[terrywang]

Interesting time, neighbour's 2021 CLA 35 AMG, suffered from a problem with the gear lever, the car cannot be put into reverse gear, it just stationed there, can only move forward. He had to drive it to the cul-de-sac and turn it off for 1 minute and start it again, lucky it worked. He mentioned it has happened several times and he is now afraid to drive it, he'd rather take his Aurion (AU model, consider it a Camry V6 3.5L + 6AT).

It is still under warranty, I heard he mentioned that was some reverse gear mechanism in the steering column, he is waiting for the part to come in and get it fixed, most likely will be sold pretty soon. Seems to be common issue with A-Class, CLA-Class...

NOTE: I've driven the 1st gen A 45 AMG, didn't like it (pretty much stock form, big turbo, so laggy, the gearbox wasn't good either, ride quality was so harsh, if tuned it can be better but I wouldn't buy it, let alone spend $ tuning it). The CLA 35 AMG, made bigger than 1st gen, looked OK, has similar issues, turbo lag is noticeably bad when car is cold in normal mode, build quality isn't up to scratch.

Not sure why people are attracted to buy such expensive but boring / unreliable cars. In Sydney metro areas, I noticed a pattern that certain group of people will buy these entry level performance cars (4-pod 35, 45, etc.). I sort of understand why young female drivers like those, they "look good" for their taste, nice to sit in, mechanical performance & quality is not of concern...