Category: Compact MPV 
Price Range: £18,424 to £22,070
Premium-brand badge, spacious and flexible interior, a usable and practical family car.
Price premium unjustified beyond presence of Mercedes badge, uninspiring dynamics, dull styling inside and out, poor mechanical refinement, characterless.
Not really worth the price premium over mainstream compact MPVs and large hatches; how much are buyers prepared to pay for that German badge?
The first time the B-Class really feels like a luxury car is when you first move off. Like the new A-Class, it has variable-rate dampers, which allow for soft responses at low speeds and firmer behaviour at higher speed. The steering assistance is also speed-sensitive, so when driving in town you enjoy almost effortless manoeuvring and excellent isolation from the noise and harshness of the road surface. But at low speeds, potholes and craters can overwhelm the soft damper settings and set the car rocking, and at higher speeds it often feels too stiff, the car responding with a jolt to motorway expansion joints. Wind noise is well-suppressed but as with the A-Class, bigger wheels and wider rubber create tyre noise levels at odds with the cabin's general hush. The steering's lack of feel and feedback becomes an issue at higher speed; although it gets meatier it remains vague around the dead-ahead and you'll find yourself constantly correcting your trajectory.
The B-Class will come with a choice of six four-cylinder engines; two 1991cc diesels with 108 and 138bhp, and 1.5, 1.7 and 2.0-litre naturally-aspirated petrols with 94, 115 and 134bhp each. The range-topper is the 2.0-litre turbo with 190bhp at 5000rpm and 206lb ft of torque between 1800 and 4850rpm. The two turbos get a six-speed manual gearbox as standard; all other engines have five cogs, but all have the option of the seven-step CVT gearbox.
The B200 Turbo is an average engine. Although its maximum 206lb ft of torque is capped between 1800 and 4850rpm it seems to do its best work between 3000 and 4000rpm, producing a strong swell of acceleration. It maintains it to the 6000rpm cut-out, adding a harder but not intrusive exhaust note. Ask less of it and it's cooperative but its noise is always audible. Mercedes claims 7.6sec to 62mph and 140mph, about as fast as you'd want a B-Class to be. There's also a normally aspirated 2.0-litre, with 134bhp. Its power delivery is broad but this is not a particularly smooth and refined engine, and is virtually always audible, even at cruising speeds.
The B200 diesel produces its 221lb ft of torque between 1600 and 3000rpm but adds 60kgs to the weight of the petrol. It feels a little quicker than the 9.6sec to 62mph Mercedes claims for it, but this isn't one of those super-diesels that recalibrates your notion of how oil-burners perform. Its low grumble is audible even at motorway speeds, which is particularly unusual these days, while there's more vibration through the pedals and gearstick than we're used to in a modern diesel, and the action of the six-speed box standard in both B200s is notchy and obstructive. The 108bhp diesel (badged B180 CDI) is also noisy, and though adequate, is hardly a thrilling drive: in fact, it's dull and undistinguished.
Unexpectedly, the 1.7-litre petrol (B170) is quite sweet, and preferable to the B180 CDI: it's lively and responsive at low speeds, and sounds refined and smooth. It's not got a lot of go for high-end motorway speeds, but for the majority of the time, it would be easy and relatively economical to live with.
