Hot hatches are good but fast estates, even small ones, surely hold a cool appeal all of their own, and have done for 25 years ever since Audi came up with the first, the RS2, in 1994. Today though it is Mercedes-AMG that is doing most to further the cult of the über-wagon.
This is the new 415bhp Mercedes CLA 45 AMG S Shooting Brake
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The latest is the CLA 45 S is what Mercedes-AMG quaintly calls Shooting Brake form. While we were all getting our first look at the AMG A45 S as hatchback and four-door coupe at the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard earlier in July, this new variant was still under wraps. Its reveal today is further proliferation of an A-Class formula that Mercedes appears to have absolutely nailed this time round – at least until the first drive verdicts come in.
It’s more lifestyle statement than load lugger, but who’s counting luggage litres when you have 2.0-litres of a very different kind under the bonnet? Like the other hottest A-Class variants, which together make up the bottom rung of the AMG ladder, the estate gets 421PS (415bhp) thanks to the world’s most powerful series-production 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine.
Mercedes doesn’t say so, but this newcomer would have to rank as the most potent compact estate car ever, exactly 100bhp up on the ground-breaking Audi of ‘94.
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The Shooting Brake stays close to its AMG A-Class cousins, in both standard (382bhp) and S (415bhp) forms. That means smart 4Matic all-wheel-drive, an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, lots of electronic control systems, lots of driver modes to play with, a class-leading cabin and a whopping grille with vertical bars just like all the bigger AMGs.
Whatever body style you choose, performance of the S version is around the same: 4.0 seconds for 0-62mph and a top speed that can be upped to 168mph if required.
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So why opt for Shooting Brake over hatch or coupe? With five doors and that swoopy rear end, it’s lot more accommodating than the four-door CLA while being a lot cooler looking than the A45 hatch. The boot may be only slightly larger than the last A-Class estate, but its opening is almost 250mm (10 inches) wider than before. With 505 litres of room and the option of folding down the back seats, paraphernalia to do with sports/children/holidays should just about fit. And hands-free tailgate opening is available. But furniture-buying trips to Ikea? Probably not.
No prices yet (the last one was around £47k) so far from a cheap fast estate, but then it is in pretty much a class of one, with plenty of potent wagons around but all a class or two up. For now at least. Audi is promising six new Audi Sport models this year alone, and a new-gen RS3 Liftback is tipped for an appearance in 2021.
The cult of the compact fast estate lives on…
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