I am interested very much in the CLA45 S as the wait for a A45 S hatch has come to an end obviously here in Canada. I am looking for information on the suspension on the AMG CLA45 S.

You can choose an option here to add the 3 stage Ride Control Sport Suspension. I don't like fake suspension though, I much prefer a proper setup fixed suspension. What is the fixed suspension like and setup exactly? Is it also a sport setup suspension that is fixed?

 

I'm not sure what you mean by fake suspension. AMG Ride Control is an adaptive suspension w/ coil springs and adaptive dampers in case of the CLA. Some higher level AMGs have air springs and adjustable anit-roll bars. AMG Ride Control is just a brand name and the specifics are obviously different for each model, but AMG does a great job with their adaptive suspensions. I love the one in my '19 C63S coupe and wouldn't want a fixed suspension. The ability to change the damping for normal, sporty and ***** out driving is great. It's all very natural and tailored to the task at hand.

The fixed suspension as the name says has fixed damping. A good damping setup can certainly be great, but not every fixed damping works for every road that one drives on. That's the advantage that an adaptive suspension has. It's like having a crew on board that constantly fine tunes the suspension on the fly for the road and situation you drive based on your chosen mode for the base damping. Considering that Formula 1 banned adaptive suspensions, because they gave drivers an unfair advantage says a lot about the potential of a good adaptive suspension.

A fixed suspension is ultimately always a compromise, because comfort and sporty handling are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Can't have both at the same time unless the suspension can be adjusted on the fly for comfort or handling depending on the driver's current preference. That's what AMG Ride Control offers. Makes a performance car more useable. You can keep it in Comfort for normal driving, but still have the option of a much more sport tuned setup if you hit up a track or a fun mountain road. The middle ground would be an adjustable coilover suspension as in the GT R Pro, but with those you have to crawl under the car and start wrenching in order to adjust it for a particular road course etc. FWIW, even AMG went back to an adaptive suspension with the even more bonkers GT Black Series, although with the option to manually adjust ride height for corner weighting and camber using shims to further tailor it for specific tracks.

 

Yes I completely understand what you put forth as I have owned a few PASM Porsches. What I meant by fake is that adaptive gives you a digitized feel IMHO. Now that I have a fixed suspension car, that is setup perfectly from factory, I would be much more interested in the same.

So back to my query on how is the fixed suspension setup on this car?

 

Fair enough. Wherever there are algorithms that control things there's a level of digitized feel, but keep in mind the CLA and A 45 are full of that. The whole rear differential for example is a computer that aims to give you fake RWD dynamics and fake drifting. The whole thing leads to a very digital experience. The suspension is just one aspect. The CLA/A 45 is my least favorite AMG. It's just too much computer trickery. Chris Harris famously called the A45 the worst AMG he had ever driven.

I wasn't even aware there was a fixed suspension option. I've driven the A45 many times, but they all had AMG Ride Control. Not sure how common the fixed suspension is. Best for you to test drive them and see for yourself. When it comes to suspensions, nobody can really tell you if you like it. You have to experience it for yourself.

 

Totally agree. Just wanted find out how the fixed suspension is setup.

 

I don't think "fake suspension" label really makes sense. All it does is change the stiffness of the suspension.

 

I wouldn't call it fake, either, but what you are saying is also not true. Adaptive suspensions continuously change the damping characteristic at each corner multiple times a second in response to inputs from multiple sensors. Yes, that affects stiffness, but what's really managed is the damping. It does take a moment to recalibrate to that as a driver. It felt a bit odd at first coming from fixed suspensions, but once my senses adapted (pun intended), I started to anticipate how the suspension reacts and it no longer felt odd. What I like about it is how the car settles much quicker with an adaptive suspension. When I hit a bump it compresses, then rebounds and settles. It's like 1, 2 and settled. A fixed suspension has much more bounce and oscillation until it settles, unless it has really stiff damping, but then it starts to skip around over bumps. The adaptive suspension finds the sweet spot and keeps the car planted while at the same time settled, maximizing the contact patch of the tires.

I don't wanna push it any further on OP if he is set on fixed suspensions, but I suspect not many if any around here have the fixed suspension to provide any feedback. Even tried to google reviews of CLA 45s or A 45s with the fixed standard suspension, but came up emptied handed. They all have AMG Ride Control. Even AMG uses AMG Ride Control equipped A 45 S at their driving events.

 

Yo bro i had my 2020 CLA 45s and im shocked reading your text, could you please explain more to me about the fake RWD dynamics? thxx

 

The A/CLA are a transverse FWD platform with an electronically controlled clutch that can send up to 50% of the driving torque to the rear axle as needed, but the front wheels are always driven. So at most you have a 50/50 distribution between the front and rear axle under normal traction conditions. So the A/CLA are primarily FWD cars and then the computer involves the rear axle as it sees fit.

In addition to that the rear differential has two more clutches that allows it to direct the torque to either wheel. All the torque going to the rear axle can be sent to a single rear wheel, but remember that's only up to 50% of the total torque. The drift mode in the A/CLA cannot decouple the front axle as it can in the higher up AMGs with drift mode such as the E63S. In the E63S, drift mode turns the car into a true RWD configuration by fully decoupling the front axle. In the A/CLA drift mode can't do that. The front wheels continue to be driven, but drift mode then tries to overpower the outer rear wheel to help you initiate a drift, but it's gonna be a 4-wheel drift with the front wheels trying to pull the car straight while drifting. It's a completely different experience than drifting an RWD car.

The whole setup attempts to give an RWD sensation. The rear differential does torque vectoring to help rotate the car around corners similar to an RWD car, but it's artificial. Starting with the C Class, the cars are built on a longitudinal RWD platform and the rear wheels are always driven. Then in the AWD models such as the E63 a computer controlled clutch can send some of it to the front wheels as needed. Basically the AWD is the wrong way around in the A/CLA. The higher trim AWD AMGs are primarily RWD and send some of the torque to the front wheels when needed. This is what also allows them to completely decouple the front wheels.

 

damn bro… so here’s the reason i hardly drifting my car. By the way how do you know about this?

 

Well, don't know where to start. From reading and learning about cars over many years and doing my due diligence before buying a new car, and I've been to the factory multiple times. With AMG you can also participate at the AMG Experience events where you learn about the cars and drive them to compare. Just came back from another one in Germany. This was my 4th one. Drove the new GT 63 coupe and I've driven everything else including the GT Black Series at previous events. Got to haul the BS around the Nürburgring a couple of years ago and did a winter event last year drifting around in the snow, although they had to make snow as the weather didn't play along, but it was still fun. We drove the A45S at that event on the skid pad. That was quite a bit of fun, too, but trying to drift it otherwise was a real pain due to its architecture. Didn't like it.

 

That got me curious, why isn't the W206 C 43 available during the event?

 

Your guess is as good as mine, but at these events they mainly have the 63 models and up. The 43 and 53 models aren't really track cars. They do sprinkle them in occasionally such as the EQE 53 and CLE 53, but then again, there are no 63 versions of them yet. When I did my first event in the USA, they had the previous gen C43 in the fleet specifically to contrast it with the higher up models and you realized just how it wasn't built for that kind of driving. The W206 is supposedly better dynamically, but it's still not really built for the track. The 35, 43 and 53 models also don't get a complementary day anymore included with the purchase. You only get something like $800 credit. The 45, 63 and up still get a full complementary day as far as I know.

Here's the current US fleet if you are interested: https://www.amgexperienceus.com/vehicles

 

That makes much more sense. I also agree the 35 and 43 can't compete with the 63 models.

 

Hello i have my CLA 45s fixed suspension, for daily drive its actually quite comfort (for a performance car) if your tire pressure its not too high, but me personally i do more like stiff suspension so i always set the tire pressure high and its REALLY great in cornering