The Niche-Tastic Mercedes CLA 45 AMG Shooting Brake Is Here

Here it is: yet more proof (not that we needed it) that Mercedes likes a good niche. Not content with the already tricky-to-pigeon-hole saloon/coupe-esque regular CLA, the German company has dropped a big boot on the rear to make the CLA Shooting Brake. And yes, there’ll be a hot CLA 45 AMG version.

This new arrival to the Merc stable - which goes on sale in January 2015 - doesn’t come as a big surprise. It’s been rumoured for ages, has been spotted testing (see below) numerous times, and the CLA’s big brother - the CLS - has been available in Shooting Brake form for a while now.

That new rump gives the SB 495 litres of boot space - 25 litres more than the saloon - although if you stick the rear seats into the more steeply raked ‘cargo’ position, this jumps to 595 litres. Pop the rear seats down, and you’ll have 1354 litres to play with.

Other than that, pretty much everything is as per the existing CLA. You get a series of engines shared with the saloon, ranging in petrol form from a 1.6-litre CLA180 with 120bhp to the 208bhp 2.0-litre CLA 250, plus a pair of 2.1-litre diesels - the CLA 200 and 220 CDI - with 134bhp and 175bhp respectively.

The full-fat CLA 45 comes with AMG’s ballistic 355bhp, 332lb ft 2.0-litre four-banger, which will get you from 0-62mph in 4.7 seconds - 0.1sec down on the saloon. It - thankfully - sends that power to all four wheels, but if you want something less bonkers that’s still four-wheel drive, the CLA 250 will be available as a ‘4Matic’ from launch.

The big question is, does it succeed on the looks front? We love estates, but we’ll have to reserve judgement on this one until we see it in the metal. It arguably wears the Shooting Brake body better than the bigger CLS, but like the larger car, it still looks a bit ungainly from some angles.

What do you think?