Mercedes-Benz CLA Shooting Brake confirmed for 2015

Mercedes confirmed the new small wagon, which CarAdvice’s spy photographers spied wearing only light camouflage in November and again in AMG specification in March, will be built in Kecskemet, Hungary, and will hit the market in the first half of 2015.

The Mercedes-Benz CLA Shooting Brake will share its ‘MFA’ underpinnings and drivetrains with the CLA ‘four-door coupe’, as well as the A-Class hatch, B-Class MPV and GLA-Class crossover.

The CLA Shooting Brake line-up is likely to mirror that of the sedan, which in Australia is available in 115kW/250Nm 1.6-litre petrol CLA200, 100kW/300Nm 1.8-litre diesel CLA200 CDI, 155kW/350Nm 2.0-litre CLA250 Sport and 265kW/450Nm 2.0-litre CLA45 AMG specifications.

Manual (for Europe and select overseas markets) and seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmissions will be available, transferring drive to either the front or all four wheels.

As with the larger CLS Shooting Brake, the CLA Shooting Brake features a coupe-inspired sloping roofline, a stubby tailgate and a short rear overhang, creating a profile that blends hatchback and wagon lines.

Mercedes-Benz Australia product communications manager Jerry Stamoulis told CarAdvice it was too early to give exact timing for the local introduction of the CLA Shooting Brake, but said it wouldn’t arrive until the second half of 2015 at the earliest.

He said the local division would aim to offer a line-up with variants matching the CLA sedan range. Shooting Brake models are expected to carry a small price premium over their sedan equivalents.

Mercedes’ compact family accounted for 27 per cent of its sales in the first half of 2014, with 215,205 A-, B-, CLA- and GLA-Class vehicles delivered around the world.

Its small cars have proven even more popular in Australia, with 4958 of the brand’s 12,487 passenger car sales in the first half of the year belonging to the compact MFA family.