Elk test. The one incident that sticks out like a sore thumb for the A-class during it's development. Coupled with the fact that Mercedes was cutting development work down to 2 years (or was it 5 years?) instead of 7 years during that point in time meant that this car had a shoestring reputation (and perhaps development budget) attached to it.
So how did this baby mercedes fair 5 years down the road? And to answer that, I've driven the A-class over several occasions during the period of the past few years and decided, well, riding on the reputation of a mercedes (even in brand concious Singapore) isn't gonna get me all excited about this toaster on wheels.
To be honest, mercedes has always meant solid engineering, solid quality and solid reliability to me. Yes, the car is still solid (you need muscular arms to open the door), the engine is solid (decent charm from the 1.6L engine if you wrangle it by it's neck) and the ride feels quiet and comfortable on well paved roads.
What I cannot accept from this mercedes is it's less than solid quality of built, it's solid woodblock handling on the roads and the-utter-lack-of-common-sense coming from engineers who is clever enough to squeeze the A-class engine underneath the passengers to give it a low CG but not smart enough to figure that having an armrest right above the handbrake isn't exactly very clever at all.
Let's talk about the quality of built. Being a mercedes, you would expect reliability but strangely, I can't find that anywhere in the A-class. The brake grumbles and groans, the indicator stalk creaks (yes it actually creaks like old floorboard), the needles in the speedometer are actually plastic needles with the tip painted orange and the most amazing of it, the car emits a buzzing noise in reverse gear.
Handling. Well, being a small car, trust me, the turning radius is as large as a cargo ship's at full port rudder. The steering feels detached from the road, the semi-auto gearbox sluggish and retarted, the suspension announces the arrival of every minor bumps on the road by crashing through it and everytime you make a turn at slightly higher speeds, it feels as if the car prefer to go around the bends lying on it's side.
Now the minor (but very irritating) gripes. As mentioned, the handbrake is located under the arm rest and you have to lift the arm rest up all the time to get to the handbrake. The rear seats have very nice headrest except that it's blocking the entire rear window view. Why would Mercedes put in 3 big headrest when it completely blocks the rear view? At full lock, the wheels will not straighten itself and you got to turn the steering yourself. Very nasty if you are caught unaware during a U-turn.
As they always say, u sow what you reap. And Mercedes efforts in cost cutting (cutting corners and earning more porfits) showed in this car. As a person who is facinated by cars, it is a dream to even drive a Mercedes. But sadly, the A-class crashes the euphoric feeling of driving a mercedes (like it's suspension) . I still remember 4 years ago when I first drove it, I was bordering denial that such a well respected marque would produce bread toasters on wheels.
A-Class it might be called. But A class, it sure isn't.
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