Set to be unveiled in January, during Detroit Motor Show, the future Mercedes CLA makes its unofficial appearance on the web, thanks to a series of leaked pictures. The baby sedan carries over quite a number of styling cues from the Concept Style Coupe which premiered in Beijing earlier this year.
The front of the CLA is almost identical to the latest A-Class hatchback, while the body gets four-door coupe styling that makes it resemble its bigger brother, the CLS Class.
The new CLA-Class is 47 mm longer, 121 mm wider and 47 mm lower than the C-Class under which it sits, while being 345 mm longer and 35 mm lower than the A-Class on which it is based. A new generation, freshly developed 4MATIC all wheel drive system will make its debut on the CLA, combined with a seven-speed dual clutch gearbox (7G-DCT).
A performance-tuned 4MATIC system will be standard in the AMG version of the new CLA Class, which is likely to be called the CLA45 AMG and come with a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine rated at more than 330 horsepower.
The petrol variants will be powered by turbocharged four-cylinder units – a 120 hp 1.6 litre for the CLA 180, 154 hp 2.0 litre for the CLA 200 and 208 hp 2.0 litre for the CLA 250. The oil burners are the CLA 180 CDI, CLA 200 CDI and CLA 220 CDI, powered by a 108 hp 1.8 litre, 134 hp 1.8 litre and 168 hp 2.2 litre respectively.
