...Well, no, not really; that's just the way these 'unpromising small car' threads start these days. I'm driving an A160 today while the Large Estate Car is having some minor warranty fettling done, and it's awful. I know I'm a bit out of touch with small cars but I'd have hoped MB could do one better than this.
OK, it's reasonably quiet and smooth, but that's mainly because it barely moves. At all. It has a seven-speed automatic that is always in too high a gear; until, that is, I change down manually, which puts it into a bizarre mode in which it will change down automatically but never change up. So I came to a halt at a roundabout with the box showing 4, pulled away, accelerated off the roundabout and wondered why the engine was screaming. It had selected first for the standing start - and stayed there. At least it has a proper handbrake.
So I could have a manual instead, but I'd still be sitting too low (the seat is high, but so is the floor) and too far from the wheel, which doesn't have enough adjustment. The instruments are nice and clear, and the radio doesn't sound bad, but anyone who thinks their £17,000 (seventeen thousand pounds! More than I paid for my 3-year-old LEC!) gets them a Mercedes is deluded. It certainly doesn't feel like a Mercedes inside, just a plastic-heavy modem small car. And you don't even get a proper Mercedes key, just a lightweight plastic replica of one.
Overall, it makes a very good case for a Golf.
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Don't Renault provide the engine for the A160? (well, the diesel at least)
Think yourself lucky that you got a Golf-sized courtesy car. :-)
All Audi gave me was an A1, and like you, I was left wondering what all the fuss was about!
>> Overall, it makes a very good case for a Golf.
+1 Absolutely!
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Its an obselete model the new one is a completely car MB have listened to the public for once.
MB have used a third party 1.5diesel for years its in the Smart and its sister the Colt.
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>> The instruments are nice and clear, and the radio doesn't sound bad
Both are lifted straight from the current Sprinter van, as are the steering wheel and column stalk.
I drove a manual A160 up to W Yorks the day before Christmas Eve. It was the first 5-gear new car I've seen in an long while - almost everything has 6 speeds now. Slow and awful, not economical either. The customer was due a replacement lease car and wanted an Audi A1, but needed transport over Christmas and the A-Class was all the lease co could lay their hands on in time. Poor sod's stuck with it until 2014.
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The 169 is the outgoing model.
It doesn't have a 7 speed auto, its a CVT box.....
AFAIK the only new A classes around belong to MB, at least in the UK.
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Wouldn't have guessed it was a CVT. It seemed to spend a lot of time at sub-1,800 rpm speeds (petrol engine, remember) which isn't a recipe for snappy progress, even when there's (presumably) no turbo. There were certainly seven distinct ratios in reductio ad absurdum mode. There was some creep at parking speeds, but it was painfully slow to get the message that the light was green now and we could get moving. Next time the LEC's in, I'll ask for a lift to the station instead.
What I don't get is how anyone would drive this car, get out and say, "Yes, I'll have one like that, please." A manual, maybe if they could get more comfortable than I could, or a more powerful one, but not this. Ever.
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I have a friend who will only drive an Auto. She had a corsa which got written off (neighbor hit it with a caravan) I'm thinking lucky escape, but she rushed out and replaces like with like
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Mercedes Benz A-Class W169 - impressed - Londoner
