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Mercedes-Benz is previewing its eagerly anticipated CLA sedan at an event in Los Angeles this week before providing a more detailed look at the Beijing motor show with the unveiling of the latest in a long line of concept cars, the 2.0-liter, 208-hp, four-cylinder-powered Concept Style Coupe.
Pictured here officially for the first time, the heavily sculptured four-door reveals the dramatic appearance that the next junior Mercedes-Benz sedan will carry into North American showrooms in 2013.
Advancing the look first established on the F800 Style concept wheeled out at the 2010 Geneva motor show, the Concept Style Coupe is clothed in a four-door body that makes extensive use of concave and convex surfaces to provide its exterior with what Mercedes-Benz design boss Gorden Wagener describes as “an almost fluid appearance and constantly altering depth.”
The car has a large gaping grille known to insiders as a soft-nose treatment, striking headlamps with LED graphics, a heavily curved roofline, a shallow glasshouse, a high waistline, frameless doors and a trio of sharply creased lines along its flanks. Plus there are curvaceous C-pillars, a tapered rear and a sloping trunk line. That is an unmistakable clear visual connection with the larger CLS, whose success both as a stylistic figurehead for the rest of the Mercedes lineup and at showroom levels heavily dictated the decision to add the less mechanically complex and more affordable CLA.
“The almost-production-standard Concept Style Coupe sets a new benchmark for design in the executive segment,” Wagener said. “Its proportions, surfaces and lines are an expression of our dynamic design idiom.”
Although Mercedes-Benz is quick to point out that the Concept Style Coupe is a one-off show car, Autoweek sources privy to the final appearance of the CLA confirm its styling is largely faithful to the production version of the new sedan.
“Certain design elements have been subtly altered to lend a more powerful look for added presence on the show stand, but as a whole the exterior and interior reflect the true design of the car we will build at our new manufacturing plant in Kecskemét, Hungary,” an insider said.
Mercedes used a similar approach to the unveiling of the third-generation A-class, which was previewed by the concept show car at last year's Shanghai motor show. But as one source hinted, “You will see less change in the transformation of the Concept Style Coupe to the CLA as in the Concept A-class to the new A-class. It really does set the tone and capture the intrinsic visual character of the production car.”
The Concept Style Coupe is expected to undergo mild stylistic changes before the CLA, developed under the code name C117, lands in showrooms. They include the adoption of sturdy B-pillars for added structural integrity, less flamboyant bumpers—particularly at the front—altered headlamp graphics (the Concept Style Coupe's headlamps glow red in standby mode), more conventional exterior mirrors, the same pull-out door handles as those seen on the new A-class and smaller wheels and tires than the towering 21-inch items that adorn the show car.
Underlining the importance Mercedes has attached to the new car in boosting its sales at the lower end of its lineup, chairman Dieter Zetsche said, “We are staking our claim very clearly here. This is the model against which vehicles in the executive segment will have to measure themselves in the future.”
Inside, the Concept Style Coupe uses an upgraded interior borrowed from the recently unveiled A-class. The same basic appointments will be used on the CLA, albeit in a tone-down form. As with versions of its hatchback sibling equipped with a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, Mercedes' latest concept forgoes a traditional center-console-mounted gearlever in favor of a column-mounted shifter.
While the production version of the entry-level Mercedes sedan will receive a five-seat layout, the concept car boasts a 2+2 seating arrangement, with the individual rear seats divided by a prominent center console. A similar arrangement may be offered as optional equipment on the CLA.
Among the CLA's premium-brand four-door rivals will be a sedan version of the third-generation Audi A3 also due out in 2013 and a secret new sedan version of the BMW 1-series that is undergoing conceptual development with a view for introduction in 2015. Also set in its sights is the Volkswagen Jetta, a car that Mercedes-Benz officials suggest they will target heavily in North America and China, markets considered crucial to the CLA's chances of sales success.
Billed as a junior CLS, the CLA will sit below the existing C-class sedan in price and features in the Mercedes-Benz lineup. However, the Concept Style Coupe car hints that Mercedes' entry-level sedan will be 1.9 inches longer, a considerable 4.8 inches wider and—thanks to its swoopy turret—some 1.9 inches lower than its long-established four-door stablemate.
These official measurements also make it 13.6 inches shorter, the same width and 1.4 inches lower than the new A-class—a car with which the CLA shares its platform, chassis and driveline architecture.
Based on the German carmaker's new MFA (modularen front architecture) platform used beneath the third-generation A-class and the second-generation B-class, it will also use a 106.3-inch wheelbase, 2.3 inches shorter than the fourth-generation C-class but the same as the A-class.
As a result of the CLA's introduction, the next generation C-class, known internally under the code name W205, is set to retain standard rear-wheel drive and will grow in size, increasing in length and width but retaining much the same height.
For its initial unveiling in Los Angeles and at the Beijing motor show, the Concept Style Coupe has been fitted with the same turbocharged 2.0-liter, four-cylinder direct-injection engine confirmed for the new A250 from the Geneva motor show in March.
The aluminum-block unit is a development of the M240 designated engine used throughout the Mercedes lineup that has been extensively re-engineered for transverse mounting within the engine bay. Drive is channeled through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox to all four wheels.
In production guise, the CLA will also offer the choice of either standard front-wheel or optional four-wheel drive. Gearboxes will include a standard six-speed manual or the seven-speed dual-clutch unit as the Concept Style Coupe as optional equipment.
Besides the unit showcased in the Concept Style Coupe and set to see light of day in a planned CLA250 model, the production sedan is also set to offer at least two more turbocharged four-cylinder direct-injection units. They include two 1.8-liter units with 108 hp in the CLA180 and 134 hp in the CLA200, and a 2.2-liter engine with 168 hp in the CLA220. The engine line for North America is unclear.
The highlight of the lineup, however, will be an all-wheel-drive AMG model running a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder with up to 340 hp. Secrecy surrounds the name of the range-topping CLA model. However, insiders suggest it may take the designation CLA45 AMG into production as a nod to the Mercedes performance off-shoot's 45th anniversary.
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