Mercedes CLA saloon - Reliability & safety
The Mercedes CLA received a five-star safety score from Euro NCAP
We don’t have specific data on the Mercedes CLA’s reliability, but we do have data for the A-Class upon which the CLA is based. A strong safety result for the CLA also bodes well.
Mercedes CLA reliability
The CLA was redesigned from the ground up for 2019, along with the Mercedes A-Class, which has become one of the UK’s best-selling cars. The manufacturer's 13th place (out of 29 brands) in our 2021 Driver Power survey is a huge 15-place jump on 2020, meaning Mercedes is now above key rivals Audi and BMW, if not quite as well-regarded as Jaguar or Lexus. Just shy of 19% of owners reported a fault in the first year of ownership, which could be better.
The Mercedes A-Class also performed well, coming 23rd in our list of the top 75 cars on sale. Reliability was the weakest score, but not disastrous, and the engines, interior and infotainment system were all highly praised.
Safety
Independent body Euro NCAP has conducted a crash-test for the Mercedes CLA and awarded it a five-star result. It's particularly reassuring given the adult and child occupant scores were 96% and 91% respectively, while the mark for pedestrian safety was also a high 91%.
Key technologies like automatic emergency braking and lane-keeping assistance are all included as standard, while traffic-sign recognition comes with the AMG Line Premium Plus version. Augmented reality sat nav is also available, using a windscreen camera to show real images in the media display with superimposed directions.
