So I was very happy to get a call from my MB dealer last Monday. He called to let me know that my CLA had arrived. Sure enough Tuesday after work I raced (literally) over to MB Broadway in Vancouver to pick it up. After about 2 hours of paper work (down payment, loan, insurance etc…) It was finally time to get my CLA… and not just any CLA… the First CLA to be sold in Vancouver!
All I have to say is… All the pictures, videos etc… Nothing can actually prepare you for the vehicle itself… I won’t steal this away from you guys… Once you set your eyes on your very own CLA u will know exactly what I mean…
It’s definitely a head turner. Talking about head turners the other day I had a van race up next to me and the guy actually started taking a video of my car on the freeway… Very Dangerous..! But you see the lengths people will go to get a simple glimpse of the new CLA…
The car itself is amazing… It drives incredibly well. It handles great. The car is very fast! You can tell that you are driving a sports car… It has that feeling that it is literally hugging the ground as it speeds up. Its very smooth but you can still feel the car changing gears as it is picking up power… I haven’t driven it in sport or manual yet… but will soon and post a review.
I have been driving it on ECO mode for the past week (whenever you stop and put your foot on the break and the car turns off, once you take your foot off of the break it turns back on)… it does this so quick that when you are inside of the car you won't even notice it, and the transition from car being off to your foot going back on the peddle and driving off is very smooth and seamless… The only downside to this is say you have just stopped at a cross walk… the people crossing look at you as if you don't know how to drive and you stalled your car lol… (hmmm maybe that’s why people are looking at me and taking pictures and videos…)
I also really like how everything is basically electronic... A button for park, button for e-break, drive, reverse etc… takes a few days to get used to it… you really have to pay attention to what you are doing as it’s not really second nature yet… after a week of this you’ll find it very handy as it opens up a lot of space in your car…
The one thing that I didn’t like… and I am having my dealer take a look at later this week is the speakers… They are extremely sub-par… They are stock but sound VERY bad. They literally hurt your ears if you are listening to the music loud. I have tested CD, Radio, Bluetooth (both free and purchased MP3s) and all I can say is I am not impressed. When loud you hear a kind of cracking from the tweeters almost as if you have slightly lost the signal on a radio station (but this happened when listing to anything). It just doesn’t have that new car sound. I have driven many luxury and non-luxury cars that sound way better… Thinking back I wish I would have paid the extra $1000 for speaker upgrade. I hope they can fix this for me... If anyone has this same experience can you please let me know...
Anyway please let me know what you think of my CLA… Hope you all have enjoyed this and find this helpfull in some way. I know it wasn’t the most in depth review but I just wanted to give you guys my actual experience rather than the same things you hear over and over on YouTube, MB Forums etc…
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All I have to say is… All the pictures, videos etc… Nothing can actually prepare you for the vehicle itself… I won’t steal this away from you guys… Once you set your eyes on your very own CLA u will know exactly what I mean…
It’s definitely a head turner. Talking about head turners the other day I had a van race up next to me and the guy actually started taking a video of my car on the freeway… Very Dangerous..! But you see the lengths people will go to get a simple glimpse of the new CLA…
The car itself is amazing… It drives incredibly well. It handles great. The car is very fast! You can tell that you are driving a sports car… It has that feeling that it is literally hugging the ground as it speeds up. Its very smooth but you can still feel the car changing gears as it is picking up power… I haven’t driven it in sport or manual yet… but will soon and post a review.
I have been driving it on ECO mode for the past week (whenever you stop and put your foot on the break and the car turns off, once you take your foot off of the break it turns back on)… it does this so quick that when you are inside of the car you won't even notice it, and the transition from car being off to your foot going back on the peddle and driving off is very smooth and seamless… The only downside to this is say you have just stopped at a cross walk… the people crossing look at you as if you don't know how to drive and you stalled your car lol… (hmmm maybe that’s why people are looking at me and taking pictures and videos…)
I also really like how everything is basically electronic... A button for park, button for e-break, drive, reverse etc… takes a few days to get used to it… you really have to pay attention to what you are doing as it’s not really second nature yet… after a week of this you’ll find it very handy as it opens up a lot of space in your car…
The one thing that I didn’t like… and I am having my dealer take a look at later this week is the speakers… They are extremely sub-par… They are stock but sound VERY bad. They literally hurt your ears if you are listening to the music loud. I have tested CD, Radio, Bluetooth (both free and purchased MP3s) and all I can say is I am not impressed. When loud you hear a kind of cracking from the tweeters almost as if you have slightly lost the signal on a radio station (but this happened when listing to anything). It just doesn’t have that new car sound. I have driven many luxury and non-luxury cars that sound way better… Thinking back I wish I would have paid the extra $1000 for speaker upgrade. I hope they can fix this for me... If anyone has this same experience can you please let me know...
Anyway please let me know what you think of my CLA… Hope you all have enjoyed this and find this helpfull in some way. I know it wasn’t the most in depth review but I just wanted to give you guys my actual experience rather than the same things you hear over and over on YouTube, MB Forums etc…
. Ive heard it on the loaners and it was pretty underwhelming.
