Merc A140 Yay or nay??

Dreamer 7

I'm looking at an A140 for myself and was wondering does anyone have any expierence of these good or bad??
I've read that services and parts are v pricey is this right??
Its second hand 1999

Thx:p

MercMad

To be honest there are better cars out there ! The newer ones since '02 are not bad and the latest model is a different beast !

I would rethink it, and go for a better car, different brand ! These are reknowned for poor build quality and materials, and you can see the interiors are very plasticky !

whippet

my missus had a 99' A140 and it was just plain awful .... horrid and flaky inside, road noise was terrible and the handling was dreadful.

It aged very quickley and I was delighted to see it go a few years back !! I would walk rather than drive it.

bazz26

If your buying the car because you like it and it suits your needs then fair enough but if your main reason for buying it is to get on the MB ladder then imo don't bother. Not a great car for MB at the time. There are much better other makes out there for similar money.

Dreamer 7

cool thanks guys

baddabing

You do realise that these are not in actual fact built my Mercedes, same as the lupo is not actually built by volkswagen.

Dont be sold by the badge, do some research around what you need in a car and the right one will pop up

daedalus2097

Ugh... They're definitely not a driver's car... Horrible handling and a cheap feel inside and out that separates it from any other Merc I've seen. They lean horribly, have no real feeling of confidence, you're constantly wondering if it'll topple over or slide out in the next corner - and that's not even pushing it! That's doing normal speeds which would feel just fine driving a Polo or similar sized car from the same time - and which you should probably find for cheaper.

unkel

I only have experience with the old model and as others said, it's not great. It feels cheap and doesn't handle well. One redeeming factor is that the rear leg room in the LWB (long wheel base) model is incredible! As in more space than a standard BMW 7-series or Mercedes S-class...

bazz26

If you want something along the lines of the A Class then take a look at the Audi A2. Use of light aluminium body panels combined with the 1.4 TDi engine gives it great fuel economy.

Pretty rare in Ireland though:
http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=search&maxrows=100&MakeID=2&xMakeID=2&ModelID=11&xModelID=11&Year=&xYear=&submit=Find+cars+%3E%3E

daedalus2097

Yeah, supposed to be nice and economical - the look just never appealed to me though

bazz26

Yeah the A2 looks are either "love it" or "hate it" but no worse than the A Class imo.

daedalus2097

Hehe, good point... Neither are really going to win any beauty contests

bogmanfan

A2 all the way. I have one and it's a cracking car.

Esel

From what I remember reading, Honest John has a very low opinion of the A series - see link and look it up.

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/index.htm