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We drive the Mercedes A-Class
Price as tested: £17,197 Range price: £13,892 - £21,777 Insurance group as tested: 7E Insurance group range: 5E – 15A Date tested: August 2007 Road tester: Auto Trader Ten Point Test rating: 81% Since the first Mercedes A-Class was sold in 1998, more than 1.1 million have found homes worldwide. That has a lot to do with its supermini sensibilities and the peerless image the car's Three Pointed Star badge brings. Now in its second generation, the A-Class has grown in length as well as width, and features over 200 patented designs. We took to the road in an A180 2-litre diesel to see if there's more to the A-Class than a prestigious badge.
Looks | Looks Inside | Practicality | Ride and Handling | Performance
The second generation A-Class takes the 'one-box' formula which made the original such a success and Mercedes has tweaked rather than restyled it. This model has a sportier stance than its predecessor – especially with the three-door version. It has a pair of sweeping headlights up front, a bolder grille and flowing lines along the side. The edges of the rear screen flow into the sides of the taillights, which in turn drops to form a low boot sill, which makes loading luggage simple. We tested the Elegance model, the second in a range of three, which adds 16-inch alloy wheels, body coloured door handles and wing mirrors, front fog lamps and bits of chrome over the entry-level Classic model. 8/10
9/10
Mercedes cite the A-Class' clever 'sandwich floor' – which means parts of the engine and other drivetrain components sit beneath a second floor – as the secret to its interior space. Offering a saloon car-sized cabin in a supermini-cum-MPV-sized car, front and rear shoulder, head and leg room is excellent. Its boot capacity of 395-litres – a benchmark for this kind of car – is 21 per cent more than the previous model. Loading luggage is easy with a low boot sill, although a lower boot floor can make bulky objects tricky. The rear seats can be folded to produce a flat loading area, which creates 1,340 litres of space. Mercedes Easy-Vario system allows the removal of the rear and front passenger backrests, increasing luggage volume to a class-leading 1,955 litres. 9/10
Despite the A-Class' lofty driving position, the car's ride and handling is more than competent. There's plenty of feel through the steering wheel, and bodyroll is strangely absent. Mercedes has employed a host of technology to reach this end, including a bodyroll-reducing clever rear axle and a 'selective damping system' which adjusts the suspension depending on how the car is driven (under normal conditions it optimises the setup for comfort, but stiffens to stabilise the car during high speed cornering). 8/10
Contrary to its A180 badge, our test car featured a 2-litre diesel engine, producing 109bhp and 185lb/ft of pulling power. That adds up to a 0-62mph time of 10.8 seconds and a top speed of 115mph. The power in our test car was transferred to the wheels via Mercedes Autotronic automatic gearbox. This £1,160 option changes the gear ratios constantly, eliminating the interruption of power found with a conventional auto 'box and allowing the car to reach its maximum power range more quickly. Under hard acceleration, particularly, the sound of one gear from tickover to the rev limiter was strange. Stranger was the way it would reach and hold itself at its maximum 4,200rpm irrespective of the vehicle's speed. More satisfying was to select one of its seven 'gears' via the semi-automatic mode. Mercedes also offer a six-speed manual on its faster models, with a five-speeder for the rest of the range. Other engine choices include an 82bhp and 140bhp 2-litre diesel and 1.4-, 1.7- and 2-litre petrols. A hot 2-litre turbocharged engine is available in the range-topping A200 Turbo. 8/10
With a starting price of almost £14,000, the A-Class is fairly expensive, but remains the cheapest route into Mercedes ownership. However, the price is likely to rocket when the options list is considered – the basic cars come with very little. The diesel engines offer the best fuel economy and superior used values; but the smaller petrol engines shouldn't be discounted on that basis. The A150 petrol engined entry-level model can manage 45.6mpg. Our test car was covering 45.3mpg on average – less than Mercedes official 54.3mpg figure – and its emissions of 142g/km of CO2 (137g/km for the manual version) place it in tax Band C, which currently costs £115 per year. Insurance is group 7E, although the smaller-engined models are just group 5. Residual values are among the best in the hatchback class, thanks to Mercedes' impeccable reputation. 7/10
8/10
Scoring a full five stars for adult occupant protection in the EuroNCAP crash test programme, its sandwich chassis helps to prevent injury by forcing the engine under the floor – rather than into the cabin – in the event of a collision. Other standard equipment includes two-stage airbags which deploy differently depending on the severity of the collision and head/thorax airbags which replace the side airbags (they're in addition to driver and passenger airbags). Safety options include bright bi-xenon headlamps which incorporate a cornering light function which illuminates at speeds up to 25mph when the steering wheel is turned or the indicators operated. 9/10
Despite the A-Class' £14,000 starting price, basic models are poorly equipped – the entry-level Classic does without air-con and alloys. Our Elegance test car is the second model in the range and adds electric rear windows (five door only), air-con, alloys, a cooled glovebox, a 12v socket in the rear, automatic headlights and wipers and a bulb failure indicator. You'll need to upgrade to the Avantgarde to receive brighter projection headlights and Artico (a man-made leather) upholstery. 7/10
Combining 8/10
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The A-Class' interior is immediately recognisable as a Mercedes. High quality materials and an excellent fit and finish are employed throughout. Only the faux wood trim flanking the centre console cheapens the look. Virtually every surface on the A-Class feels tactile and the controls are all clearly labelled and fall to hand. Only the single stalk control on the left of the steering column requires some getting used to. Until it becomes second nature to use, our roadtesters had to take their eyes off the road and peer around the thick steering wheel spokes.
5. Performance
Mercedes are often bought for its perceived reliability, and the A-Class does a lot to cement that reputation. The car felt solid, and free from squeaks or rattles. The A-Class scores below average for the cost and frequency of breakdowns, largely due to its repair costs.Page 1
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