Mercedes-Benz A-Class review: Improvements can’t justify paying a premium

Sadly, the A-Class isn’t so special that you would want to spend twice as much on one as you might on a roughly equivalent Volkswagen Golf, say

(Pictures by Mercedes-Benz)

Car magazine, with which I grew up, as if a parent, has long had a guide at the back called “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”.

It was a very clever idea – as well as lots of esoteric columns from the likes of LJK Setright and Ronald “Steady” Barker, and big tests, towards the end of the mag was a pithy verdict on every new car on the market, from the Hillman Imp to the Panther 6. So the magazine was always comprehensive.

Each product was pithily summed up in the spirit of the modern tweet. So in homage, let me do the same, which will save both of us time, for the new Mercedes A-Class:

For: Lovely big screens, improved interiors, “predator” grille

Against: Cost, Renault engines,

Verdict: Audi A3 still challenges, but A-Class edges it.

Actually, they’ve changed the format a little now at Car, and they like the A-Class a bit more than I do, but you’ll have to go and read all that for yourself.

There are plenty of more charming Benzes out there than the new A-Class. Those ones are stylish and solid and charismatic, the sorts of qualities that are essential to persuade you to pay over the odds for a vehicle – even if you know full well you’re being silly and you’d be fine with a Jaguar, an Audi or a Volvo. (Or a Vauxhall, if truth be told and car snobbery was somehow magically banished.)

(Mercedes-Benz)

The CLS, for example, the G-Wagen (and that goes for the old or new versions), the Mercedes-Maybach. Quite special, all those.

Sadly, the A-Class isn’t so special that you would want to spend twice as much on one as you might on a roughly equivalent Volkswagen Golf, say. It just doesn’t endear itself, impress that much or, mostly, look that great. Nothing much wrong with it, plenty to praise; but just not quite covetable.

It’s 20 years since Mercedes-Benz went small – properly small – with its A-Class hatchback. There were three remarkable things about that novel, upright, striking design. The first was the engineering, with the engine “sandwiched” between layers in the floor, which liberated space and gave the car plenty of room for passengers and luggage.

(Mercedes-Benz)

The second feature of the 1997 original was how cheap, frankly, the trim was. “Baby Benz” it may have been, but so far as the plastics were concerned it was more of a Renault Clio than a shrunken S-Class limousine.

Thirdly, the A-Class infamously failed the “elk test”, a standard obstacle used by a Swedish motoring magazine to gauge how a car makes an emergency swerve. The poor little A-Class toppled over.

The new generation could not be further away from the old car, (well, this side of a Bentley Bentayga), which is good and bad. Now in its fourth generation, plainly it has lost the old cars’ inventiveness and flair. It’s more handsome though, especially at the front where the stylists have done a superb job; the rest less so.

From the front wings back it is rather blobby and amorphous, though aerodynamic, and the back just sort of peters out, like they got bored with it. The new A-Class is thus as low and sleek as the first two generations were upright and slightly ungainly, an athlete where the ancestors had the air of toddlers learning to walk.

(Mercedes-Benz)

The new model is also lower and wider than its immediate predecessor, which also broke with the old radicalism and re-invented the A-Class as a conventional front-wheel drive five-door hatch. (As if there weren’t enough of those around; only the outgoing BMW 1-series offers traditional rear-wheel drive, but even that one is going FWD soon. The overlooked Subaru Impreza is as weird as it gets now – boxer engine and symmetrical all-wheel drive.)

(Mercedes-Benz)

Indeed, so mainstream has this Mercedes grown that it shares engines with the Renault-Nissan alliance, including Dacia cars and Renault vans (also badged as Mercedes vans these days). There’s nothing wrong with that, as it is the only way the modern car industry can stay viable, sharing vast development costs. The 1.3 litre engine in the A200 offers adequate performance and sounds a little strained when you push it hard, but usually it gets on with the job unobtrusively. (There’s a diesel option, plus a more powerful petrol model and a hot AMG version on the way.)

A Renault/Nissan/Dacia engine is just not the sort of thing Mercedes-Benz car owners would like to be teased about, I’d say. (I also wonder what will happen to the fabled Mercedes image when all those little Citan vans, based on the Renault Kangoo, start to go rusty and ratty. Scabby is hardly a “prestige” look.)

The spec

Mercedes-Benz A-Class A200 AMG line
Price: £28,700 (£31,710 as tested)
Engine capacity: 1.5-litre diesel; 4-cylinder; 7-speed auto
Power output (hp@rpm): 210@5,500
Top speed (mph): 139
0-60mph (seconds): 8.0
Fuel economy (mpg): 53.3
CO2 emissions (g/km): 123

In other words it is quite hard to make the case for the “premium” price tag attached to the car, both on the list price and the monthly leasing fees. The best chance the Mercedes-Benz salesperson has is to move the consumer from the impressive “face” of the car and into the cabin as quickly as possible. Here, as fitted with the “premium” and other packs, you will be dazzled by the sleek modernity of not one but two landscaped-format 1.25in screens.

These, as Mercedes catch up with the rest of the market, are touchscreen. You can also access your entertainment, satnav and onboard computer via buttons on the steering wheel, a sort of mini mouse mat in between the front seats, some more buttons on the centre console and by saying “Hello Mercedes”.

This voice-command system is impressive in theory, but not flawless. It took too many attempts to get it to tune into BBC Radio 5, and it tried to take me to an acupuncture clinic when I asked it to take me to work (it was tempting to make an "honest mistake").

(Mercedes-Benz)

If that’s Artificial Intelligence than I’m happy with the real thing. Alexa has nothing to fear from Mercedes. I don’t know what might happen if you had someone called Mercedes in the car. Mercedes, by the way, was the name of the daughter of an Edwardian-era car dealer who named his racing Benz after her – Mercedes Jellinek. In a way you’re saying hello to her spirit. A little eerie.

The A-Class cabin is generally up to the standards of its larger siblings these days, and the “turbofan” look of the air vents is especially cool. The ambient lighting that alters with your driving mood and style is also fun, but I’d have to say that it doesn’t quite possess that cosseting, blood-pressure-reducing effect that sinking into an E-Class or a CLS gives you.

All done, then, it’s about twice the price of a Ford Focus, a Golf or a Vauxhall Astra, but with a premium air, a nicer face and some superb screens. Worth it?

Verdict: No.