What an odd car…. Mercedes A180
Discussion
my dad has a 65 plate Merc vito van (one with seats in back, all upholstered with lots of extras etc) basically more of a car than van.
Not liked it since day one. the NAV system is s
t and hard to use, its OK to drive but have to admit the transporter is better. Since day one the tyres dont hold pressure (second set of merc alloys). The position of the key when in ignition is crap / annoying, and loads of other niggles.
Dad kept his transporter 2.5 130 hp auto model for 10 years. Hes been muttering about swapping this one since 6 months of ownership.
Conclusion MERCS aint that good.
Not liked it since day one. the NAV system is s
t and hard to use, its OK to drive but have to admit the transporter is better. Since day one the tyres dont hold pressure (second set of merc alloys). The position of the key when in ignition is crap / annoying, and loads of other niggles.Dad kept his transporter 2.5 130 hp auto model for 10 years. Hes been muttering about swapping this one since 6 months of ownership.
Conclusion MERCS aint that good.
Ilovejapcrap said:
my dad has a 65 plate Merc vito van (one with seats in back, all upholstered with lots of extras etc) basically more of a car than van.
Not liked it since day one. the NAV system is st and hard to use, its OK to drive but have to admit the transporter is better. Since day one the tyres dont hold pressure (second set of merc alloys). The position of the key when in ignition is crap / annoying, and loads of other niggles.
Dad kept his transporter 2.5 130 hp auto model for 10 years. Hes been muttering about swapping this one since 6 months of ownership.
Conclusion MERCS aint that good.
You're basing your conclusion of Mercedes cars on your dads 4 year old van? Not liked it since day one. the NAV system is s
t and hard to use, its OK to drive but have to admit the transporter is better. Since day one the tyres dont hold pressure (second set of merc alloys). The position of the key when in ignition is crap / annoying, and loads of other niggles.Dad kept his transporter 2.5 130 hp auto model for 10 years. Hes been muttering about swapping this one since 6 months of ownership.
Conclusion MERCS aint that good.
OK....
As a balance to the MBZ 'haters' out there, I've been driving a W213 E220d AMG-line Estate for the past 17 months and 20,000 miles.
It regularly takes me up and down the M3 and right into the City, usually twice a week. It is one of the most calming, cosseting and relaxing driving environments I've been in and I've driven over 1.3 million miles thus far.... After a hard days work it kinda 'mops your brow'.
In traffic, you pull up to the lights / car in front and the car will automatically put the handbrake on, keep 1st / 2nd gear engaged and stop the engine, really, really simple. When you want to pull away, you simply apply pressure to the accelerator, the engine starts, the handbrake autodisengages and you simply drive away. I mean, how hard is that? (Standard on C-classes since 2011, btw).
I had an 2017 A180d Sport when the E-Class was in for a service. I was looking forward to driving this as my wife is in the market to replace a golf. However, the ride was shockingly harsh, seemed to suffer from all sorts of jarring shocks through the cabin. The 7 speed gearbox was just about OK but the 1.5 diesel engine was harsh and underpowered. I think it had 108hp but I couldn't find them! I wanted the 'like' the car but instantly fell out of love for this and the A-Class of that vintage is now off the radar.
I've heard that the ride on the new A-Class is much better, but I've not driven one yet.
If anyone is looking at monthlies, if you shop around, the E-Class really isn't much more than and A-Class. However, it is a much better overall car and retains a lot of, if not all of the previous generations of E-Classes DNA - a proper Mercedes!
It regularly takes me up and down the M3 and right into the City, usually twice a week. It is one of the most calming, cosseting and relaxing driving environments I've been in and I've driven over 1.3 million miles thus far.... After a hard days work it kinda 'mops your brow'.
In traffic, you pull up to the lights / car in front and the car will automatically put the handbrake on, keep 1st / 2nd gear engaged and stop the engine, really, really simple. When you want to pull away, you simply apply pressure to the accelerator, the engine starts, the handbrake autodisengages and you simply drive away. I mean, how hard is that? (Standard on C-classes since 2011, btw).
I had an 2017 A180d Sport when the E-Class was in for a service. I was looking forward to driving this as my wife is in the market to replace a golf. However, the ride was shockingly harsh, seemed to suffer from all sorts of jarring shocks through the cabin. The 7 speed gearbox was just about OK but the 1.5 diesel engine was harsh and underpowered. I think it had 108hp but I couldn't find them! I wanted the 'like' the car but instantly fell out of love for this and the A-Class of that vintage is now off the radar.
I've heard that the ride on the new A-Class is much better, but I've not driven one yet.
If anyone is looking at monthlies, if you shop around, the E-Class really isn't much more than and A-Class. However, it is a much better overall car and retains a lot of, if not all of the previous generations of E-Classes DNA - a proper Mercedes!
I am TINY bit of a Mercedes fan girl, but I've driven a couple of new 177 A Classes now, and I think they are pretty awesome!
Really nice handling and ride for a FWD hatchback. The interior quality and sound proofing is good - I've forgotten I was driving a diesel a few times, which isn't something that usually happens to me!
The engine and trans combos are pretty good, with even a 180 feeling relatively lively and torquey, and the A200 I drove most recently had a proper 'mini hot hatch' feel to it in terms of driving, but was still very comfortable.
The interior is a bit 'I Robot' and takes a little bit getting used to. I hated it at first, but after a little time in them, they start to make sense. Seating position seems to make a massive difference in my experience - I've got to have the seat all the way down, otherwise it feels like you're sitting on the car, rather than in it.
Ultimately, not really my type of car, but definitely a step up from 176s in fit and feel. The previous model felt closer to other (often cheaper) competing hatchbacks than It did to a Mercedes, but the new model is much closer to the 'Mercedes experience' and head and shoulders above Golfs and the like.
Really nice handling and ride for a FWD hatchback. The interior quality and sound proofing is good - I've forgotten I was driving a diesel a few times, which isn't something that usually happens to me!
The engine and trans combos are pretty good, with even a 180 feeling relatively lively and torquey, and the A200 I drove most recently had a proper 'mini hot hatch' feel to it in terms of driving, but was still very comfortable.
The interior is a bit 'I Robot' and takes a little bit getting used to. I hated it at first, but after a little time in them, they start to make sense. Seating position seems to make a massive difference in my experience - I've got to have the seat all the way down, otherwise it feels like you're sitting on the car, rather than in it.
Ultimately, not really my type of car, but definitely a step up from 176s in fit and feel. The previous model felt closer to other (often cheaper) competing hatchbacks than It did to a Mercedes, but the new model is much closer to the 'Mercedes experience' and head and shoulders above Golfs and the like.
Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 20th January 14:09
Ian-27xza said:
of E-Classes DNA - a proper Mercedes!
Wait to it gets on a bit - you'll get the full MB experience including lousy dealers, rust, breakdowns, crazy parts prices and lots and lots of electrical gremlins and rattles. When they are new they are lovely but a few years on them and they're basket case bad. I should know - I've owned 5. I tried a W213 220d - lovely design but it felt cheap - the gearbox was awesome but the engine very unrefined - if powerful. The seats were not very comfortable if you ask me. The tech in the car was amazing I have to admit but it felt poorly made (particularly the thin sunroof blind) and all the trim felt creacky. I was not a solid feeling car at all.
The S90 I tried afterwards was in every possible way better and it felt far better made. I really would consider one as a replacement to my amazing Lexus GS250 whioh quite frankly never ceases to impress me. It rides as well as my old S class, takes the bends better than my old C class sport, the seats and build are easily the best in any car I've ever experienced. A Class buyers would be well versed to await the new Lexus UX to experience what a proper small car would be like rather than driving a piece of tat A class.
Edited by st4 on Sunday 20th January 14:41
Edited by st4 on Sunday 20th January 14:46
page3 said:
So the UX is £5000 more, a SUV and not actually available. Right.
It will be soon. It's worth waiting for. It's got to appeal to the same type of buyer except being a Lexus it will actually be good.Kia Cee'd, i30, Golf, Focus, A3, 1 series (with a big engine in one these are great), Civic are all superior cars.
st4 said:
It will be soon. It's worth waiting for. It's got to appeal to the same type of buyer except being a Lexus it will actually be good.
Kia Cee'd, i30, Golf, Focus, A3, 1 series (with a big engine in one these are great), Civic are all superior cars.
Interestingly for my lease I looked at most of those. The Kia was ok, but a bit bland as was the i30. The Golf wasn’t available within 8 months, but I’ve had a Seat which I think is the better car. The Focus was so depressing inside I feared for my sanity. I’ve had an A3 and again lead times are insane. The 1 series was too claustrophobic for me.Kia Cee'd, i30, Golf, Focus, A3, 1 series (with a big engine in one these are great), Civic are all superior cars.
I preferred the A-class. We’ll see.
Deep Thought said:
Ilovejapcrap said:
my dad has a 65 plate Merc vito van (one with seats in back, all upholstered with lots of extras etc) basically more of a car than van.
Not liked it since day one. the NAV system is st and hard to use, its OK to drive but have to admit the transporter is better. Since day one the tyres dont hold pressure (second set of merc alloys). The position of the key when in ignition is crap / annoying, and loads of other niggles.
Dad kept his transporter 2.5 130 hp auto model for 10 years. Hes been muttering about swapping this one since 6 months of ownership.
Conclusion MERCS aint that good.
You're basing your conclusion of Mercedes cars on your dads 4 year old van? Not liked it since day one. the NAV system is s
t and hard to use, its OK to drive but have to admit the transporter is better. Since day one the tyres dont hold pressure (second set of merc alloys). The position of the key when in ignition is crap / annoying, and loads of other niggles.Dad kept his transporter 2.5 130 hp auto model for 10 years. Hes been muttering about swapping this one since 6 months of ownership.
Conclusion MERCS aint that good.
OK....
whats a matter you a merc owner sticking up for brand ?
I have had a number of Audi’s including an S5 and SQ5 and currently have a 2017 Cayenne.
Was tempted to push for a 911 for the wife but we went conservative and went for the new C43 AMG.
Everything looked a little odd as tech is leaps and bounds ahead of the Porsche and previous Audi’s.
The drive is amazing and the vehicle is great fun to drive. Especially with the ASBO AMG exhaust with valve open.
The interior doesn’t feel on par with the Cayenne, but then mine was retail at over £90k so an unfair comparison.
The driving position, steering wheel and all other aspects in my view are positive.
Also have had an E220d for a weekend which was v dull but supremely smooth and comfortable.
Also had a weekend hoon in a GLC 63s and would happily spend £70k on it.
Little unfair to tar all Mercedes with the same brush as they make some fantastic cars and this comes from a first time Merc owner!
You can hardly criticise the car for having many modern features a smart car doesn’t!
Was tempted to push for a 911 for the wife but we went conservative and went for the new C43 AMG.
Everything looked a little odd as tech is leaps and bounds ahead of the Porsche and previous Audi’s.
The drive is amazing and the vehicle is great fun to drive. Especially with the ASBO AMG exhaust with valve open.
The interior doesn’t feel on par with the Cayenne, but then mine was retail at over £90k so an unfair comparison.
The driving position, steering wheel and all other aspects in my view are positive.
Also have had an E220d for a weekend which was v dull but supremely smooth and comfortable.
Also had a weekend hoon in a GLC 63s and would happily spend £70k on it.
Little unfair to tar all Mercedes with the same brush as they make some fantastic cars and this comes from a first time Merc owner!
You can hardly criticise the car for having many modern features a smart car doesn’t!
Deep Thought said:
page3 said:
I don’t think the car is as odd as the general Mercedes hate fest this thread has become.
+1 And lots of experts telling us how s
t this A Class is when their experience is of the previous one, or their prejudices about who might drive them.i dont hate MB's, (i considered a C63, it was excellent on test nearly on par with what i got but I dont like the looks) i dont like what they seem to have become now, 'dumbing down' of things (e.g. the AMG type badge available on every poverty spec model) with the aim of mass sales, just as beemer did and do, but hey it worked for them and the balance sheet is most important.
i think perhaps the reputation bmw drivers had, that moved onto audi drivers is now moving on to MB's as those who gave the previous a bad name are moving into them as the pile em high sell/lease em cheap mantra has come to the fore...or i may be talking b
ks!theplayingmantis said:
the problem is the a class isnt a class leader in anything bar the interior in most of its derivatives, the only reason most buy one is because it has Mercedes badge on it. im sure the actual proper AMG one is a lot of fun.
i dont hate MB's, (i considered a C63, it was excellent on test nearly on par with what i got but I dont like the looks) i dont like what they seem to have become now, 'dumbing down' of things (e.g. the AMG type badge available on every poverty spec model) with the aim of mass sales, just as beemer did and do, but hey it worked for them and the balance sheet is most important.
i think perhaps the reputation bmw drivers had, that moved onto audi drivers is now moving on to MB's as those who gave the previous a bad name are moving into them as the pile em high sell/lease em cheap mantra has come to the fore...or i may be talking bks!
Agreed. But then people dont always buy the class leader - otherwise they'd all be driving a Ford Focus's.i dont hate MB's, (i considered a C63, it was excellent on test nearly on par with what i got but I dont like the looks) i dont like what they seem to have become now, 'dumbing down' of things (e.g. the AMG type badge available on every poverty spec model) with the aim of mass sales, just as beemer did and do, but hey it worked for them and the balance sheet is most important.
i think perhaps the reputation bmw drivers had, that moved onto audi drivers is now moving on to MB's as those who gave the previous a bad name are moving into them as the pile em high sell/lease em cheap mantra has come to the fore...or i may be talking b
ks!I think new car is leaps and bounds ahead of the decidedly average (in cooking form) previous model, but no its not the class leader.
I like the styling of it, i like the high tech interior, so if i was in the market for a 5 door hatch i'd go have a look if i was looking for a "premium" hatchback. The new 1 series isnt out yet, the old 1 is past its peak, so its really either this or the A3.
I dont think this is a bad car - i'd probably give it 4/5 based on what i know about it so far, and lets be honest people have always paid a premium for a merc and since the early '90s thats been very hard to justify as they're rarely best in class and they're not hewn from stone any more, so its not really a surprise its at the higher end of the spectrum on price, and hard to "point the finger" at people for wanting / buying an A Class, given logically at least very few Mercs justify the premium
Mercedes are very clearly chasing volume now, and they also want to shake off their older driver image, so on both accounts its an important car for them.
Deep Thought said:
theplayingmantis said:
the problem is the a class isnt a class leader in anything bar the interior in most of its derivatives, the only reason most buy one is because it has Mercedes badge on it. im sure the actual proper AMG one is a lot of fun.
i dont hate MB's, (i considered a C63, it was excellent on test nearly on par with what i got but I dont like the looks) i dont like what they seem to have become now, 'dumbing down' of things (e.g. the AMG type badge available on every poverty spec model) with the aim of mass sales, just as beemer did and do, but hey it worked for them and the balance sheet is most important.
i think perhaps the reputation bmw drivers had, that moved onto audi drivers is now moving on to MB's as those who gave the previous a bad name are moving into them as the pile em high sell/lease em cheap mantra has come to the fore...or i may be talking bks!
Agreed. But then people dont always buy the class leader - otherwise they'd all be driving a Ford Focus's.i dont hate MB's, (i considered a C63, it was excellent on test nearly on par with what i got but I dont like the looks) i dont like what they seem to have become now, 'dumbing down' of things (e.g. the AMG type badge available on every poverty spec model) with the aim of mass sales, just as beemer did and do, but hey it worked for them and the balance sheet is most important.
i think perhaps the reputation bmw drivers had, that moved onto audi drivers is now moving on to MB's as those who gave the previous a bad name are moving into them as the pile em high sell/lease em cheap mantra has come to the fore...or i may be talking b
ks!I think new car is leaps and bounds ahead of the decidedly average (in cooking form) previous model, but no its not the class leader.
I like the styling of it, i like the high tech interior, so if i was in the market for a 5 door hatch i'd go have a look if i was looking for a "premium" hatchback. The new 1 series isnt out yet, the old 1 is past its peak, so its really either this or the A3.
I dont think this is a bad car - i'd probably give it 4/5 based on what i know about it so far, and lets be honest people have always paid a premium for a merc and since the early '90s thats been very hard to justify as they're rarely best in class and they're not hewn from stone any more, so its not really a surprise its at the higher end of the spectrum on price, and hard to "point the finger" at people for wanting / buying an A Class, given logically at least very few Mercs justify the premium
Mercedes are very clearly chasing volume now, and they also want to shake off their older driver image, so on both accounts its an important car for them.
UPDATE
So my smart is in for a new bluetooth unit. This time I've been given an A200 automatic A-class.
I still find it an oddly hateful car. It's not that it is a bad car, it just has so many annoying traits. It does have good points too.
The headlights are very good, dip and mainbeam. It actually rides quite well, it doesn't feel stiff or bouncy. I like the tactile touch of many of the materials used inside and in this guise the engine feels quite peppy in the mid range, although maybe a little breathless at high rpm.
However the annoyances and oddness (or lack of design thought) continue.
The low fuel warning for instance. You get a big message overlaying both of the screens when the fuel gets low. So you ok the message to get rid of it, only you have to do this on both screens separately!!!!! And sometimes on oking one of them, it instantly brings up another low fuel warning. So you end up having to clear 3 messages!!!
But lets roll back a bit.
I never got a picture of the gauges before. The look like this, notice the red halo type effect at the end of the rev counter needle. Looks great doesn't it.....
but what happens is, as you approach the red line, it completely masked the where the red line starts. Not such an issue in the auto, but the manual made it very difficult to eyeball to shift at the red line.
Gear selection..... I have no idea why. But Mercedes seem to have decided to replace one of the steering column stalks with a plastic gear selector. Now don't get excited, it's not like a column shifter in US cars of old, this is something that looks and feels like an indicator stalk.
I can sort of see that they were trying to make it ergonomic. But there are a couple of concerns. Firstly several of my cars have the indicators on this side, the ones that don't, usually have the flick wipe here instead. Now let me tell you, you don't want to accidentally "flick" this while moving, else you'll end up with the transmission in Neutral
honestly I only did it once!
I also find it odd that you push down/backwards for select Drive and push up/away to go backwards. Several of the tractors on the farm have column selectors, but they are all the other way round. I know it's just a learning curve, but it does seem a little backwards.
While on the column stalks, Mercedes did take the effort to illuminate the gear selector stalk, but not the wiper/indicator one
Some other things of note, the left stalk has some buttons for the rear wiper, it looks like you should just be able to use the back of your finger to use them, but no, doing this will move the entire stalk and activate mainbeam.
The mood lighting is quite a cool feature many cars have these days. But, it does really reflect in the windscreen. If I was doing a lot of night driving, I'd have to turn the mood lights off I think.
Some more annoyances, things seem to keep resetting or changing. Last night I left the left hand screen displaying mpg. Started the car this morning and it's showing the nav - why??
The radio volume also seems to reset each time you turn the car off.
And the drive mode of Sport or Comfort also seems to mostly reset, although not every time. No idea if there is a way of making this things persist in one of the menus, but it certainly isn't obvious on how to do this.
The car also has some sort of modern safety feature about being too close to another car. I can't quite get my head around this, as too look at the display you have to take your eyes off of the road QED...
But between the speedo and rev counter, there is a picture of car and measure of distance in yrds. Sorry you can't see the numbers, but the display is saying the car infront (the one in the same lane I presume) is over 50 yrds away. I'd have said, it looks closer to 50 feet than yards.
I also found it quite amusing that while driving about I got a few error messages appear:
Which only serves to reinforce my opinion that driverless cars are really a long way away, as they would be relying on similar tech. and it seemed all too easy to fail in a driver controlled car.
One of biggest gripes, apart from the steering wheel, which is truly the most uncomfortable steering wheels ever invented. Is while the dash looks funky and modern. It is just way too noisy and yet despite the info overload, you can't eyeball it and see what radio station you are on or what song is playing. I know you can configure this to show inplace of something else, but it's at the expense of something that you want to see. Old cars with separate radios didn't suffer such simple problems. So it appears to be something new that has been created as a modern issue.
I'd also like to mention the wipers at this point. They are dreadful, they are "auto", but just don't get it right. I was in rain/sleet last night and the heavier it got, the slower the wipers went. Oncoming traffic also seemed to impact the speed they worked at. It wouldn't be so bad, but the manual controls are just clunky (and don't illuminate!) to work around it. At one point I thought I'd have to pull over so that I could consult the manual on how to wrestle control of the wipers. They are arguably dangerous in my opinion.
There rear wiper is just a dumb too. Iced up this morning, so the blade wasn't touching the glass correctly and therefore didn't wipe all the water away. so it just kept on going making a horrible screeching sound on the glass.... I couldn't find a way of stopping it doing this.
So how does it drive? Well the brakes are still horridly over assisted and the steering is quite strange. It's super smoother and rather weighty, the Comfort and Sport are meant to change it, but not to any degree I could really detect. At low speed it is massively over assisted and makes the car quite jerky when doing 90 degree turns round junctions on a housing estate.
The oddest thing is, apart from the car changing direction, which is actually quite darty and responsive. You'd never know the steering wheel was directly connected to the front wheels. There is no feel what so ever.
The 7 speed auto box isn't that bad, it's pretty smooth tbh and much better than the manual when pressing on. No idea why the manual is so jerky, older cars aren't. However having paddles on the auto box are pointless, you don't have any real control, just an opinion and the box will happily up and down shift on it's own when in manual mode. And then automatically change back into auto mode. Oddly if you accidentally select manual mode, there doesn't seem a way to switch back to auto, you just have to drive it until it decides to do it itself. It's quite detestable really.
The engine, no idea on displacement or power. It feels nice, lots of mid range punch and using half throttle it picks up and goes really well and feels more powerful than it probably is. High rpm performance is a bit lacking and the engine noise sounds like a 1990's Amiga computer game. Not at all pleasant. It also feels a lot faster than I think it is, some roads I've felt that I'm flying down having been at WOT for an extended period, only to look down and see I'm at the same mph as I would be in my smart ForTwo.
For me the Sport mode drives a lot better than the Comfort mode, it feels much more peppy and alive and actually downshifts as you slow. But like most autos it can be rather dimwhitted. I mentioned half throttle above and if you are at motorway speeds 65mph and floor it, the engine seems to make a load of noise, sounds like something slips and then it goes. Half throttle and it'll lift the bonnet and be much more responsive in terms of reaction.
I've also had a few occasions off of round abouts where I've floored, it's shot off, then feels like you'd run into deep water, where it completely stops accelerating and then up shifts and goes again. Rather an odd sensation, not sure if it's gearbox and/or TCS causing it, but it hasn't always been spinning the wheels.
And yes, this is an issue. This car is too powerful for fwd. It is wheelspin city, with the peppy mid range and lots of gears, it wheel spins every where and all the time. I admit I was driving a bit hard, but even just briskly pullling out of junction or from a roll it would light up the tyres. And if I owned such a car I know it would eat through tyres.
I would say, on the flip side I'm truly impressed with the economy. I reset the trip at an unfavorable time while sitting in the car waiting for someone. Yet it has managed to average over 36mpg on the way to work and just under 35mpg overall. I'm sure driving a little more sensibly this would be over 40mpg daily use, and maybe by quite a bit. My ForTwo being driven less hard only manages 44mpg in a car weighing far less, with far less power.
Lastly, and I know this is just a bit of a learning curve. But it did make me smirk. There are simply loads of buttons in the A-class, and if you don't know what the symbol means, you have no idea what they do.
Scenic parking:
The sky at night:
Removable doors:
Tired air con:
Car mode:
So my smart is in for a new bluetooth unit. This time I've been given an A200 automatic A-class.
I still find it an oddly hateful car. It's not that it is a bad car, it just has so many annoying traits. It does have good points too.
The headlights are very good, dip and mainbeam. It actually rides quite well, it doesn't feel stiff or bouncy. I like the tactile touch of many of the materials used inside and in this guise the engine feels quite peppy in the mid range, although maybe a little breathless at high rpm.
However the annoyances and oddness (or lack of design thought) continue.
The low fuel warning for instance. You get a big message overlaying both of the screens when the fuel gets low. So you ok the message to get rid of it, only you have to do this on both screens separately!!!!! And sometimes on oking one of them, it instantly brings up another low fuel warning. So you end up having to clear 3 messages!!!
But lets roll back a bit.
I never got a picture of the gauges before. The look like this, notice the red halo type effect at the end of the rev counter needle. Looks great doesn't it.....
but what happens is, as you approach the red line, it completely masked the where the red line starts. Not such an issue in the auto, but the manual made it very difficult to eyeball to shift at the red line.
Gear selection..... I have no idea why. But Mercedes seem to have decided to replace one of the steering column stalks with a plastic gear selector. Now don't get excited, it's not like a column shifter in US cars of old, this is something that looks and feels like an indicator stalk.
I can sort of see that they were trying to make it ergonomic. But there are a couple of concerns. Firstly several of my cars have the indicators on this side, the ones that don't, usually have the flick wipe here instead. Now let me tell you, you don't want to accidentally "flick" this while moving, else you'll end up with the transmission in Neutral
honestly I only did it once! I also find it odd that you push down/backwards for select Drive and push up/away to go backwards. Several of the tractors on the farm have column selectors, but they are all the other way round. I know it's just a learning curve, but it does seem a little backwards.
While on the column stalks, Mercedes did take the effort to illuminate the gear selector stalk, but not the wiper/indicator one
Some other things of note, the left stalk has some buttons for the rear wiper, it looks like you should just be able to use the back of your finger to use them, but no, doing this will move the entire stalk and activate mainbeam.
The mood lighting is quite a cool feature many cars have these days. But, it does really reflect in the windscreen. If I was doing a lot of night driving, I'd have to turn the mood lights off I think.
Some more annoyances, things seem to keep resetting or changing. Last night I left the left hand screen displaying mpg. Started the car this morning and it's showing the nav - why??
The radio volume also seems to reset each time you turn the car off.
And the drive mode of Sport or Comfort also seems to mostly reset, although not every time. No idea if there is a way of making this things persist in one of the menus, but it certainly isn't obvious on how to do this.
The car also has some sort of modern safety feature about being too close to another car. I can't quite get my head around this, as too look at the display you have to take your eyes off of the road QED...
But between the speedo and rev counter, there is a picture of car and measure of distance in yrds. Sorry you can't see the numbers, but the display is saying the car infront (the one in the same lane I presume) is over 50 yrds away. I'd have said, it looks closer to 50 feet than yards.
I also found it quite amusing that while driving about I got a few error messages appear:
Which only serves to reinforce my opinion that driverless cars are really a long way away, as they would be relying on similar tech. and it seemed all too easy to fail in a driver controlled car.
One of biggest gripes, apart from the steering wheel, which is truly the most uncomfortable steering wheels ever invented. Is while the dash looks funky and modern. It is just way too noisy and yet despite the info overload, you can't eyeball it and see what radio station you are on or what song is playing. I know you can configure this to show inplace of something else, but it's at the expense of something that you want to see. Old cars with separate radios didn't suffer such simple problems. So it appears to be something new that has been created as a modern issue.
I'd also like to mention the wipers at this point. They are dreadful, they are "auto", but just don't get it right. I was in rain/sleet last night and the heavier it got, the slower the wipers went. Oncoming traffic also seemed to impact the speed they worked at. It wouldn't be so bad, but the manual controls are just clunky (and don't illuminate!) to work around it. At one point I thought I'd have to pull over so that I could consult the manual on how to wrestle control of the wipers. They are arguably dangerous in my opinion.
There rear wiper is just a dumb too. Iced up this morning, so the blade wasn't touching the glass correctly and therefore didn't wipe all the water away. so it just kept on going making a horrible screeching sound on the glass.... I couldn't find a way of stopping it doing this.
So how does it drive? Well the brakes are still horridly over assisted and the steering is quite strange. It's super smoother and rather weighty, the Comfort and Sport are meant to change it, but not to any degree I could really detect. At low speed it is massively over assisted and makes the car quite jerky when doing 90 degree turns round junctions on a housing estate.
The oddest thing is, apart from the car changing direction, which is actually quite darty and responsive. You'd never know the steering wheel was directly connected to the front wheels. There is no feel what so ever.
The 7 speed auto box isn't that bad, it's pretty smooth tbh and much better than the manual when pressing on. No idea why the manual is so jerky, older cars aren't. However having paddles on the auto box are pointless, you don't have any real control, just an opinion and the box will happily up and down shift on it's own when in manual mode. And then automatically change back into auto mode. Oddly if you accidentally select manual mode, there doesn't seem a way to switch back to auto, you just have to drive it until it decides to do it itself. It's quite detestable really.
The engine, no idea on displacement or power. It feels nice, lots of mid range punch and using half throttle it picks up and goes really well and feels more powerful than it probably is. High rpm performance is a bit lacking and the engine noise sounds like a 1990's Amiga computer game. Not at all pleasant. It also feels a lot faster than I think it is, some roads I've felt that I'm flying down having been at WOT for an extended period, only to look down and see I'm at the same mph as I would be in my smart ForTwo.
For me the Sport mode drives a lot better than the Comfort mode, it feels much more peppy and alive and actually downshifts as you slow. But like most autos it can be rather dimwhitted. I mentioned half throttle above and if you are at motorway speeds 65mph and floor it, the engine seems to make a load of noise, sounds like something slips and then it goes. Half throttle and it'll lift the bonnet and be much more responsive in terms of reaction.
I've also had a few occasions off of round abouts where I've floored, it's shot off, then feels like you'd run into deep water, where it completely stops accelerating and then up shifts and goes again. Rather an odd sensation, not sure if it's gearbox and/or TCS causing it, but it hasn't always been spinning the wheels.
And yes, this is an issue. This car is too powerful for fwd. It is wheelspin city, with the peppy mid range and lots of gears, it wheel spins every where and all the time. I admit I was driving a bit hard, but even just briskly pullling out of junction or from a roll it would light up the tyres. And if I owned such a car I know it would eat through tyres.
I would say, on the flip side I'm truly impressed with the economy. I reset the trip at an unfavorable time while sitting in the car waiting for someone. Yet it has managed to average over 36mpg on the way to work and just under 35mpg overall. I'm sure driving a little more sensibly this would be over 40mpg daily use, and maybe by quite a bit. My ForTwo being driven less hard only manages 44mpg in a car weighing far less, with far less power.
Lastly, and I know this is just a bit of a learning curve. But it did make me smirk. There are simply loads of buttons in the A-class, and if you don't know what the symbol means, you have no idea what they do.
Scenic parking:
The sky at night:
Removable doors:
Tired air con:
Car mode:
300bhp/ton said:
UPDATE
Lastly, and I know this is just a bit of a learning curve. But it did make me smirk. There are simply loads of buttons in the A-class, and if you don't know what the symbol means, you have no idea what they do.
See in the above photo, in the top right hand of the screen, where it says 'owners manual'...click it, tells you what all the buttons do Lastly, and I know this is just a bit of a learning curve. But it did make me smirk. There are simply loads of buttons in the A-class, and if you don't know what the symbol means, you have no idea what they do.
yellowbentines said:
See in the above photo, in the top right hand of the screen, where it says 'owners manual'...click it, tells you what all the buttons do
It may well do, not very handy at 70mph on the dual carriage way though.In fact, without a proper hand over or dedicated time to go through and understand everything, the car is quite dangerous. It runs at speed comfortably, but it is far to easy to get distracted trying to do something simple.
I’m sorry but I struggle to take your criticism seriously.
Having had a look at your current fleet (and previous) you can hardly slate a car to this extent and it seems your main gripe is because The A Class has technology!
I mean who complains there is no separate stereo displaying the radio station. Welcome to 2019
Having had a look at your current fleet (and previous) you can hardly slate a car to this extent and it seems your main gripe is because The A Class has technology!
I mean who complains there is no separate stereo displaying the radio station. Welcome to 2019
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