2025 Mercedes CLA 250 4Matic
Price: $56,500 CAD
Colour: High-Tech Silver Metallic
A lot of great things comes from Europe. Boy bands, girl bands and synthesizer-based pop music have long been linked to that continent. My love for the Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls and Tears for Fears hasn’t waned over the course of my life and it never will. Something else that comes from Europe is the concept of a 4-door coupé. I recently spent some time with the 2025 Mercedes CLA 250 4Matic Coupe and I wanted to answer the question, once and for all – “Can a Sedan Really be a Coupé?”
The Oxford dictionary defines a coupé as “a car with a fixed roof, two doors and a sloping rear.” Here’s how the CLA 250 stacks up. Fixed roof? Yep. Sloping rear? Yes indeed. Two doors? Well… It’s that door count where things get a little pear shaped. The CLA only comes in one of these quirky 4-door coupes. If you ask Oxford the CLA doesn’t qualify as a coupe. The Germans know how to Google, so I think it’s safe to assume they’re aware of the contradiction at work here. The Germans have also long been the stalwart supporters of the sports sedan, so why are they being so adamant that the CLA is a coupé? Why can’t it just be a sports sedan instead? It must be because coupes sell really well, and this would be good for the CLA’s sales number. Well, that doesn’t add up either. Sports coupes have been dying on their feet for years and are very much a shrinking market. This means demand is falling off for these types of cars in favor of other types of vehicles. Why then does Mercedes feel so strongly about the image of the CLA and other sports sedans being marketed as coupes? As with all things in life involving decisions made my men, I think it ultimately boils down to sex. Coupes are sexy. They feature sleek lines that are meant to evoke a primal hormonal response from human beings. This hasn’t stopped us abandoning them for bland 5-passenger SUV’s but it doesn’t negate their effect on our senses. The sex appeal of the coupe idea is so strong that the marketing bro’s have started inserting it into the world of those SUV’s I just mentioned. You can now have 5 passenger SUV’s with a “coupe” moniker as well.
The con is on when it comes to non-coupe vehicles being marketed as coupes. We all know what is happening and what we’re being sold and we’re okay with it. We don’t want coupes anymore as they are inherently impractical when compared to the SUV alternative. Clearly however, we still want the sexy aspects that come with that moniker. We still find that aspect of a coupe appealing. Perhaps then it’s time to redefine what a coupe is. A coupe could be defined as a vehicle with a fixed roof, sloping rear end, sporty suspension and brakes and a lowered stance. If we redefine the coupe like this, then the CLA is a great choice as it ticks every single box.
