BMW 520d vs Mercedes-Benz CLA200

What's the difference?

Eco-friendly vehicles are the leather pants of the new-car world; it takes a lot of money to make them look good (but people who own them think they look fantastic regardless). If you don't have a gazillion dollars to drop on a Tesla,  then it's a one-way ticket to Prius town. And really, who wants that? 

But what if it didn't have to be that way? Behold the BMW 530e iPerformance.

Seemingly tired of waiting for the Australian Government to introduce any sort of meaningful subsidy for green cars, BMW has made the choice simple: you can have a petrol-powered 530i for $108,900, or opt for the plug-in hybrid 530e for... $108,900. This is truly revelatory thinking.

There's no specification penalty, either, and the hybrid will power to 100km/h in an identical 6.2 seconds, so you're not even any slower. But you are sipping less fuel, emitting less C02 and basking in the general smugness, and sweet silence, that comes with feeling like you're saving the world.

So what's the catch?

Mercedes-Benz’s Gordon Wagener is a car design rock star. He’s the guy that shapes the three-pointed star’s design strategy and a decade ago introduced the concept of ‘sensual purity’ as a key driver of the way the brand’s cars should look and feel. And this is the latest expression of that thought, the second-generation (C118) CLA four-door Coupe.

Wagener’s influence is critical here because the CLA is one of the most fashion-focused offerings in the ever-broadening Mercedes-Benz range.

But does the drive match the creative style? We got behind the wheel of the first model to arrive, the entry-level CLA 200, to find out.