MERCEDES-BENZ A CLASS A170 CDI Classic 5dr (1998)

Awful reliability, AVOID

I'll start by saying nice things, I might as well because if you can find one that hasn't had all these problems (there might have been some fluke reliable ones) then I can well imagine the Mercedes A Class being a lovely little car to drive.

Firstly it's a really clever shape, really really clever. I honestly don't know why more cars aren't put together like this. Making the car taller in order to shove the engine in more tightly and basically make the bonnet disappear is really clever, makes it so easy to manoeuvre and park. The boot is a great size too, and so easy to access given the height. The height of it also means it's dead easy to see all around (although beware slightly odd blind spots on account of the window layout at the back). All in all a very clever little machine with huge potential.

Actually maybe all this means that the newer versions of the Mercedes A Class are worth looking into. I couldn't bring myself do so though, we've just had too many problems.

For a few years I thought our problems were just ours and that we had a dodgy one. But I came across more and more disappointed Mercedes A Class owners over the years with more or less the same sorts of stories. It begins with some seemingly minor electrical problems, like the lock doesn't behave properly or some warning lights come on and off for no apparent reason.

Then more serious things start to happen. For us it was an ECU failure, followed by the turbo a year later, both of which were very expensive. Since then the suspension has failed in the back and we've continued to have the little electrical fault surprises.

We were frankly treated quite badly by the dealer when we asked about the warranty to repair things. Since it was almost at the end of the warranty period they seemed to be trying to combine stalling tactics with simply denying the warranty covered anything. They're well practised at this, and in the end they managed to avoid most of what they probably should have been paying to have fixed.

All in all we're feeling really let down and disappointed with our A170 CDi Classic, and with Mercedes generally.