Round 2: German Compact Coupes – BMW M235i vs. Mercedes CLA 45 AMG
For those who feel that stuffing a big engine in a large car is a bit clumsy and oafish, the Germans have long provided a satisfying answer. After all, BMW practically invented the small sports sedan, and now even AMG has decided to tackle the compact market. Although one is a traditional small coupe, while the other is one of these funky modern 4-door coupe designs, both the M235i and CLA 45 provide an astonishing amount of speed for under $50,000.
The BMW M235i provides one of the purest approaches to speed you can currently buy. A small rear wheel drive coupe powered by a 320 horsepower twin-scroll turbocharged engine is bound to be fun, and this one definitely doesn’t disappoint. Rocket up the hill at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and you swear that the smooth inline 6 provides more power than the numbers suggest. Combined with the superb dual-clutch transmission, this is one of the best powertrains money can buy.
Steering response is also excellent and the chassis remains very composed for a small car, with power oversteer easily available with your right foot should you want it. The only drawback is a set of brakes that just aren’t quite up to track duty. After a morning of lapping the track, the pedal turned into a sponge and diving into the corners became a sheer act of courage.
Where the BMW is a spitfire of a small coupe, the Mercedes CLA 45 takes a slightly different approach to small car speed. Like it does for other Mercedes models, AMG takes the conventional CLA and gives it a dramatic performance makeover. In this case, that means taking the 2.0-liter turbocharged 4 cylinder engine and massaging the stuffing out of it to achieve an astonishing 355 horsepower. As the CLA is not a rear drive platform, the CLA 45 has to make do with all-wheel drive, which in this case is quite brilliant as it allows for all that power to be easily useable, even when the weather isn’t perfect.
Out on the track, the CLA 45 is also stunningly fast, but in a surprisingly composed, balanced way. The all-wheel drive allows you to get on the throttle right away when apexing a turn, and the car is quite forgiving of rookie mistakes. The engine is truly quite astounding, as it generates a ton of power for such a small size, and it never feels coarse or unruly. If anything, the CLA 45 seems almost reserved when compared to the more raw BMW, which is fitting given the greater practicality that a set of rear seats provide.
It’s hard to choose a winner between these two excellent products, and in this case we’ll call it a tie. Although the BMW satisfies in ways that only a small coupe can, we have to ding it a bit for the fading brakes. The flowy styling of the CLA 45 remains a taste that we haven’t fully acquired, but the performance of this smallest AMG is hard to fault.
