Horse of the Year

HORSE OF THE YEAR

MERCEDES-BENZ CLA45 AMG

If the regular CLA250 delivers on the traditional Mercedes virtues—the luxury of isolation and substance—the 355-hp CLA45 stays true to what AMG has come to mean: power. There are, of course, other reasons to buy this or any other AMG model: styling that’s somehow both charming and primal, a commute-friendly ride, a shift-ripping transmission (in this case, adual-clutch automatic), to name a few. But one blast in the CLA45, body forced violently into the seat, with a soundtrack of detonations pouring from the exhausts, and it’s the engine that will close most of the sales. Amazingly, the engineers at Mercedes and AMG did all this with a tiny 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine. No car on the planet has a higher ratio of horsepower to engine displacement. Packing that engine and doing so with all-wheel drive—which, until this year, was not available standard in any AMG model in the U. S.—means that the nearly $50,000 CLA45 AMG isn’t just the least expensive AMG in the bullpen but also one of the most advanced. —JUSTIN BERKOWITZ

OTHER CARS WE LOVE

Infiniti Q50 (steer-by-wire, a drastically different car for Infiniti) • Range Rover (fast as hell, makes the old one look like a barge) • Mazdaó (finest mainstream sedan offered in a decade) •Acura RLX (finally, a worthy successor to the Legend) •Porsche Cayman S (a little more attainable than the 911, a little more fun) •Fusion SE (almost looks like an Aston Martin now) • Chevy Cruze (but you gotta get the turbo diesel)