The first A Class Mercedes showed true innovation. It was not simply a scaled-down version of the larger C Class, but rather it was a packaging marvel, with a costly to build engine under floor design that meant the car could have a very stubby nose and by going to tall styling, an impressive amount of space in a car that was barely larger than a super-mini. Once the stability issues that came to light from the now famous “Elk Test” had been resolved, it was a car with much going for it, but it never found quite the sales success its maker had hoped for. By the time of the third generation, the car morphed into a much more conventional “me too” hatchback design, something which was carried forward to the concept of the fourth and still current generation. This is a heavily contested sector of the market where standards have continued to rise so the premium priced offerings have to rely on snobbery and badge appeal in the face of an onslaught of ever more competent mainstream rivals. Aggressive finance deals and the lure of the badge have ensure that in Europe, the A Class is now selling strongly. Those who wanted something with more style to it were offered the CLA, a sort of four door coupe based on the A Class platform which. when it first appeared, was a massive disappointment, lacking space and practicality on an epic scale and saddled with rough engines and tepid driving dynamics. An estate version, called Shooting Brake, was added to the range soon after the saloon had appeared. With these cars, the slightly boxier and taller B Class and the regular A class three and five door hatches, you might have thought that Mercedes had covered all the bases bar a convertible, but no, as they proved with the rollout of the fourth generation model, they saw the need for a true four door saloon, or sedan in US parlance, to offer a little less style but a lot more practicality than the CLA. It has been a slower seller in Europe, but one reason for its existence was because this was the car that Mercedes wanted for the all-important US market, where hatches just don’t sell. American buyers had never been offered an A Class before, with the CLA being the entry point to the range, but now there was a slightly cheaper option which it was hoped would open up the brand to a whole new class of buyers and hopefully hook them to the merits of the Three Pointed Star. Hertz bought a number of them not long after launch, and they’ve stuck around the fleet for quite a while as covid restrictions meant that they saw little use for a good few months, but now they are being retired, so I figured that I needed to try to source one before they were all gone, and my luck was in on the second day of my Spring 2023 trip. The car I got was from the 2020 model year and was still in pretty good condition. However it was going to have to prove itself to me on the road and in a day when I really try to get to know it, and having been somewhat underwhelmed by a hatch model 180d I had driven in the UK a few years prior, that looked it might be quite a bit ask. So did it win me over?  Read on.

Despite the name, the A220 actually has a 2.0 litre four cylinder engine under the bonnet. It puts out a respectable 188 bhp and is coupled to a standard seven speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. Recent four cylinder Mercedes models have generally not impressed with their engines, most of them being surprisingly gruff and unrefined. This one came across as much better. Most of the time it proved smooth and overall noise levels are low. Acceleration is pretty decent and the transmission seems well-matched, making seamless gearchanges up and down, as required. There is a standard Stop/Start system. I covered a total of 241 miles in my time with the A Class and it needed 9.15 gallons to fill it, which works out at 26.33 mpg US or 31.47 mpg Imperial, a decent but not spectacular result.

Mercedes’ 4Matic all-wheel drive is an option, which feature on the test car, otherwise this a front-driver. Mercedes would like you to think of this as a sporting sedan, but really it is not. The steering is very light and lacks much in the way of feel. The handling is safe and predicable enough though I found it was surprisingly easy to provoke understeer and whilst overall grip levels are good, there is some body roll. The ride is fairly firm but it actually proved pretty comfortable. The brakes are powerful. There is an e-brake operated from a button in the dash. Visibility is not great. The door mirrors are very small, and the view over your shoulder is a challenge. There are some sources of help though, with a rear-view camera and parking sensors. The A200 features a full complement of the latest safety features, and whilst these are of course welcome, it does result in a car that produces an irritating symphony of bings and bongs.

I have read countless reviews that praise the interior quality of the A Class, and do have to wonder whether the person who effuses such praise on it has actually seen and touched it for real or just looked at a picture. There is the illusion of quality from afar, but actually look at it and touch things and you will quickly discover that, like most modern Mercedes models, there are actually a lot of cheap materials used. Those metal-look air vents are made from plastic and are nothing like as a robust feeling as you might expect. The leather that is used is not of particularly good quality, with that wrapping the wheel feeling particularly unimpressive. There is lots of shiny gloss black plastic which does not exactly shout quality either and to cap it all, the doors feel and sound tinny when you close them. The dash is right on trend with lots of glitzy electronics, but this is definitely form over function, and much of if it is not as easy to use as you would hope. The instruments are all electronic. There is a large speedometer in the instrument cluster, with a bar chart-style fuel gauge set down lower and that is about it. There are lots of colours so it all looks a bit jazzy. There is just one column stalk which operates indicators and wipers as on the right of the column is a thin wand-like gear selector. That means that the lights operate from a dial on the dash. Set among the cheap-looking gloss black plastic on the steering wheel boss are cruise control and audio repeater buttons. The centre of the dash is dominated by a standard 7” colour touchscreen which is an extension of the unit containing the instruments. Super thin in form factor, it has sharp edges, which again does not shout quality to me. The system is relatively basic, lacking navigation, for instance and was quite clunky to use.  There is a touch pad in the centre console but this is not that easy to use, either. At least there is XM Satellite radio and sound quality was decent and you also get Apple Car Play and Android Auto. There are no fewer than 5 USB ports in the cabin. Below the screen are three prominent air vents. Metal effect they may be, but the reality is that they are actually plastic and feel quite flimsy to the touch. Below these are the controls for the dual zone climate control.

Seat upholstery is in MB-Tex, an artificial leather, which does a reasonable job in persuading it might actually have started off life on a cow. There is a wide range of adjustment on offer, which is done electrically and there is an adjustable under thigh bolster. There is a three position memory to store your preferred position, and you need to set this, as the seat powers back when the ignition is off, to aid entry and exit, but of course once the power is on, it will return to a pre-set position which may not be where you had put the seat. The massive sunroof does give a nice airy feel to the cabin and makes it seem a bit more spacious than it actually is.

There is more space in the back seats here than in a CLA, and it is far easier to get in and out, but then that is not saying much as the CLA really is cramped an awkward. Although Americans think of this as a small car and seem to be quite impressed by the amount of room on offer, to Europeans this is not really a small car, and the space on offer, considering the external dimensions is really not that impressive. Leg room is not that generous if the front seats are set well back and the centre console comes well back and extends up high, so a middle seat occupant might feel a little short-changed. The backrest is quite angled, so headroom is not so much of an issue. There is a drop-down central armrest with cup holders in the upper surface and oddments can be stored in the seat-back nets or the door pockets.

The boot area is also much better than that of the CLA. It is deep, and quite long, giving a good total capacity. There is some additional space for smaller items under the boot floor. The rear seat backrests are asymmetrically split and drop down to create a much longer load platform and there is also a separate ski flap. Inside the cabin there are all the usual and expected places to store things. The glovebox is on the small side, but there are also door pockets, a recess in the front part of the centre console and an armrest cubby which overall should be sufficient for most people.

The US range is far more limited than what is offered in Europe, with just two models available: A 220 and AMG A 35. The A 220 is powered by a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine (188 bhp, 221 lb/ft of torque) that is paired with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. Front-wheel drive is standard, and Mercedes’ 4Matic all-wheel drive is available as an option. New for 2020 is the AMG A 35, which  uses a similar powertrain, but output from the engine rises significantly to 302 bhp and 295 lb/ft. The 4Matic is standard here. Feature highlights for the A 220 include LED headlights, a panoramic sunroof, push-button start, simulated leather upholstery (MB-Tex), and power-adjustable front seats. On the tech front, you get a 7-inch central touchscreen, the MBUX infotainment system, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking is also included. Mercedes offers a few option packages for the A 220. Key ones to look out for include the Premium package (keyless entry, blind-spot monitoring and bigger display screens), a Multimedia package (primarily adds an advanced navigation system), and the Driver Assistance and Parking Assistance packages. The AMG A35 comes with the Premium package as standard plus restyled exterior elements, a sport-tuned suspension, larger brakes and additional driving modes. Notable stand-alone options for the A-Class include an adaptive suspension, adaptive headlights, leather upholstery, massaging multi-contour front seats, a wireless charging pad, a head-up display, and a 12-speaker Burmester surround-sound system.

The US press seem to like the A220 Sedan a lot, with some effusive reviews, but the buying public have been less convinced, with sales being somewhat disappointing, to the extent that Mercedes have announced that they will pull the model from sale. It would seem that if customers want a small Mercedes saloon, they prefer the flashier CLA, which will remain on sale. I’ve not driven the latest CLA but the first generation car was particularly disappointing in just about all respects and the packaging was truly dreadful. The A220 Sedan Is better than that, so if you really do want a Mercedes, I would suggest that if you are going to carry more than two adults more often than occasionally, you probably should pick the A Class rather than the CLA. But I would not pick the Mercedes at all, feeling distinctly underwhelmed by the whole car. There aren’t many other small premium saloons on offer on the US market. Stye conscious buyers may be interested in the BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe but that has the same space and access challenges as the CLA and the looks are, well, an acquired taste. That really only leaves the Audi A3 which I think is a much nicer proposition. It would certainly be my pick from this sector of the market.