2025 Mercedes CLA 45 S

It’s a little weird that Mercedes is selling subcompact front-wheel-drive sedans with four cylinder engines. Those attributes used to describe economy cars.

But the Mercedes CLA 250 – which is front-wheel-drive and comes standard with a small four cylinder engine – does not come with an economy car’s price tag.

It is, however, available with the most powerful four cylinder engine ever put into a production car – and that more than justifies the price of the CLA 45 S.

What It Is

The CLA is Mercedes’ smallest, lowest-priced sedan – starting at $44,400 for the CLA250. It is also the first front wheel drive Mercedes sedan, a major departure from the rear wheel-drive-based layout of every other Mercedes vehicle.

Opting for the optional all wheel drive system (Mercedes calls it 4Matic) raises the sticker price to $46,400.

Both of these iterations of the CLA250 come standard with a 2.0 liter four cylinder engine, paired up with a mild-hybrid system that is chiefly there to power the vehicle’s accessories (such as the AC) when the engine is cycled off to reduce fuel consumption (and C02 “emissions”) when the car isn’t moving, or coasting/decelerating.

The result is highway mileage approaching 40 MPG – making it the most fuel-efficient Mercedes vehicle in Mercedes’ U.S. model lineup.

But that’s not what makes this Mercedes so unusual. Other luxury-car brands such as Audi and Lexus also also sell small, front-wheel-drive-based sedans with small four cylinder engines such as the A3 and ES250, respectively.

What raises one’s eyebrows is how much more power Mercedes offers out its small four cylinder engine.

The $56,100 CLA 35 has the same-sized 2.0 liter four cylinder as the CLA 250 but instead of 221 horsepower – already strong for the class – the output increases to 302 horsepower.

As impressive as that it is – coming from just 2.0 liters and four cylinders – there’s more, from the same.

The $65,400 CLA 45 S also comes standard with a 2.0 liter four  – but this version makes 416 horsepower. And that makes it the most powerful 2.0 liter four cylinder engine currently available in a production car.

What’s New for 2025

The CLA Class carries over into the new model year essentially the same as last year, with a few minor trim/color option changes.

What’s Good

CLA 45 S is a kind of pocket battleship on wheels: Small – with big guns.

Standard CLA 250 is a small luxury car that delivers almost economy car gas mileage.

Though small (and front-wheel-drive) like many economy cars, it doesn’t look like an economy car.

What’s Not So Good

Much more expensive to start than other small, entry-luxury sedans such as the Audi A3 and the Lexus ES250.

Rear seat leg and headroom are much less than up front due to compact dimensions and sloping roofline.

Tiny (11.6 cubic foot) trunk.

Under The Hood

Every version of the CLA comes with a turbocharged 2.0 liter four cylinder engine, which makes it a lot like a lot of other vehicles currently on the market – including non-luxury brand vehicles that also have 2.0 liter fours.

This size engine has become almost a universal engine – recalling the Japanese in-line fours of the ’70s that were all very much the same even though they were made by several different brands such as Kawasaki, Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha. The reason for all these 2.0 four is because that is the ideal size and type of engne for making adequate power while also complying with increasingly strident CO2 “emissions” requirements.

It is small enough to not “emit” much – especially when it’s not running (when the mild hybrid system is on) and big enough to make tremendous horsepower when running under boost.

In the CLA 250, the 2.0 liter engine produces 221 horsepower – which is significantly more power than you get out of the Audi A3’s standard 2.0 liter four, which makes 201 horsepower. The Mercedes also uses very little gas for a luxury car. The standard FWD version rates 26 city, 36 highway – which for some perspective is nearly as good as the 31 city, 40 highway you’d get out of a Honda Civic sedan, which is almost exactly the same size and also comes standard with a 2.0 liter four.

The CLA’s  mileage is also nearly as good as the less powerful A3’s 29 city, 31 highway.

As mentioned earlier, a mild-hybrid system that cycles the 2.0 liter engine off as often as conditions allow is chiefly responsible for the CLA 250’s excellent fuel economy numbers. (The Audi A3 also comes standard with a mild-hybrid system).

If you decide to opt for the optional all-wheel-drive (4Matic) system, the mileage dips to 25 city, 34 highway.

The CLA 35 comes standard with a higher-performance version of the same 2.0 liter four, with higher boost pressure and related upgrades that increase the engine’s output to 302 horsepower.

4Matic AWD is standard.

But – as Ed Sullivan said a long time ago – the really big news is the version of the 2.0 liter four that comes standard in the CLA 45 S. It makes an astounding 416 horsepower, which is astounding precisely because of the small size of this engine. To get a sense of just how astounding it is, consider that the current Corvette’s 6.2 liter V8 only makes 490 horsepower.

This four cylinder-powered Benz sedan is nearly as quick as the V8-powered Corvette, too. The latter gets to 60 in just shy of 3 seconds. The Benz can make the same run in about 3.4 seconds – which amounts to about half a car lengths’ difference at the end of the run.

Gas mileage with the heavy-hitting four is still 20 city, 28 highway – which is better than the ‘Vette’s 16 city,  25 highway.

An eight speed dual clutch automatic transmission is paired with all three versions of the CLA’s 2.0 liter engine but the AMG iteration’s offers more aggressive shift programming.

On The Road

This is not a subtle car – and you’ll know it the first time you hear it. At first, you might think someone crawled under the thing overnight with a Sawzall and made off with the catalytic converter. Then you remember you left it in Sport Plus mode – which results in sounds like that erupting from the quad exhaust tips out back.

Good sounds.

And good feels, too.

The CLA 45 S is – in concept – a lot like the Admiral Graf Spee, the famous pocket battleship of World War II. The ship was much smaller than a battleship but carried battleship-sized guns. The idea was to create something more powerful than anything its own size that could outrun anything with guns its own size.

That’s what you’ve got here, on four wheels.

The four may not be big – in terms of its size – but 416 horsepower is a very big number for a very small car. And there aren’t many cars that can catch a car that is capable of launching itself from a dead stop to 60 MPH in 3.4 seconds. And even fewer cars that have four doors. A Tesla 3 – which is also small – can keep up with the Benz, but only briefly. The latter’s advertised best-case range of just 272 miles assumes you do not make frequent use of the “ludicrous” speed it is briefly capable of delivering because if you do, you’ll be stopping for a long wait long before you’ve covered 272 miles. This is the paradox of EVs, which tout high-performance that’s not practical to use much because if you do, you can’t use the EV much.

Or – rather – for long.

If you use the ludicrous speed the CLA 45 S offers, you probably won’t be able to go the 270 miles in city driving it touts, either. But even if you drain the tank after just 150 miles of driving, you’ll be back on the road in the less-than-five minutes it takes to refill the car’s 14 gallon tank. And you’ll have 378 miles of highway range, if you keep it under 80. I italicize city and highway to emphasize something important about EVs vs. other vehicles, which is that EV range is always posted as one (combined) number, which is arguably deceptive advertising because it does not convey the fact that EV highway-driving range is always less than the combined number advertised – and often much less, because an EV is always burning-through electricity when it is moving and more so at highway speeds. EVs go farthest when they’re not much moving much or even at all.

The take-home point is the CLA 45 S offers performance without the catch.

Though this is a front-wheel-drive-based car, Mercedes’ 4Matic system (standard with the CLA 45 S) is unusual in that it is capable of sending all of the engine’s power to the rear wheels, to simulate the driving feel of a rear-drive car. This matters a lot in a performance car, especially an expensive one. The buyer who spends $65k-plus probably does not want his car to feel like a $25k economy car when he floors the accelerator – especially in the curves.

This one doesn’t. The usual nose-heavy/ass light (and ass-not-powered) FWD-car understeer is not there.

The CLA 45 S’s 4Matic system also has a driver-selectable drift mode that allows tail-out powerslides. The suspension, brakes and cooling system are upgraded to complement all of this, of course.

At The Curb

Like Graf Spee, the CLA 45 S looks impressive for its size. The body seems to have melted over the 19 inch AMG lightweight alloy wheels and thin-sidewall “summer” ultra-performance tires.

Width seems to add length, too.

Menace is added by the massive dual air intakes built into the left and right side of the AMF-specific front end. On the back, a NASCAR-looking ducktail spoiler to help keep the car’s tail from getting light at the 170-plus MPH speeds this thing can achieve.

Inside, this littlest Benz has the same kind of all-flatscreen displays that used to be exclusive to Mercedes’ largest, most expensive sedans as recently as about six years ago. One of the interesting things about that is what’s becoming common is no longer as exclusive.

The CLA 45 S gets an AMG-specific flat-bottomed steering wheel but all CLAs come standard with secondary/redundant thumbwheel controls for the audio system built into the steering wheel that let the driver change radio stations/adjust the volume and so on without having to take a hand off the wheel to touch the touchscreen. This littlest Benz also has the same ball-type air vents that can be adjusted in any direction. The AMG-specific sport buckets look track-day ready – and they are. But they are as comfortable as they are supportive, which is laudable. This is a track-day car (including available data logging) that can comfortably serve as an every day car.

With a caveat.

While there is big-car space up front – including almost 42 inches of driver and front-seat-passenger legroom and nearly 39 inches of headroom for both – more than the space available up front in a Mercedes E-Class sedan – the back seats are really tight for both legs and heads. Legroom is just 32.9 inches – and headroom foes down to 35.7 inches, the latter due to the car’s sexy, sloping roofline.

There’s also not much space in the 11.6 cubic foot trunk. On the other hand, there are back seats and these can make up for the space you don’t have available in the trunk.

Provided no one’s sitting back there.

The Rest 

This non-AMG CLA’s chief negative isn’t so much that it’s front wheel drive but that it is really expensive for a small, front-drive sedan – even if it has the big Mercedes star in its grille. The generally similar Audi A3 stickers for $35,800 to start – which is nearly $10k less than the base trim CLA 250 lists for.

On the other hand, there is literally nothing else like the CLA 45 S – and that’s hard to put a price on.

The Bottom Line

The Graf Spee will be remembered for scaring the crap out of the entire Royal Navy. This little Benz with big guns is a lot like that.

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