We brought you the headline news of the Mercedes CLA 45 AMG Shooting Brake earlier in the week, but it's worth pointing out that there are more models in the new Shooting Brake range, if the idea of a 360hp estate and its concomitant fuel consumption fills you with dread...
Exterior
It's the same as the CLA coupé on the outside, aside from the obvious addition of more roof at the back. Its dimensions are 4,630mm long, 1,777mm wide and 1,435mm high, with 40mm more headroom in the rear (at 947mm) than the regular CLA. Mercedes also says access to the back seats is 'much easier'. The bigger boot means carrying capacity of between 495- and 1,354 litres, depending on how you arrange the seats within, while the boot is 1,328mm wide - said to be class-leading by Merc. Meanwhile, its coefficient of drag (Cd) value is just 0.26, making the Shooting Brake a slippery little thing.
Interior
A twin-tube instrument cluster resides behind a new generation of three-spoke steering wheel with multifunction controls, while the rest of the cockpit design is very similar to the coupé's cabin. The Shooting Brake gets a seven-inch free-standing display screen centre top of the dashboard, although a larger eight-inch item is available with optional upgrades. Mercedes says the car is more of a 4+1-seat vehicle, rather than a full five-seater, with the emphasis in the rear on the outer two chairs.
Mechanicals
There are three disparate engines, split into six models (not including the CLA 45 AMG version). The 2.1-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel powers both the CLA 200 CDI and the CLA 220 CDI, the former with 136hp and 300Nm, the latter making 177hp and 350Nm. Fuel consumption is 3.9 litres/100km (72.4mpg) with 101g/km CO2 for the 200 CDI, partly due to start-stop (standard on all CLA Shooting Brakes).
The 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, developed with Renault, finds its way into the CLA 180 and CLA 200 models, again with differing outputs (122hp/200Nm and 156hp/250Nm respectively). A 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder unit is fitted in the CLA 250, where it makes 211hp and 350Nm; the 250 can be equipped with 4Matic all-wheel drive as well, which is marginally quicker to 100km/h but a bit juicier on fuel. Talking of which, fuel consumption on the petrol engines ranges from 5.3- to 6.8 litres/100km (53.3- to 41.5mpg). CO2 emissions are 124- to 158g/km. A 7G-DCT dual-clutch automatic transmission is optional on some models.
Anything else?
The CLA Shooting Brake goes on sale in Germany in early 2015, with first customer cars in March. Plans for an Irish market introduction have yet to be confirmed.