I've touched on this in another post sometime ago. The lines are being blurred for sure in what is luxury and what's not. The only difference between the new ES and new Avalon is the badge and some styling which is subjective anyway. Other than that, why would someone buy an ES? Soon there will be no reason to have luxury names per se. Hyundai is proving that now by offering luxury and mainstream cars under one name and it looks like they're getting away with it. Compact, sub-$30k MB's and $70k,fullsized luxurious Hyundai's are our future. :-/

 

I guess this is news b/c its a Mercedes (mind you I like the CLA) but egads, this is a segment others have been in for ages, its nothing new at all. It just happens that Benz has finally joined it and their entry is quite the stylish model.

What is going to be interesting is where do these CLA buyers come from. The Mercedes nameplate counts for a ton, it seems well done and the reception so far is incredible so I'm curious to see who buys it.

I know Mercedes didn't aim for Acura here but its FWD, a 4 cylinder, AWD is optional and its priced 30-40k, right where they sell 3 cars in the ILX, TSX and TL.

 

A sad truth

 

Mercedes does seem to be gaining its stellar reputation back after a number of years of unreliability and poor quality-control. Lexus, IMO, can take much of credit for the noted downfall of M-B in the 1990's. The original LS400, much more-so than the Infiniti Q4,5 was the first real Japanese luxury-car competition the Germans had ever faced (the original Acura Legend wasn't quite in the same class), and it forced them to notably cut costs.


Most likely, those who find the former A or B-Class Mercedes too high and narrow (the original A-class had noted handling-instability problems), those who don't want to mess with (or can't afford) the A/B-class hydrogen fuel-cell versions), or those (like me) who find the Mercedes-designed Smart-for-Two to be a joke and/or completely unsuitable for most American roads.

 

^^ Not at all, we don't get the A/B class here. From what I've seen and those I've talked to so far, its attracting everyone, they don't give 2 craps about FWD, 4 cylinder etc, they see a stylish Mercedes for 30k and they want it. That is all talk though, I'm curious to see who buys this car and what else they looked at if anything and will C-class sales drop as they are selling extremely well now.

 

I agree to a point with that. Lexus definitely made MB and the rest of the Germans wake up. And while changing their perspective and building to a price point did upset their reliability somewhat, I blame one model for really tarnishing their rep... the original M series. It was their first mass market SUV and they really screwed the pooch with that one. They really did it to themselves.