Hey All!

I joined this forum almost 2 years ago when I initially took interest in the CLA 45 AMG. I couldn't find anything locally and lost interest. With the newest generation RS3, that re-ignited my car search and as I watched more comparison videos and cross shopped the RS3 with the AMG I landed on the AMG. I love the styling and performance. While the car can get a bit spendy with how you option it, I still think it's a good value considering you are getting excellent performance, luxury, great tech, AWD and good fuel economy. I come from a 2018 Focus RS, which was a great car in it's own right, but it's not on the same level as the AMG. The biggest gripes I had with the RS was the ride quality (literally could not use headrest as it would comically knock my head around) and fuel economy (averaged 23 MPG mostly highway keeping my foot out of it). I also was outgrowing the hot hatch scene as I had that car for almost 5 years and prior to that I had a Fiesta ST for a couple years.

I travelled from the Chicago Suburbs to Ann Arbor to pick up this well equipped CLA 45 AMG yesterday. I was willing to travel as this had everything I wanted (except SiriusXM, which I need to figure out). The special paint looks better in person than in the photos. My biggest concern going into the purchase was the ride quality. I had driven a few used CLA 45 AMG's locally and the performance and everything else was great but it was hard to gauge the ride quality on such short test drives. I was very pleased with the ride quality on the 3.5 hour ride home. I used the headrest the entire way and the car rides much smoother than my RS did. I also averaged just under 31mpg on the way home and it kept climbing as I was driving (I think there was some sitting/idling at the dealer that likely skewed the average down). Pretty remarkable that a car that does 0-60 in under 4 seconds also gets great fuel economy. I can't wait to get a few things sorted so I can get really comfortable driving the car (PPF, winter wheels, get past break-in period).

I'm excited to be more active in the forum and learn from one another. Cheers!

 

Car looks awesome! I am similar in that I have been a member for a while but sold my 2019 GLA 45 in 2020 to buy a Tesla M3 performance. In terms of performance, the tesla is hard to beat; 0-60 in 3.1 seconds.
The monthly payment and insurance was killing me so I sold it at a profit. I so missed the AMG so on Halloween I bought a lightly used 2018 GLA 45. I have a stage 1 OE tune. It really makes a difference.
It's great to be back.