Test drive Mercedes Benz A-class W169 since 2008 hatchback

Mercedes A and B-Class ... on not a gas pipe

The day was not easy. Having played on the way with the Comfort/Sport variator of the updated Mercedes B-Klass, I forgot about the route of our test, and famously jumped up the desired turn from the Novo-Riga highway of Moscow towards Zvengorod. There were no cards in the car, the pocket navigator treacherously issued no necessary atlas, and you need to come to the point in time a difficult task? Believe me, much easier than finding the differences between old and new Mercedes A and B-Class.
 
Of course, we found the road. To the parking lot, where the keys were to be changed from my b-A-class, our crew came to the first of the lost ones. An extra 50 km shone on the odometer, and the sides of the car covered the even layer of dust, not wanting that, we added several country areas to road tests. But even a perfectly clean car stubbornly hides external changes in the smallest Mercedes.
Let's start with Mercedes B-Klass. Restyling touched mainly the front of the car: bumpers and hoods were otherwise, slightly foster optics. A similar picture is behind: a changed bumper and diamond lights. The side mirrors received a different, more streamlined form.
From some angles, cars are very similar, but there are plenty of differences between them. The senior, B-class gravitates to the gigantic R-class: the same bent body shape, the same rear window pointed to the bottom, the eagle profile of the face and that is similar.
A-class tries to do everything the other way around: the windows are also sharp, but the corners look not down, but the headlights show a keen squint against the rounded Six of the B-class. A high roof and a wide base conceal the true sizes of machines: Mercedes B-Klass reaches 4,273 mm quite adults in length. A-class is more modest by 390 mm.
However, in the Mercedes itself, the line separating A and B-classes see even more clearly. To do this, they offer to take a look at the camp of competitors. For A-class, they are BMW 1 series, VW Golf, and, oddly enough, Alfa Romeo 147. For class B-VW Golf +, Ford C-Max, Citroen C4 Picasso. Feel class differences?
 
Despite all this, there is internal competition between machines. The volumes of sales for cars are considered to be a tie, but in Russia, for example, last year the number of owners A- and B-Class has grown approximately equally. This means that Mercedes games are very serious in a small grade: they are ready to offer two very similar cars to the car with a three -beam star on the hood. And it doesn’t matter that they delay customers from each other.
Now we go to the younger A-class and rewrite the previous paragraph: the designer’s pen detached the hood, added new bumper lines, touched the optics, put cars next to their predecessors and new lines will be completely lost among sharp faces of the bodies. However, why change something dramatically if last year conservative Europe absorbed as many as 275,000 small Mercedes?
Inside the changes, even less: the upholstery of the seats became different, the firmware line has changed. The functions of multimedia have expanded to listen to your favorite ipod now in the car. The rest is quiet and the surface of classic Mercedes forms. High-quality, soft materials, almost impeccable assembly and, not unimportant, the possibility of choosing the color scheme of the cabin: from strictly black or combined to light, with wooden and aluminum inserts.
In landing, two cars are very different. In a class, especially a three-door, you sit down, like a different sedan: the door is wide, the opening is huge. Everything is familiar at the wheel, you sit low, but the review, thanks to the large area of \u200b\u200bglazing, is simply magnificent. The lack of adjustment of the steering wheel was puzzled; However, you can get comfortable with comfort without it.
A completely different picture in the B-class. Here the driver’s landing is more likely minivanic than a passenger one. Even in the extreme position of the microlift of the chair at first, I wanted to be even a little lower, although after several kilometers driving around the city the desire disappeared. Bravo road is in the palm of your hand! And the rear passengers are not at all crowded: spaces are in length and in height with excess.
The youngest, a-class inside is smaller, but its more modest size went to the detriment of the trunk than the cabin: 544 versus 435 liters. In the struggle for the sympathy of households, the B-class does not start, but wins.
The accelerated dynamics of Mercedes B-Klass with the 1.7 engine was not impressed in normal mode. Overtaking is not given that it would not be difficult to eat out of an even whisper of the engine with difficulty. But I have a magic C/S button in reserve, which caused our wanderings on Moscow roads!
Now I will click and the car will finally go. Pressed. But I did not go. The excellent smoothness of the course has not disappeared anywhere, the gas pedal in a slight click informed about the coming kick-doward, and the dynamics remained the same. And only the arrow of the tachometer stuck to the red zone, allowing a little longer to accelerate in the maximum power zone.
After that, the desire to continue to play the rider disappeared: even the excellent sound insulation of the salon could not absorb the roar of a raging motor.
Europe stubbornly tries to get involved in parking independently. Confirmation of this accessible on updated A and Class Active Parking Assist. The system operates on parking sensors, which are located not only from behind and front of the machine, but also on the sides.
To carry out parallel parking, you just need to go but not more than 35 km/h in the extreme row. Further, the assistant evaluates whether there is enough space for parallel parking (from the extreme cars there should be a supply of only 65 cm in front and back), after which the system will notify the system: the driver, I am ready to steer for you. Your task is only to press the gas and brake pedals, to change the transmission on command and not touch the steering wheel with your hands.
In fact, everything does not always happen as in the picture: sometimes from one entry, parking does not work, but, in general, Active Parking Assist is convenient and gaining popularity. The cost of the option is 1 050 euros.
Interestingly, when will Mercedes learn to go shopping for himself?
Hush hush! My companion was also not ready for the experiment. Agreed: quieter is so quieter. Pressing the C/S key, gas reset and our B-Class is again full of calm. By the way, on an A-class of gusts to turn on the sport, I did not have a younger three-door on a centner easier than a five-door B-class, and the gas responds a little more lively.
The suspension of both machines has the dream of a citizen. The motto of the engineers was, apparently, comfort and only comfort. Definitely soft, with excellent energy intensity, she coped great with the pits and cracks of the asphalt, simultaneously almost silently swallowing the bedridle policemen.
And what's on the track? The weightless electric steering wheel has become heavier, but a certain taste of synthetics in controllability still remained. But we will not find fault with inaccuracy. The short nose of small Mercedes willingly should be the driver’s teams simply need to get used to the fact that the reactive effort will not be too large. Girls even like this, and the absence of a certain highlight in the controllability is not a god the news What a misfortune for a compact class. Let even cost a different group D
A number of updates affecting Mercedes in Russia will most likely not see at all. First of all, this applies to the new 1.7 NGT BlueEfficency engine, which works both on gasoline and natural gas. In Europe, where such hybrids receive more and more recognition, the gas station infrastructure is well developed. There are practically no gas stations with natural gas in our country
The innovative Linguatronic system, which recognizes the voice commands, is given to the client when ordering a CD changer, but there is no one to teach it the Russian language. But the ECO system start/CTOP, which turns off the engine, for example, in traffic, thereby saving up to 9% of the fuel, will appear in the fall.
Perhaps then, to those 1,500 buyers who gained the happiness of owning the small Mercedes of the two classes in Russia last year, at least the same amount will be added.
Effectively slow down before a sudden obstacle is half the age. It is important that the drivers who are walking for you manage to do the same, otherwise the accident cannot be avoided. Mercedes A and B-Klass in the database are equipped with active stop signals. With emergency braking, they do not just burn, but begin to pulsate, aggravating the reaction from behind the walking driver. As a result, the time of this very reaction is reduced by 0.2 s. Few? When slowing down with 100 km/h, this winning almost 5.5 m of the brake track.

Text: Alexander Mikhailov
Photo: Alexander Mikhailov

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Source: Wheel magazine [August 2008]