What’s not?

• While Mercedes made the right decision in abandoning the tall, boxy unusual shape of the old A-Class models, this has brought a certain loss of practicality.
• While front-seat occupants enjoy a very pleasant cabin environment, their back seat counterparts don’t get such a good deal; legroom and visibility are limited and luggage space is tight too.
• Mercedes has chosen to emphasise the A-Class’ dynamic abilities with its model designations, and cabin and wheel designs. You will search in vain for evidence of wood trim in any new A-Class and that’s probably going to put some traditional Mercedes buyers off.

Business Car Manager road test Verdict

This new Mercedes A-Class is a far more convincing product than the old one – but that’s not saying much. While Mercedes wasted 15 years on odd cars using its dead-end sandwich floor construction concept, Audi and BMW cleaned up with the A3 and the 1-Series. Those cars have been joined by strong competitors from Alfa and Volvo – and mainstream models in the Golf class such as the latest Ford Focus can’t be ignored either.

But now the new A-Class is here, it deserves to do very well indeed, offering all the appeal of the three-pointed star in a more compact and affordable package.

With the Mercedes at last joining the premium compact hatchback market, small business owners and their company car drivers have never had such an exciting list of cars from which to choose.

The low down