Category: Superminis 
Price Range: £14,290 to £18,645
Low emissions, cheap to run, comfortable, high driving position, quiet cruiser on motorways.
Noisy on start-up, drab interior, slow, no five-door option, pricey.
A serious option if 'green' driving is a priority.
Climb aboard the A-Class and your first thoughts are positive. The high driving position is a boon, particularly if the bulk of your journeys are around town where all-round visibility is important. You get a good view out of the back and the front and the relatively narrow, sloping windscreen pillars do not obstruct vision - unusual, these days.
It's easy to judge its length and place it into a parking space, but if parking's not your strong suit, the optional Active Park Assist system can take over. This sizes up the space using ultrasonic sensors, sorts out the steering into it, and all the driver needs to do is work the accelerator and brakes. Also new is hill start assist in manual models, to prevent you rolling backwards.
The natural environment for the A-Class is in the city, but it's perfectly capable of holding its own on the open road. Its adaptive suspension copes well when pushing on harder, and body roll is well-contained.
The A-Class, even with a 2.0-litre diesel, is hardly a hot hatch but it's a more rewarding drive than you'd think. The speed-sensitive power steering draws a good balance between around-town lightness and feedback when going faster. Pity the wheel itself feels cheap and nasty.
The A160 CDI delivers 82bhp and a maximum torque of 133lb-ft at 1,400-2,600rpm and it certainly isn't a contender as a Santa Pod entry: it'll do 0-62mph in 15 seconds, which beats a fully-functioning tortoise, but not much else. Once you are past that milestone you can lollop up to a 102mph as you race against beard growth. We did find ourselves urging the car forward with a bit of head-bobbing when we were trying to overtake dawdling city traffic.
This shouldn't be a deal-breaker. This is fit-for-purpose performance and it's got just about enough oomph for city driving. Get away from busy streets and you'll be a tad bored and uninspired on twisty A-roads but you'll be perfectly happy cruising on the motorway.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Mercedes A-Class
wrote on 16 08 2006