Again with another long-awaited car and it’s probably because of the segment it comes into that there’s so much talk about it. This car sees the motoring giant Mercedes Benz properly enter the hatch segment and not with some cop-out mommy wagon either.
While on the subject, it seems a lot of people can’t stop talking about the fact that the new A Class is nothing like the old one. Ummm…obviously. And that’s the point.
And don’t bother getting too into it and start questioning if the old A-Class is going to be missed and people won’t have any predictable German superminis to buy, because they will. It’s called the B-Class.
So what of this new competitor to the Audi A3 and BMW 1-series?
Well off the bat, it looks brilliant. And we had the designer on the launch, Mark Fetherston, there to tell us all about it. After a brief chat it became clear that the new A-Class is deeply inspired by sharks and aeroplanes. One dangerous, one fast. Boxes checked.
There’s a very decent A180 in the range, that ranges from 80kw to 90kw and there’s a diesel version too. Don’t knock the diesel either; it’s got more torque than a fart blown from Father Christmas on the 26th December.
And on the top end of the scale (for the moment anyway) is the A250 Sport which comes in at 155kw from its 2-litre petrol engine. That’s a good competitor to the outgoing GTi, but not the new one which has been announced as having 169kw.
On the plus side though, the A-Class is so far beyond the styling of the new GTi, it’s in 1960’s SOHO while the GTi is Victorian England compared. Where the GTi has plaid seats, the A-Class has an interior completely galvanised in silver trim, and it’s not just dressed-up plastic either. This really is a solid, well-made inside, whether you opt for the red-stitched leather or the fake carbon fibre rubber foam. Stunning.
Other things you’ll find inside, just peak into any of Mercs new sedans, they really have given their baby Merc all the toppings: 6 yr 100 000km maintenance contract, aircon and collision prevention and attention assist are all standard.
Options include the panoramic sunroof at R10 000 and (and I would check these just for the awesomeness of them) distronic plus, lane change assist and blind spot assist. On the new Merc’s you’ll see a plastic covering just behind the logo on the front grille. Behind this covering is a radar system that can perform magic like prepare and even slow your car if it senses something in the road ahead of you.
Distronic Plus is as mind-blowing as LSD and also a good test for how much faith you actually put in technology these days. It performs like any normal cruise control. The magic comes in when the car in front of you starts to slow. You too, will start to slow. And if the car in front of you stops, so will you. And you won’t even have to lift your foot off the carpet onto the brake pedal, the car does it all for you.
The power from the boss A250 Sport is a little disappointing. It’s not that it’s slow, not at all. It’s that it doesn’t FEEL fast. If you’re not sure if you’re about to race an A250 Sport, get out real quick, jog to the front of the car and see if there’s a diamond grille there. If there is, your Golf 1 with a mod exhaust isn’t gonna cut it. Now move your car, you’re holding up traffic.
I have no doubts that an A250 Sport would stay with and maybe even beat a Golf GTi off the line, but it’ll do it without spilling the ash of the cigarette you’ve got pursed between your lips. The GTi on the other hand shoves you into the back of the seat on pull off; through the windscreen as you change gears and then back into the leather again as you let the clutch out. The A-Class has the speed; it just delivers it in too sophisticated a manner for my liking. Interns at Alexander Forbes will love it though.
As usual, I finish with my favourite, and as usual it isn’t the biggest or most powerful. The A200 with it’s 1.6-litre, 115kw engine is more than enough car than you’ll need, and it’s a lot more of a driver’s car than the A250 Sport. It’s more responsive, it’s more daring and you get the feeling something might go wrong, a feeling completely absent from the A250 Sport.
Get it: R274 000 – R393 000
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OH, BTW, keep an eye on the site for the big boss hot hatch from MB, coming in a few months. It’s called the Mercedes Benz A45 AMG, it’ll have a 2-litre turbocharged engine and produce 265kw of power. The most interesting part is going to be finding out how they’ve managed to control the world’s most powerful 4-cylinder engine.
Also, if Renault did the Megane RS with 196kw, Mini did the GP with 221kw and now Mercs gone and done the A45 with 265kw, the question is: what’s next? A 300kw monster truck from Audi?
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