The car is sporty as in visual aspect as in driving. I was just a little disappointed with the 2 liter-turbocharged petrol engine sound as it is a 4-cylinder. I must say that I drive 6 cylinder cars for almost 14 years (3 cars BMW). In the other hand the 4-cylinder is more economical and environmentally friendly. Anyway, the new BMW series 3 are stepping back too with 4-cylinder engines with the same selling arguments. The CLA has a look that I can not find anywhere else in a German brand and especially for the price it is offered. I have to count 5k to 7.5k€ more for a car with similar options in the brand of BMW with 3-series, Audi A4 or VW Passat. The perfomance of the 250 is just good enough, it reacts fast on speed shifting. The handling on road semt to be well too, as I didn't push the limits so far on a test car and the weather wasn't pretty as well. I'm currently driving an X3 3.0liter petrol (231 horsepower) and its dynamic 4-matic permits to trust quickly on the car behaviors. So I won't be able to give you my feelings yet on a front-whell drive, since this needs more driving experience. I have a quiet driving but wanted some power, it's safer to know there is torque enough to exceed cars ;-)
I love that idea of a 4-door coupe compact (30 cm smaller than a CLS) that offers dynamic design and easy accessibility to the rear seats (in comparison with a 2-door). The interior really worth the money, especially with the option Exclusive or AMG Exclusive, i think you will use other words to describe those packages.
@Joey: Funny comment, you got it ;-) and concerning the Edition One Version in Europe, this is not the Edition 1. The only difference is in the interior with its unique seats, including white and yellow lines in each seatback, including stitching in yellow on dashboard and doors. For the rest you can set up the car as you like.
