What’s it like?
The Mercedes-Benz CLA has been going since 2013, in which time it has cemented a solid position for itself as one of the German firm’s most desirable cars at the more affordable end of the financial scale. As the last letter of the three-letter name for this swoopy four-door ‘coupe’ hints, the CLA is related to the smallest Mercedes on sale, the A-Class, and so it has been predominantly a front-driven creation during its lifespan – so if there’s one criticism of the CLA, it’s never quite as sporty to drive as it looks when parked up.
That said, it has plenty of merits, and even the option of an elegant small estate version called the CLA Shooting Brake. Its rivals are the likes of the Audi A3, the BMW 1 and 2 Series, the Peugeot 508 and, to a degree, the Volkswagen Golf. This buying guide focuses on the Mk2 CLA, the last of the generations with internal-combustion-powered drivetrains before the Mk3 switched to a heavily electrified basis.
Which model to go for?
Every single version of the Mk2 Mercedes-Benz CLA is fitted with a turbocharged inline four-cylinder engine of some sort, even the bonkers performance variants from Mercedes-AMG.
But due to our tax laws, buyers obviously preferred the smaller-engined, more modestly powered models of the CLA, which means they now make up the vast bulk of the used examples. Typically, these are the CLA 180 and CLA 200 which are fuelled by petrol, the CLA 180 d and CLA 200 d diesels, and then the CLA 250 e plug-in hybrid (PHEV).
Of these, the CLA 180, the CLA 200 and the CLA 250 e used a 1.3-litre petrol engine as their basis, the only difference being the 250 e also gained a 75kW electric motor and 15.6kWh battery pack to become the PHEV. A CLA 180 has 136hp and 200Nm and can do 0-100km/h in 9.4 seconds; the 200 improves to 163hp, 250Nm and 8.5 seconds; but the 250 e’s system outputs of 218hp/450Nm are good enough for a 6.6-second 0-100km/h time.
Moving to the diesels, from the launch of the Mk2 until October 2020, the CLA 180 d was powered by a 1.5-litre turbodiesel with 116hp and 260Nm, which resulted in a 10.7-second 0-100km/h time. This was superseded by a detuned 2.0-litre engine in October 2020 until the CLA went out of production in 2025, which was the same unit as employed by every other CLA diesel. The uprated 180 d had no more power than the old 1.5, but it did gain 20Nm of torque for a 280Nm peak, dropping the 0-100km/h time a fraction to 10.4 seconds.
Although you’re very unlikely to encounter any of them on the Irish markets unless you stumble upon a rare UK import, the other variants are the 220 petrol, the 250 petrol, the 220 d diesel and then no fewer than three full-on Mercedes-AMG performance models.
All of these use powerful turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol engines and Mercedes’ 4Matic all-wheel drive (standard in the first, 4Matic+ in the latter two). These were the CLA 35, the CLA 45 and the CLA 45 S.
By far the most common transmission for the second-gen CLA is an automatic of some sort, which’ll either be a seven- or eight-speed dual-clutch transmission (known as 7G-DCT or 8G-DCT respectively), or uprated versions of each for the AMG models. The 4Matic AWD was not only offered on the Mercedes-AMG trio, but it was an option for the CLA 200, CLA 220, CLA 250, CLA 200 d and CLA 220 d variants. You won’t find as many 4Matics as front-driven cars, though, and the Shooting Brake estate is also much rarer here than the regular CLA four-door.
So, which to choose? For short, mainly urban use with the occasional long-distance trek, or those who want the strongest performing yet simplest to find version available second-hand, we’d aim at the CLA 250 e PHEV. For those who just hammer up and down the motorway all the time, the CLA 200 d is the best bet. And for everyone else, any petrol option will serve fine, although at least a 200 will give you the sort of punchy performance that lives up to the car’s sleek looks.
Does anything go wrong?
Nothing too major is reported as failing on these cars, so the Mercedes CLA should be dependable. Obviously, as a premium car, you want one with an impeccable service history and no evidence of corner-cutting on lifetime running costs, and if you do find such things – or a particularly tatty-looking example – walk away as there’s plenty of choice elsewhere.
There were eight recalls for this generation of the CLA, pertaining to an incorrectly attached lateral crash sensor; a missing right-hand bracket on one of the rear ISOFIX fittings; a leaking oil-supply pipe for the turbocharger; incorrectly tightened wheel bolts; overlong rear brake hoses; potential movement in the pyrofuse casing with the vehicle in motion; tyres with an incorrectly specified load rating; and contamination of the power supply to the electric power steering via heat-activated adhesive.