If you’re a fan of rakish, affordable luxury coupes—even those with four doors—then have we got news for you. The Mercedes-Benz CLA sedan is getting an update for 2024. So, what’s new? Mercedes started off by giving the subcompact CLA, which lives near the bottom of the Benz lineup, a modest redesign. Up front, you might notice that the grille adopts changes to the vertical-slat “panamericana”-style slatted grille on AMG models and the brand’s “star pattern” with a massive Mercedes-Benz logo front and center on the rest. We stared at pictures of the 2023 CLAs and the 2024s, and we gotta be honest—the differences are not readily apparent.
The front end also has reworked, larger scoops on its flanks. From the official images the scoops appear to be non-functional but they might have a slight opening to send air to the brakes for cooling. The headlights are carryover but feature new “modernized graphics.” Mercedes-Benz hasn’t provided us with a shot of the base model’s new rear bumper but there is a shot of the AMG model’s rear end, which sports a new diffuser.
There also are three new wheel designs with sizes up to 19 inches, but only a few of them are shown here. Wrapping up the exterior updates are two new paint colors: “Hyper Blue,” and “Starling Blue” which should look great when you park this car at your blue house with your blue window da ba dee da ba di. Any Eiffel fans? We digress.
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Inside of the CLA lives a pair of 10.25-inch screens standard, just as it had before, one of which serves as a digital gauge cluster and the other as the hub for the infotainment. Don’t worry, it looks like there are still physical buttons for the climate control system. Both screens offer up the latest “MBUX” interface which we found a bit convoluted back in the 2022 model. Hopefully the updated version is more user friendly. We are also holding out hope that he 2024 model’s interior is quieter, too The noise insulation on the last model we drove had room for improvement. Otherwise, we’re generally fans of the previous CLA’s slick styling, appropriately luxuriated interior, and respectable engine performance.
Both the base and AMG versions of the 2024 Mercedes-Benz CLA are expected to hit dealerships later in 2023 but we don’t have an exact date yet. We figure the CLA will continue to be sold in 250 form with front- or all-wheel drive and a 221-hp turbo I-4 engine, while the Mercedes-AMG CLA45 will again deliver 302 hp from a decidedly spicier four-cylinder engine and come standard with all-wheel drive. If we get our hands on one to test, we’ll let you know how it stacks up. But based on the limited scope of the changes, it should drive basically the same as before.