Mercedes Benz unveiled their latest offering, the CLA class
in Chennai last Saturday, in a star studded gathering- at
Mercedes Benz RitzStyle awards, held at ITC Grand Chola.
We couldn’t think of a better opportunity to launch this car
than this one- Mr Abdul Khadar and Mr Kannan from Transcar, Mercedes Benz told
at the gathering.
Few years ago, remembering
offerings of a luxury brand was very simple. There was C Class, the entry level
offering, then E class, little expensive one, then finally S Class, a very
expensive one. Higher up you go in alphabetic sequence, more expensive and
feature rich the model became. Even the A and B class were fine as they would
fit into above bill. Now it is all confusing. There is GLA class, kind of soft
offroader, then CLS class, now the new CLA class. It takes more detailed
reading to interpret what these new naming conventions offer.
The new CLA class, launched in
India on Jan 22nd, is one of the most stylish offerings from the tri-star.
CLA class offers a frameless door. (Doors do not have an outer frame. Glass
holds on to its door support). Such a model is very hard to find. Only
expensive CLS class, Cabriolet versions offer it. Apart from that CLA class has
lowest drag resistance of 0.25 among all production cars in the world. This
means it can really really cut through air like a knife through butter. CLA
class comes both in petrol and diesel, in two variants. AMG like styling sets
it apart from the rest, along with diamond cut chips on the grill. CLA class variants are priced at
about 40 to 50 lakhs approx on road. Mercedes
hopes to reclaim top spot from Audi this year for the premium car market, with
about 15 launches planned for this year. Earlier Mercedes didn’t have lower
priced cars to compete in volume game. Now they have many- A class, B class and
so on. One good thing to note is that Mercedes Benz has decided not to succumb
to cost cutting measures and ensure they offer same premium quality and
customer experience on all their offerings. Best wishes to them.
Leave a Comment