New Mercedes A-class revealed

The all-new Mercedes A-class has been officially revealed at the Geneva motor show. The third-generation model has a conventional hatchback silhouette and forgoes the tall, one-box MPV-like statue of previous versions.

Sitting on the German car maker’s new MFA (modular front architecture) platform, the new car has been re-engineered from the ground up. “It’s completely new, down to the last detail,” says Mercedes boss, Dieter Zetsche.

The latest A-class adopts a heavily sculptured look with a bullish front end dominated by wide, two slat grille, angular LED flaunting headlamps and distinctive bumper styling, a relatively short bonnet owing to the transverse placement of its engines, prominent feature lines along the flanks, rising waistline and a rear end bookmarked by uncharacteristic (for Mercedes) shaped LED taillamps and angled rear window shadowed by a large spoiler within the top of the tailgate.

Dimensionally, the new A-class is greatly altered over the model it replaces; length is up by 487mm at 4292mm, width increases by 15mm to 1780mm and height drops a considerable 163mm.

Mercedes-Benz chief, Dieter Zetsche told Autocar he expects half of all A-class sales to go to newcomers to the brand. He said: "This is not just a rational car but emotional and technological one too. The styling wows you and the connectivity is unrivalled. New buyers will come to the family, perhaps younger ones, young at heart ones and more women."

The new A-class eschews the under floor mounted engines from the previous models. They are replaced by new range four-cylinder engines – all offered in other Mercedes’ or sourced from alliance partner, Renault.

The new A-class will come with a six speed manual gearbox as standard, with a seven speed dual clutch unit offered as an option. Both feature stop-start as part of a raft of fuel saving features that see the base A160 CDI achieve average CO2 emissions of just 99g/km. It is the first time a Mercedes production car has dipped below 100g/km.

Underpinning Mercedes-Benz’s new entry-level model is a newly developed suspension system also found beneath the B-class. It consists of MacPherson struts up front and a four-link design at the rear. Mercedes-Benz is already talking up the safety credentials of the A-class, which it describes as one of the safest cars in its class. Included among the standard specification is a radar based collision warning system, the Pre-Safe occupant protection system and Attention Assist.