Mercedes-Benz A200 – Getting to ‘know’ you

– Article/photos by Rod Fuller – 

A200, stylish, attractive and with a fun factor to match, the latest baby Benz is a delight to drive and with its intuitive technology, learning more about you everyday improving and personalising your drive experience, delivers the Mercedes-Benz mantra of “The best or nothing”.

Mercedes-Benz’s fourth generation A Class is by far the best looking one to date. New headlights, DRLs and grille sculptured in line with Mercedes-Benz’s “sensual purity” design philosophy, certainly make the A200 a stand out on the street. But the style isn’t limited to just the outside, with the interior looking and feeling sporty, with a sense of quality making it a very nice and comfortable place to be.

The MBUX Infotainment system is at the heart of your experience driving the A200. Twin 10.25” wide screens form the instrument panel and MBUX display dominating the dashboard, providing crystal clear imagery of all the car’s functions. Nine speaker stereo, DAB, Sat Nav and Bluetooth, can be operated by the central touchpad on the console or voice control. I found the latter easier to use when driving as the touch pad required too much time to look at the screens to operate it and it was just easier to say “Hey Mercedes” and let the voice control do it for me.

MBUX also learns your habits over time, to predict what you may want from it and make suggestions to you, such as keeping your most called phones numbers at the top phone menus, remembering your favourite radio station on the drive home or even suggest a faster route to your regular destination if the usual one is congested – very cool! MBUX can accommodate up to ten individual users, tailoring preferences to each driver based on their habits. Sound quality from the stereo and Bluetooth connection is excellent and possibly the best system I’ve used. Wireless charging for your phone is also provided.

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Leather seats and trim adorn the interior, with a four way electric lumbar support for the driver and good space for all passengers. I was surprised at how much leg/head/knee room there is in the rear seat and liked the convenience of the 40/20/40 folding rear seat and 12V outlet in the boot.

A200 comes with a 1.3lt four cylinder turbocharged engine (120kW/250Nm), very smooth engine stop/start system and seven speed DCT transmission with paddle shifters and dynamic select. Fuel economy lists at 5.7lt/100km (combined). Engine performance is very ‘zippy’ with a quite pleasing engine/exhaust note. However premium unleaded fuel is required and I found the tank a bit small at 43 litres. Riding on 225/45R18 Bridgestone run flat tyres, it’s comfortable and fun to drive every day.

Safety features and driver aids include:-

• Blind spot monitoring
• Rear cross traffic alert
• Traffic sign assist
• Lane keep assist
• Active brake assist with semi-autonomous braking
• Active parking assist

Mercedes-Benz offers a three year unlimited kilometre warranty, capped price servicing with 12 month 25K service intervals and pre-paid service plans for between two to five years. Priced from $47,200 (ex govt charges), A200 ‘puts the cat amongst the pigeons’ in the premium compact class; BMW and Audi should take note.

A200 is a great car that for every day urban use that just does everything right. It’s fun to drive, personifies style and quality and is a car that you can just get in and enjoy. Looking for your next lease? Then maybe you should say “Hey Mercedes” and let the A200 get to know you.

What does it look like as a Novated Lease?

This data is from the 2019 Novated Leasing Guide produced by Fleet Auto News.

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