Post by Big Blue on Nov 11, 2024 19:02:33 GMT
Well before we went on holiday some young lady hit the rear of Eva and scratched the bumper. This was at very low speed in the roadworks on the A3 / M25 (on the A3 northbound with adult sons in the car). I felt sorry for the poor girl as she was shaking like a leaf. I told her not to worry as that's what insurance is for and no one was remotely hurt. It made a big bang and I feared the damage behind the deformable bumper would be worse than the scratches on display. Anyway, Aviva took care of everything and it was a no-fault claim for me. So it was repaired when we returned from Cyprus and as a courtesy I was given a Mercedes CLAe Estate. This one.
In terms as a replacement for Eva this is a no-no. It's a very nice car but the regen on the Hybrid system can only be described as "shit". I'm aware that Martin's Panamera is better at regen than Eva but this thing seems to do none at all. I charged it twice at home as I had a trip to do in it but it required judicious switching between Sport and Comfort to make sure it didn't just swell up all the electric running in the first part of any journey.
The ICE was quite noisy but it was pretty swift off the mark and fair play to Mercedes it handled sharply and offered really good steering feedback. This unfortunately extended to some brutal wheelspin / torque steer at relatively low speed on one occasion but that sort of driving is usually reserved for the yoof of SW London in the hatchback A series AMGs. It rode nicely but the overall experience was a bit meh. I had to remind myself it is two classes below Eva and for that it is actually a really great proposition.
What didn't I like aside from the lack of regen? Well let's start with that dash. Here is a picture of the most uninspiring piece of plastic in the automotive trade.
It's completely upright, as you can see, and I recall I've complained about this before when I had the hatchback as a rental a few Christmases ago. Far worse is the centre screen section, the bit you need to do stuff on. It is angled away from the driver like some modernist version of the Morris Ital. Not only is it falling away like that but the GUI for the navigation is terrible. It just looks looks uninspiring. That said it worked very well and I may just be over-used-to the iDrive interfaces.
On to space. I was surprised at how well packaged it was. I had lots of space as driver and whilst my knees were hitting the rear of the driver's seat in my position as driver it wasn't that bad at the back. I am quite tall, but then so are all my kids.
As to the front seats, I am not keen on the sporty driving style of seat-head restraint integration, but again that may be because I am so used to BMW Comfort seats after 8 years of having them. The CLA seats were very adjustable and I was never uncomfortable.
Whilst I never had reason to use the boot (I had to drive to collect the M-i-L from the airport but she doesn't travel with much more than what she stands up in) it is a decent size and shape, although the floor panel rattled a bit over speed humps and the generally poor roads of Surrey I used whilst I had it.
It also had a manual luggage cover - an item which caused much discussion with W2.1 when we went to look at the new 5er Touring together. I beefed about it being manual on that and she said I shouldn't be whinging about something so minor. It wasn't that bad an issue on this little Mercedes but mainly because I was going to give it back after a very short period.
And so it was. Eva was dropped on Wednesday and I collected her back on Friday. The damage was really very light and she came back immaculately cleaned inside and out, and Aviva have a decent policy of using the BMW Approved body shop so I get a BMW warranty for the repairs. Whilst I enjoyed driving the CLA for its perceived sportiness: it pulled away and turned in like a feral cat running away having been caught by the bins in a takeaway restaurant, I drove Eva home from Leatherhead the longest route on roads I know well through Oxshott, all of which have no cameras.
Fuck me my car is great at everything.
In terms as a replacement for Eva this is a no-no. It's a very nice car but the regen on the Hybrid system can only be described as "shit". I'm aware that Martin's Panamera is better at regen than Eva but this thing seems to do none at all. I charged it twice at home as I had a trip to do in it but it required judicious switching between Sport and Comfort to make sure it didn't just swell up all the electric running in the first part of any journey.
The ICE was quite noisy but it was pretty swift off the mark and fair play to Mercedes it handled sharply and offered really good steering feedback. This unfortunately extended to some brutal wheelspin / torque steer at relatively low speed on one occasion but that sort of driving is usually reserved for the yoof of SW London in the hatchback A series AMGs. It rode nicely but the overall experience was a bit meh. I had to remind myself it is two classes below Eva and for that it is actually a really great proposition.
What didn't I like aside from the lack of regen? Well let's start with that dash. Here is a picture of the most uninspiring piece of plastic in the automotive trade.
It's completely upright, as you can see, and I recall I've complained about this before when I had the hatchback as a rental a few Christmases ago. Far worse is the centre screen section, the bit you need to do stuff on. It is angled away from the driver like some modernist version of the Morris Ital. Not only is it falling away like that but the GUI for the navigation is terrible. It just looks looks uninspiring. That said it worked very well and I may just be over-used-to the iDrive interfaces.
On to space. I was surprised at how well packaged it was. I had lots of space as driver and whilst my knees were hitting the rear of the driver's seat in my position as driver it wasn't that bad at the back. I am quite tall, but then so are all my kids.
As to the front seats, I am not keen on the sporty driving style of seat-head restraint integration, but again that may be because I am so used to BMW Comfort seats after 8 years of having them. The CLA seats were very adjustable and I was never uncomfortable.
Whilst I never had reason to use the boot (I had to drive to collect the M-i-L from the airport but she doesn't travel with much more than what she stands up in) it is a decent size and shape, although the floor panel rattled a bit over speed humps and the generally poor roads of Surrey I used whilst I had it.
It also had a manual luggage cover - an item which caused much discussion with W2.1 when we went to look at the new 5er Touring together. I beefed about it being manual on that and she said I shouldn't be whinging about something so minor. It wasn't that bad an issue on this little Mercedes but mainly because I was going to give it back after a very short period.
And so it was. Eva was dropped on Wednesday and I collected her back on Friday. The damage was really very light and she came back immaculately cleaned inside and out, and Aviva have a decent policy of using the BMW Approved body shop so I get a BMW warranty for the repairs. Whilst I enjoyed driving the CLA for its perceived sportiness: it pulled away and turned in like a feral cat running away having been caught by the bins in a takeaway restaurant, I drove Eva home from Leatherhead the longest route on roads I know well through Oxshott, all of which have no cameras.
Fuck me my car is great at everything.
