STUD OR DUD? Mercedes-Benz CLA Images Leak Out, Who Should Worry?

The swoopy creased body panels look Hyundai-inspired. Not something I find attractive, in any way.

Cheese and crackers. Let's get this out of the way. HYUNDAI COPIED EVERYONE ELSE. The original CLS had a strong body crease years before the Sonata did.

Back to the CLA. it looks good, but these photos make it look a bit overwrought. I don't believe that the headlights and taillights will be as flashy as they appear here, with less flourishes of the outlines.

My beef with all the sheet metal creasing going on is that I think the shape of the car, the actual silhouette, is what the design should be. Treating the sides of the car like it is some kind of canvas for abstract shapes is a fad.

Bangle, Hooydonk, and the many others that copy them should be treated as war criminals.

Every surface looks a convoluted mess with so many disparate 'character lines' going in every direction.

The first generation CLS (from which this design obviously originated) looked rather refreshing/fluid (in a good way) but now it seems that Merc designers have settled on going all Samurai Warrior in every panel of the car with no sense of aesthetic cohesion.

It's also rather odd how the GPS/MM screen looks like the interior designers forgot to add it and just grabbed whatever small tablet was on the Best Buy clearance rack and plopped it on top of the dash with no concern for how it fits in with the rest of the design (see: current BMW 3-Series) - Not Good.

Mercedes should worry...Do you really think a guy who spent $200K on his SLS wants to wait in line at the service counter behind some hip-hop pimple faced swarthy kid with his rhinestone DUB hat askew in front of him cursing out his bro on his iphone waiting to pick up his CLS rental. He will be buying a Bentley next time for sure.

How come everyone talks about Hyundai copying ...

But there are few posts about how Ford completely ripped off the front end of an Aston Martin??

Is it because it's being done by a U.S. company?

Um, Aston Martin was owned by Ford up until 2007, possibly right before the styling plans for the new Fusion were created. plus, it's been acknowledged, ad nauseum, on here and elsewhere, about how the Fusion's grille is straight from Aston Martin.

STUD for me , some details people comments above could be true , like the nav screen , but is not bad at all , cold be a revolutionary design to all it in some way ,and about Koreans cars they just waiting to visit auto shows , take photos and then copy and paste, that's all, they never deserve any credit for me. People talking a lot about BMW specially the E60 design when was new ,and now a lot of cars copying the front design lower line and the lateral of the headlights, same thing with the 7 series trunk , most of the cars have it now , so , is it a good design or not .....of course great and very original design because everybody is copy them.

You all can have this small ass, over styled, overpriced Benz. I bet you it's the same price as an E-Class

dud for sure, overstyled hyundai with pointless backseat is my $.02

Corvette C7 buyers will be worrying. They will be driving a bonefied design catastrophe.