Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class Shooting Brake

For those who couldn't afford a more luxurious estate in the form of the Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class Shooting Brake, there's a cut-price alternative to that and it's in the form of the CLA-Class, one of the most affordable Mercedes-Benz cars to start with.

2016 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class Shooting Brake

Here it is. It's called the CLA-Class Shooting Brake and while this is basically an estate version of the CLA-Class saloon, you can't really tell apart from its looks, performance, and the added practicality of most sport tourers in Europe get. With prices start from 29,810 to 45,660 Euros, you can really afford one for less than twice the price of CLS-Class Shooting Brake. No wait, you can buy two of these for the price of one CLS Shooting Brake. Quite a bargain, right?

But this is still a CLA-Class, meaning that it's still a front-wheel drive car (with an optional 4MATIC) and while it's not as aggressively sporty as other saloons from Mercedes-Benz, it remains one of the most civilized cars to drive. You can drive one on the city streets and on the open roads as well and thanks to its 595 litres of load capacity, there's still more room to fit most of your tailgating snacks on your next soccer match. How's that for practicality?

Like the sedan version, the Shooting Brake has a wide range of petrol and diesel engines available, with the most powerful variant in this model comes with the 2.0L 4-cylinder turbo petrol engine generating 211PS of power and 350Nm of torque, while mated with a 7G-DCT. It does 0-100kph in 6.8 seconds and top speed limited to 240kph.

2016 Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG Shooting Brake

If you're in the mood something hotter than your neighbor's station wagon, there's a Mercedes-AMG CLA45 Shooting Brake. Heavily inspired from its cousins, it comes with a 2.0L turbo engine generating 360PS of power and 450Nm of torque. When mated with a 7-speed AMG SPEEDSHIFT DCT, it does 0-100kph in 4.8 seconds and top speed normally limited to 250kph. Yes, your suburban neighbors will get shocked when you have a sport tourer with that much power on your next grocery trip.

Anyway, back to the normal Shooting Brake, it's surprisingly comes with the cutting-edge gadgetry which some find it useful on their driving trips. There's COLLISION PREVENTION ASSIST PLUS with autonomous braking to prevent rear-end collisions, ATTENTION ASSIST, which detects drowsiness, Mercedes connect me, and so much more.

While the new CLA Shooting Brake priced more than its saloon equivalent, it's surprisingly twice the price less than the bigger CLS Shooting Brake so it's definitely a head start if you're in a mood for a luxury car for reasonable prices. If you got one of these, safe to say that you can enjoy the city life as recommended by someone you knew personally or online.

Photo: Daimler AG