The 'baby CLS' will revive the CLC name

With the new generation of the Mercedes-Benz B-Class already on display for everyone to see and just days away from its official debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the only remaining mysteries are the various derivatives its MFA platform will spawn. One of them, the small saloon that will follow the trend started by the CLS, has been the focus of the British magazine Autocar, which has uncovered quite a few details about this model.

To begin with, its name will be CLC, another recycled name, just as the new E-Class Coupé and Cabriolet were. Unlike those, the previous model that carried this name had the bad luck of being, like the name itself, a “reuse” of an earlier car, the C Sportcoupé, and it failed to achieve the expected sales volume. However, the new CLC, which will carry the code C117, should prove far more appealing, and will also make life considerably harder for the future BMW 2 Series, as we already discussed.

Autocar continues with the leak, mentioning the engine range, which will come standard with a six-speed manual gearbox: the petrol engines, all turbocharged, will include a 1.6 in 121 and 154 CV versions and a 2.0 producing 207 horsepower; the diesels will be a 1.8 with 108 and 134 CV and a 2.1 with 168 and 201 horsepower. For those seeking more excitement without spending what a C63 AMG Coupé costs, there will also be a 2.0 biturbo producing 296 horses, whose power will be sent to the wheels through a dual-clutch transmission.

The standard variants will be front-wheel drive, while the CLC AMG, according to what Autocar has managed to learn, may be equipped with four-wheel drive. It’s a shame that, as tempting as all these figures sound, we still have to wait until 2013 to see this little one on the streets…

Source | Autocar