OK, that probably wasn't the model designation - there was too much spray on the M4 last night to read it from a safe distance - but it was my thought as I came up behind it.
OK, calm down, begin at the beginning. Regular readers will know that I'm no fan of the current Mercedes Benz design direction; each model, starting roughly with the W212 E of 2010, has been uglier than the model it replaced, and shareable platforms have made possible new horrors like the CLA. Someone at MB has evidently decided that simplicity, understatement and form-follows-function have all been done and the new design team should be recruited at one of those shops where toddlers paint their own plates.
But knowing all that didn't prepare me for this. It was enormous, but not in the baby-Lego manner of a GL; this - as far as I could tell by peering up through the spray from the driving seat of my mere car - was trying to do something similar to the BMW X6. Now the X6 is not a thing of beauty - I think most of us here have said so at some point - but I'd rather have ten X6es on my drive than even one of these things. Never mind what it looks like, what's it even for?
OK, I looked it up and it's a GLE. Anyone else seen one?
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Sounds like it was a GLE Coupe. The former ML has been rebadged GLE to fit MB's new naming structure (when you have as many niches filled as they do, names were bound to get confusing), and this is the new coupe version - rival for the X6 as you point out.
As with the X6, no I don't see the point either. And what did you go and mention the CLA for? You've ruined my day now! Do you hear, ruined!!
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>> Sounds like it was a GLE Coupe.
Obvious similarities with aforementioned X6:
tinyurl.com/zp88j43 (Merc website)
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Fancy a CLA, do you, BB? Fair enough, I suppose; I had a brief ride in a friend's A hatch last week and it was certainly smooth (in a firm way, like my BMW) comfortable and solidly made - vastly, immeasurably better in every way than the truly horrid previous A. But I can't warm to the blingy interior design - which is presumably the same in the CLA. I'd much rather have a Golf.
Last edited by: WillDeBeest on Thu 18 Feb 16 at 14:24
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>> Fancy a CLA, do you, BB?
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No I most certainly do NOT! But you mentioning the blasted things means I can't get the hideous droopy blingy lines out of my mind!
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Ah, sorry. Won't mention the CLA again.
D'oh!
};---)
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Avis went through a phase of having A180 hatchbacks (CDI and Petrol) on their fleet. I thought they were really very good cars. Much better to drive than the Golf or Focus, which also feature heavily on their fleet. Subjectively they did feel a bit smaller inside though.
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Mercedes Benz - WTF (350 CDI?) - Boxsterboy
