the car to the dealer and had to fill her up. Luckily gas was "cheap" today! "Whoa, Wimmer, 1.67 Euros per gallon!? It's cheaper than our fuel!"[/B] Nope, PER LITER, not per gallon! :lol:







Oh, a really cool feature is that the dealer will show me a livecam view of the work being done on my car. I can access this through my phone or an iPad. That way I can be sure they're not taking joy drives! :lol:


-2018 Mercedes-Benz A250 AMG Line (W177)



WIMMER FOTOGRAFIE - Professional Automotive Photography based in Munich, Germany
www.wimmerfotografie.de
www.facebook.com/wimmerfotografie

Laconian

Does MB use 48V starter motors now? IIRC, car manufacturers are using higher voltage, higher output motors to handle auto stop cranking now.

It's definitely a good looking car now. The CLA of a decade ago was an offensive, saggy assed mess. It's much tauter now.

33mpg with hard driving is great!
Kia EV6 GT-Line / MX-5 RF 6MT

cawimmer430

Quote from: Laconian on January 13, 2022, 11:22:57 AM
Does MB use 48V starter motors now? IIRC, car manufacturers are using higher voltage, higher output motors to handle auto stop cranking now.

It's definitely a good looking car now. The CLA of a decade ago was an offensive, saggy assed mess. It's much tauter now.

33mpg with hard driving is great!

AFAIK the 48V starter motors are only integrated into plug-in hybrid models or models with EQ-Boost.

Yeah, the first CLA has aged terribly as has the 3rd generation A-Class (previous model). The new CLA looks so much more upscale inside and out and also drives much better.
-2018 Mercedes-Benz A250 AMG Line (W177)



WIMMER FOTOGRAFIE - Professional Automotive Photography based in Munich, Germany
www.wimmerfotografie.de
www.facebook.com/wimmerfotografie