2014 CLA AMG Sport Buying Advice

[Stirton]

Hi Everyone,

Looking for some advice, I am looking at buying a 2014 CLA 220 AMG Sport which has done around 110k miles for 10k, 1 owner and miles apparently communting / motorway miles.

The wife is not keen so to avoid me buying a lemon and being in the dog house for years not to mention out of pocket, what advise can you guys give as to whether this is a good idea or not and what to look out for when looking at the car?

Thanks

 

[Blobcat]

Hello and welcome,

CLA is "fashionable" so quite expensive. It's also front wheel drive and can have quite a lot of "Renault" inside it, but it the management want that then far be it from me to advise differently...

For same money and a lot less miles I'd have something like C200 2017 61K miles



That one is petrol and I'd seriously look if you need diesel with the way the world has gone

 

[Stirton]

Hello and welcome,

CLA is "fashionable" so quite expensive. It's also front wheel drive and can have quite a lot of "Renault" inside it, but it the management want that then far be it from me to advise differently...

For same money and a lot less miles I'd have something like C200 2017 61K miles

View attachment 65104

That one is petrol and I'd seriously look if you need diesel with the way the world has gone

That is a nae bad looking motor, cracking price for the miles but it's a manual, I'm long past crunching gears and although nice it's just nae as good looking as the AMG CLA.

 

[Stirton]

There are a lot of C-Class motors out there for decent prices which are automatic, so @Bobcat would you recommend a C Class over a CLA and if so whay is that, realibility, engine etc?

 

[Blobcat]

There are a lot of C-Class motors out there for decent prices which are automatic, so @Bobcat would you recommend a C Class over a CLA and if so whay is that, realibility, engine etc?

Apologies, didn't realise it was a manual - never buy a Mercedes Manual

I'd prefer a C as it's rear drive and looks better (I really like the look of the C-Class Coupe)

 

[Ron240]

I vote for the CLA...but it's probably no surprise I say that.
I wouldn't buy a rear wheel drive car, but wouldnt buy a diesel either.
I agree the C Class Coupe is beautiful, and I would have a new C43 in a hearbeat if I could afford one.
The CLA 220 CDI AMG Sport was around £32k new (without options) in 2014. A quick look finds used prices today around £15k which is surprisingly high, but that's with roughly half the miles of the one you are looking at.
I wouldnt buy a car with 110k miles on the clock either, but hey thats just me.

 

[Stirton]

I vote for the CLA...but it's probably no surprise I say that.
I wouldn't buy a rear wheel drive car, but wouldnt buy a diesel either.
I agree the C Class Coupe is beautiful, and I would have a new C43 in a hearbeat if I could afford one.
The CLA 220 CDI AMG Sport was around £32k new (without options) in 2014. A quick look finds used prices today around £15k which is surprisingly high, but that's with roughly half the miles of the one you are looking at.
I wouldnt buy a car with 110k miles on the clock either, but hey thats just me.

I don't really need a car as i work from home permanently now which is why i don't want to spend more than 10k but when i saw the AMG CLA I thought oooooh this might be worth a punt but I was hoping everyone on here would say, it's fine Mercs are built to last 110k miles is nothing for new cars but i'm not getting a warm and fuzzy feeling that this is the best idea which means i'm gonna have to admit to the wife i was wrong!

 

[Blobcat]

Don’t need a car????
Then buy an SLK, you’ll get quite a lot for £10K

 

[Stirton]

Don’t need a car????
Then buy an SLK, you’ll get quite a lot for £10K

Hmmmm SLK is not for me, too fat for that kind of car!

 

[MBDevotee]

CLA is basically a re-badged Renault Megane!!

Ok, perhaps a slight exaggeration - but far far too much cost cutting and Renault input.

The PROPER Mercedes start at the C-Class and go bigger.

Unless you do 15k miles a year plus do NOT buy a diesel, they have issues with DPF clogging if you don't do many miles, and the world is turning against them now.

A nice C-Class Petrol Auto will be less than 10k with less than 100,000 miles on it I think and a far nicer car in pretty much every respect.

Someone posted above they wouldn't buy a rear-wheel drive car - why on earth not?? They are better balanced, nicer to drive and so on. Only downside is their behaviour in snow, but a good "all season" tyre fixes that problem.

 

[MBDevotee]

This makes that CLA look ridiculously expensive

Mercedes-Benz C Class 2.1 C250d AMG Line (Premium) G-Tronic+ 4MATIC (s/s) 4dr | eBay

• The vehicle's engine and chassis number match the DVLA records.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[John Laidlaw]

An occasionally driven car must be a petrol, in Mercedes terms must be automatic.....you want something practical I see so E or C class petrol estate works (E500 anyone?)
Are you Aberdeen way?

 

[Ron240]

CLA is basically a re-badged Renault Megane!!
Ok, perhaps a slight exaggeration - but far far too much cost cutting and Renault input.
Someone posted above they wouldn't buy a rear-wheel drive car - why on earth not??

Using that same logic you could say the A, B and GLA Class are basically re-badged Renault Meganes.
A gross exaggeration I would say.
That someone was me, as you well know.
You say "why on earth not" like it is an incredulous thing for somebody who has owned only front wheel drive cars since the 80's to want to stick with what they know.
Plus as you rightly point out RWD is crap in the snow.

 

[MBDevotee]

Yes, I cannot think of any reason why (other than snow) you would choose a front drive car over a rear driver.

In many cases you have no choice - most small hatchbacks are fwd. But with Mercedes you do have a choice so I can’t think of a reason to go fwd.

If you get snow regularly (mountainous regions perhaps) then you are better off with 4wd and winter tyres without a doubt but I wouldn’t have a car that drives worse 364.5 days of the year just to have it slightly better on the once in a blue moon day it snows in most of the UK.

Rear wheel drive is vastly superior to the overall drive, balance, handling and so on - it is why Merc, BMW etc stick with it for their larger cars. BMW went fwd with the new 1 series as they shared the platform with Mini so purely for cost reasons and because 80% of their customers didn’t know which end was driven anyhow - but I think about 50% of 1 series customers buy without a test drive so they are more interested in the badge than the car.

You won’t ever see a front drive only M-series car, proper AMG, Porsche, or anything else properly quick.

A Saab engineer once pronounced you simply couldn’t put more than 200hp through the front wheels only without the car being seriously flawed.... and that was when they made the Viggen with about 250hp! Engineering has moved on - I’ve driven the Focus ST and that gets 280hp down really well, but it still torque steers out of a corner if you put the hammer down, and is constantly fighting itself, whereas a Merc with 350HP and rwd copes perfectly well.

FWD is a complete compromise, done for packaging and cost reasons - it’s fine, but if you can buy a better, red car for the same money then to me it’s a no-brainer as long as everything else is equal.

 

[Srdl]

the AMG CLA

the AMG CLA.

Just for the record, it’s not an AMG CLA it a CLA AMG-Line which means it just has a few extra body bits to make it look faster, possibly some slightly stiffer suspension and, oh yes, some AMG mats inside. If you want a proper AMG go for the CLA35 or 45.

 

[Srdl]

CLA is basically a re-badged Renault Megane!!

Ok, perhaps a slight exaggeration - but far far too much cost cutting and Renault input.

Could we have some evidence to support this statement, please. I know the 1.5 diesel used in the A and derivatives was jointly developed by Mercedes and Renault but I’m not aware of any other collaboration. Interested to hear more.

 

[Gazwould]

 

[tanbir17]

Hi all - I am also interested in the CLA, would like your advice on what to look for when viewing.



Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

 

[Ron240]

You won’t ever see a front drive only M-series car, proper AMG, Porsche, or anything else properly quick.

This is true, although a large proportion of them now come either standard or optional with all wheel drive. Mercedes tends to be the odd one out on this.
Yes rear wheel drive makes more sense on larger more powerful (up to a point) cars. BMW have a widely available x drive option on their traditional rear wheel drive models, but Mercedes are one of the few manufacturers that have stuck with rear wheel drive without offering an all wheel drive option in their mainstream models. Thinking mainly C Class here for all the models below C 43. Actually I would choose a C 43 over a C 63 because I think the latter is too powerful without having all wheel drive.
Speaking of the C Class...it will always stick in my mind 3 years ago I was driving my 4 month old 320PS front wheel drive hatchback on a snowy morning. I was taking it very easy and had just came over the brow of a hill onto a short downhill section, where i was greeted by the sight of a silver C Class slithering its way up and across at the same time. I could not touch my brakes so steered as far left as I could to avoid the other car without hitting the kerb which due to the snow covering I could not see at all.
To this day I still do not know how I never hit the kerb which would have ruined my 20" alloys.
The return journey home about 5 hours later most of the snow was gone and there was no indication of how treacherous that mornings conditions had been.

 

[Blobcat]

I’ll just leave that here