Thoughts on MB A-Class hatchback?

DriveSkill

Hi,

In the market for a petrol automatic hatchback and looked at the A-Class today.

Overall impressed, had just come from looking at Toyota Corolla and A-Class was miles ahead in terms of style - admittedly also more expensive but MB were doing a better trade-in deal so brought the cost-to-change within 3K.

Was looking at the Progressive spec with beige interior and overall looked very nice in my opinion. However couple of things that niggled at me :

- I felt the 7-inch screens seemed small - the larger 10-inch looks MUCH better but are a 4K extra as part of a pack.
- No Apple Car play! Its a 400€ option, can be added via download.
- No wireless charging
- No adaptive cruise control - not sure what pack this comes with, must be an option somewhere.
- No rear parking sensors - there is a camera.
- No rear arm-rests

If you spec one up to what I would like then price comes to around €45K which in my view is too high for the size/class of car and then the Corolla comes back into play

Looking online seems most have the 7-inch screens so people dont seem upgrade but looks "cheap" I think for what otherwise is a nice interior.

Any owners out there ? How do you find life with it.

Need to go look at a few other things also : BMW 1-Series, A3.

Thanks!

ofcork

I would go for the corolla better looking and infinitely more reliable than the a class which isnt a great looking car imo,corolla would be about 15k cheaper!!

DriveSkill

ofcork wrote: »

I would go for the corolla better looking and infinitely more reliable than the a class which isnt a great looking car imo,corolla would be about 15k cheaper!!

I agree exterior of the Corolla is nice but the interior is poor and I have a strong dislike of the way they mount the touchscreen, it looks like its just stuck onto the airvents.
Price wise there definitely is not €15K in the difference (maybe if you go base Corolla and top spec A-Class) but based on what I looked at it was around a €3K difference.

For PCP actual cost of Corolla to me is €14,359 and A-Class is €17,253. That is based on 36 monthly payments + GFMV paid off - my trade-in refund ( I will actually a good chunk of cash back as trading a 181 Passat).

DriveSkill

On the reliability front - any details on why you think A-Class would not be reliable (based on the latest model). Agree Corolla should be pretty good!

L-M

Are you looking to downsize? You’ll be seriously unimpressed long term with an A class after coming out of a Passat, the passat being far superior.

ofcork

Just based on what ive seen and read mercedes reliability still seems to be sketchy.

ofcork

Only a weedy 1.3 in the merc at least the corolla is 1.8.,there is actually huge gap in the price if you go to a 2.0 in the merc looking at 50k!

DriveSkill

L-M wrote: »

Are you looking to downsize? You’ll be seriously unimpressed long term with an A class after coming out of a Passat, the passat being far superior.

So it will actually be my wife's car although she currently has my "old" car which is a 5-series estate so she will be downsizing :eek:
In all seriousness she doesnt need a big car, we will keep the 5-series even though its a 2011, its going fine and I much prefer driving it over the Passat, it will become my car again for a until we trade for something maybe next year. This new car will basically be used for commuting (about 10km each way) and short trips and quite honestly the BMW isnt suited to her needs, its diesel, is big and her work car park is pretty tight.

I never really liked the Passat to be honest, I went from the BMW to the Passat and almost immediatly regretted it. I mean its a nice car and its a good spec but its manual which I now hate and its under-powered (1.6D). It bland I guess

DriveSkill

ofcork wrote: »

Only a weedy 1.3 in the merc at least the corolla is 1.8.,there is actually huge gap in the price if you go to a 2.0 in the merc looking at 50k!

I guess you are just a big fan of Toyota not sure what is "weedy" about the Merc engine. The Toyota may be 1.8 but is 120bhp and 0-60 in 10.6secs whereas A-Class is 1.3 but 134bhp and 0-60 in 8.9 secs.



I had quick drive in the merc, admittedly have not driven the Corolla but not looking for massive performance and certainly from the quick drive in the merc it seemed to accelerate fine.

colm_mcm

If you’re looking at hatchbacks, maybe look at the likes of a Golf/Octavia etc which would compete with the Corolla on price, and give you scope for speccing up.

DriveSkill

colm_mcm wrote: »

If you’re looking at hatchbacks, maybe look at the likes of a Golf/Octavia etc which would compete with the Corolla on price, and give you scope for speccing up.

Octavia not an option as wife doesnt like them. Golf equally not high on the list as petrol automatic Golf options are limited so coming in at over €35K for the MHEV version

colm_mcm

Leon?

You’d be into ID4 money there too?

Matthewjohn

DriveSkill wrote: »

Octavia not an option as wife doesnt like them. Golf equally not high on the list as petrol automatic Golf options are limited so coming in at over €35K for the MHEV version

I think it would be worth getting a price on the Golf. Although the list is high, you’re more likely to get a strong trade in on the Passat and in my experience VW dealers are generally good to discount.

DriveSkill

Leon not getting the love from my wife....
I got a quote on a Golf at the start of the year and trade-in for Passat was actually close enough to what MB are offering now. There is probably some wriggle room on the Golf but equally we are a couple months later so trade-in will likely be lower now.

DriveSkill

Equity on the Passat is actually holding up very well - PCP GFMV was €13,800 just cleared off and trade in offer against the MB is €21K - MB are just selling it on to trade, and even the sales guy was surprised how strong it was (or at least so he said :-) )

bodonnell

Civic 1.5 or 1.0 if you don't need the extra bhp

Casati

DriveSkill wrote: »

Equity on the Passat is actually holding up very well - PCP GFMV was €13,800 just cleared off and trade in offer against the MB is €21K - MB are just selling it on to trade, and even the sales guy was surprised how strong it was (or at least so he said :-) )

Hard to beat that kind of trade in. I’d go with the Merc over a Corolla anyway