The new 2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA just arrived in Australia.
It looks nothing like its predecessor. That is by design. The interior? A stadium scoreboard wrapped in a dashboard. The powertrain? A new hybrid setup, with fully electric versions hitting the road by July.
And for once, the price tag isn’t a heart attack. It’s actually cheaper.
Why are screens everywhere?
Inside the CLA220 4Matic —the most expensive petrol model at $84,300 —there are three screens. Three.
Mercedes calls this the MBUX Superscreen. We call it absurd.
“An intentional minimalist design” that looks like a TV remote exploded across your dashboard.
The driver’s gauge cluster (10.25 inches) works fine. It’s clean, classy, easy to ignore until you need it. But then there’s the center 14-inch screen.
Cumbersome. Menus upon menus. Yes, it’s fast. Yes, Apple CarPlay is wireless. But your climate controls are hidden behind a tiny icon at the bottom. Why? We have no idea. Nor is seat heating. It’s in a different menu. Next to your seat position memory. Just live with it.
And then… the passenger screen.
Another 14-inch display. For what? Basic video games you can’t play while moving. Movies. That’s it. It adds no functionality you couldn’t just nudge over on the center screen to use. It kills the cabin’s aesthetics completely. Flat panel. Zero design effort. Ambient lighting hides the mess a bit. But it’s still much.
It costs less to buy
Prices have dropped. The base CLA180 starts at $66,500, down from $73k for the old entry model.
Who are we fighting against? The non-EV BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe is gone. So look to the BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe (new in 2025). Or the Audi A3. Both are roughly 200 millimeters shorter than this CLA. If you want length, this sedan has it. If you want a six-cylinder? Consider the Genesis G70.
The back seat is cramped
Legroom is huge. Nearly 2.8 meters of wheelbase. I’m 173 centimeters tall. I sat comfortably behind a taller driver.
Headroom? Non-existent.
The sloping, coupe-like roofline steals the space. A glass roof helps. But the edges are bulky. Taller people will hate this ride. The rear bench is well-cushioned. Fake suede and leather mix. It looks okay. But that headroom penalty is steep.
Boot space feels large because it’s deep. 405 liters. Smaller than the BMW 2 Series, bigger than the Audi A3. The lid powers open. Use the key fob. Kick under the bumper. Or push the three-pointed star. It feels unnecessary. Sedans shouldn’t need foot-gesture openings. But here we are.
What’s under the bonnet
1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol.
An integrated electric motor boosts it to 140 kilowatts and 300 newton-meters. Drive goes to all four wheels. Eight-speed dual-clutch automatic.
Sound boring? Maybe. But it delivered impressively low fuel numbers during our week of Victorian hill climbs and highway cruising.
Driving it feels weird
This is where the CLA disappoints.
Start the car? Confusing. Press a button on a stalk. Or just push the stalk for drive. The lights turn on anyway. The car feels on when it’s off.
Want to shift manually? Push the gear selector forward or back. Not paddles. The actual stalk. Why? Who thought this was intuitive?
It’s plastic. It’s thin. It wobbles during spirited driving. Worst part: that button on the tip of the stalk starts the engine. And puts it in park. You cannot shift into park without turning off the car. Ever. Try delicately finding Neutral, then hit the e-brake. Accept the warning that the car might roll. That’s your workaround.
The transition is jarring
Move the car. It runs on electric only—up to 22 kilowatts of demand. Push harder? The petrol engine wakes up.
The car waits. Surprised by your acceleration. There’s a dead spot. A lag. The turbo spools up late. In traffic, you stomp the gas to beat the silence, then the power hits unexpectedly fast. Smoothly decelerate? Forget it. Regen braking varies based on traffic ahead. The switch between electric and friction braking is vague. Rough.
Low speed driving is uncomfortable. Stop-start crawling becomes a chore.
Why? Dual-clutch transmissions hate low speeds. Combine that with unpredictable powertrain switching? It feels clumsy. In heavy traffic. In car parks.
You can play games to stay under 22 kilowats. Keep it electric. Or change drive modes. But out of the box, the CLA struggles to make its hybrid nature feel natural. It’s just another day at the office for Mercedes confusing us.
Is it worth waiting for the electric version in July?
