http://topgear.com/uk/car-news/Mercedes-CLA-45-AMG-2013-03-27

What do you think?

I know it's not a VAG car, but I think this looks absolutely awesome. If even AMG are using smaller engines, are we slowly seeing the death of the big engine? Obviously a lot of premium cars have them still, but power figures are always up on the rise, as is the efficiency of engines to, especially on smaller turbo'd units.

I've really liked a lot of the cars Mercedes have been making over the past few years, and in fact I think I'd nearly always buy a Merc over the equivalent BMW.

I quite like that. I think Merc design has come on a lot lately. Much less 'old man'.

I think it sounds great and looks ok too but will have to wait for the tests to make up my mind. It is following the trend of offering no manual box though which is bad.

Agree with aspman, the previous cars used to really be brought by older people but the new ones look great and really appeal to younger people. Would be interested to know how much this one will cost though!

I saw a model of the CLA last year and was surprised how long it is. Is memory serves me right, it is longer than the C Class. Can't wait for a full fat 1M car to come back

It looks great and with 4x4 it should handle brilliantly, but in the back of my mind i still don't think it will be what as good as the Audi S4 for handling.

Like it

It looks great and with 4x4 it should handle brilliantly, but in the back of my mind i still don't think it will be what as good as the Audi S4 for handling.

It's probably not that different, in regards to the Merc being biased to Front Wheel Drive, but sending 50% of the power to the back when needed.

So it'll still be sending a minimum of 50% of the power to the front under hard cornering which will help it understeer.

In order to be "safe" most manufacturers do not like their 4WD systems sending nearly all the power to the back when cornering.

As a car, I think it looks interesting. Not cheap, but a lot of fun I'd imagine.

I prefer the looks over the previous version.

Sent using whatever device I'm using at the time.

As to price the Audi is pushing £45k with a few options: way beyond my budget unfortunately. I I would go for the Audi though purely because of the sound of that 5 pot engine However such a car would not be for me if I had that money anyway. I would get a basic Porsche Boxster with manual box myself. Less power but a whole lot more purity and involvement.

Horses for courses...

I've seen the car will be priced at around £48k

It needs to be a lot better than the standard A Class hatch and CLA.

We were after a sporty driving hatch with comfortable supple ride and a premium feel.

We tried the A250 AMG, harsh ride, no steering feel, jittery handling, crap dual clutch gearbox, cheap plastics and switchgear. We thought the current Focus and Astra was a better drive.

Top Gear have the CLA 250 AMG in this months magazine and they say the same thing and say it's not good enough, they give it 5 out of 10.

We eventually gave our money to BMW.

Cheers

Lee