Mercedes B-Class review

MPVs might be on the way out for many brands, but the Mercedes B-Class isn’t going anywhere. Indeed, while most rival manufacturers now favour SUVs, the B-Class remains to offer people who like the idea of a Mercedes A-Class an option with more space for people and luggage.

Better still, while it shares a lot of its styling and tech with its smaller sibling, it also takes some of its safety technology from the Mercedes S-Class luxury saloon to enhance its appeal with families even further.

On paper, that all looks pretty convincing, but is it enough to take on its key MPV rival, the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer? What’s more, you can’t have the B-Class as a seven-seater, so should you have one over the VW Touran or the Dacia Jogger?

That’s what we’re going to find out in this review, testing the B-Class in all the key areas. We’ll also tell you which version we think is the one to go for. 

We reckon the 161bhp 1.3-litre petrol (badged B200) is the pick of the Mercedes B-Class engine range. It gets mild-hybrid technology to help increase efficiency and performance, giving you plenty of oomph even with bums on all five seats and a bootful of baggage. There’s enough power to get up hills without needing to rev the engine too hard – and that’s a good thing because it doesn’t sound particularly pleasant when you do. 

Your other engine option is a 2.0-litre diesel, badged B200d. With 148bhp at its disposal, it feels nice and punchy around town, with its maximum pulling power low down in the rev range. Put your foot down and the power grows progressively, making it easy to keep up with traffic or get up to motorway speeds. 

Even so, unless you want a more effortless tow car or frequently carry a car packed full with occupants, the petrol should suffice.

Mercedes has, quite rightly, prioritised ride comfort over agile cornering. Even though the suspension has been lowered compared with the A-Class (15mm at the rear and 20mm at the front), the B-Class is impressively supple over patchy surfaces and rides really smoothly on fast A-roads and motorways.

Sharp-edged potholes can send the odd shudder through the body, but this is merely noticeable rather than irritating. Overall, the B-Class is more comfortable than the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer and roughly on a par with the VW Touran.

So, what about the handling? Well, despite being relatively soft and supple, the B-Class does a fine job of controlling its top-heavy mass through tight twists and turns. Paired with light but accurate steering and plenty of grip, it’s a surprisingly willing companion when the road gets twisty. In fact, it's not far behind the Mercedes A-Class for cornering ability.

Wind noise is well contained on a motorway, and while road noise is noticeable, it’s far less harsh than in the rival 2 Series Active Tourer.

Every B-Class has an automatic gearbox with seven gears for the petrol engine and eight with the diesel. Both versions generally shift smoothly on the move, but there can be some jerkiness at low speeds. 

The 2 Series Active Tourer has smoother auto gearboxes and the mild-hybrid system equipped on petrol versions gives it a smoother stop-start system than the B-Class.

“Considering its bias towards comfort, I was quite impressed by the B-Class on a twisty road. Sure, it’s not sporty, but it’ll be more than sufficient for most buyers.” – Oliver Young, Reviewer

You wouldn’t necessarily expect an MPV to wow you with its interior, but that’s exactly what the Mercedes B-Class does. In fact, its dashboard is more in line with what you’d expect to find in an executive saloon. 

There are loads of tactile, soft-feel materials, piano-black plastics and metal touches in all the places you’re most likely to touch, while details such as the turbine-style air vents make you feel like you’re driving something genuinely special.

Indeed, our only criticism of the B-Class’s interior is that, despite beating the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer for outright pizazz, it doesn’t feel quite as solidly bolted together. For example, the climate control panel feels a bit flimsy, while some of the plastics that line the door handles and glovebox feel a little cheap. This isn’t enough to ruin the overall impression, though.

All versions of the B-Class come with a 10.3in digital instrument cluster behind the steering wheel and a 10.3in touchscreen infotainment system positioned beside it to look like one giant widescreen that stretches across more than half of the dashboard.

The infotainment screen can be controlled by touch or using a smaller, quite fiddly, touchpad on the steering wheel. We’d appreciate some of the icons being a bit bigger and the menus slightly simpler, but the key functions are easy enough to use and the overall system on a par with the 2 Series Active Tourer’s.

Even the cheapest models come with a Siri-style personal assistant as standard that you wake up by saying "Hey Mercedes" and then, in theory, you can use natural speech to control various aspects of the car, from sat-nav to interior temperature. It’s sometimes very useful, but like many voice recognition tools, it can occasionally misunderstand what you’re saying or simply not recognise it at all, and that can be rather frustrating.

More successful is the Mercedes augmented reality navigation fitted on top-spec AMG Line Premium and Premium Plus models. This overlays a live camera feed of the road ahead with house numbers, road names, direction arrows and other useful bits of information to help you work out where you need to turn. It’s most helpful at low speeds when you have time to glance at the screen while trying to figure out where you are going.

You’re unlikely to have much difficulty getting comfortable behind the wheel of the B-Class. Indeed, regardless of whether you have the manually- or electrically-adjustable front seats (standard on AMG Line Premium and Premium Plus) it’s easy to find your perfect driving position. That’s complemented by lots of steering wheel adjustment. 

The seats themselves are comfortable and supportive, especially if you have the sport seats that come as standard from AMG Line Executive trim and up. They’re our favourites when it comes to all-round comfort, due to the extra lower-back support that they offer. 

Visibility is pretty good out of the B-Class, partly because you sit higher up than you do in a conventional hatchback (and noticeably higher than you do in an A-Class) and because there are plenty of windows. 

To make parking a doddle, every B-Class comes with front and rear parking sensors, a rear-view camera and a system that can park the car for you. Top-spec AMG Line Premium Plus goes one step better and upgrades the camera to a 360-degree camera system.

“I like the amount of layouts you can choose from on the B-Class’s digital driver’s display. While some are simply stylistic, you can also change to handy things like a map that displays your sat nav route.” – Lawrence Cheung, New cars editor

Despite having a high-set, SUV-like driving position, there’s plenty of room in the front of the Mercedes B-Class. Even very tall people are well accommodated in the broad, high-roofed interior. Space is equally impressive in the rear seats, with plenty of head and leg room for two six-footers – or even three to sit side-by-side. 

That said, adult middle rear seat passengers probably won’t fancy a long trip; the firm, raised seat cushion isn't ideal. The rear seatbacks can be reclined for a more laid back seating position, or set to a more upright position to free up a bit more boot space. While the entry-level trim comes with 60/40 split-folding rear seats, AMG Line Executive and above come with a more versatile 40/20/40 configuration, for those occasions you need to carry more clobber.

There’s no seven-seater option in the B-Class. The VW Touran has seven seats as standard, as does the Dacia Jogger (with its removable two rear seats if you need more luggage space).

Boot space is decent, with the B-Class’s 420-litre boot proving slightly larger than the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer’s and benefitting from a lower load lip. The boot opening is broad too, making it easier to load in pushchairs and bulky items. For even more space, you’ll want to take a look at the Jogger, because it has a 565-litre boot with its third row folded flat.

“I found it slightly annoying that the middle seat in the B-Class is raised, because it reduced the head room available when I’d filled the car with people. Not ideal on a long drive.” – Claire Evans, Consumer reporter

As a cash purchase, the Mercedes B-Class will cost less than the VW Touran, slightly more than the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer and way more than the Dacia Jogger (although, that rival undercuts pretty much everything). 

Company car drivers keeping an eye on benefit-in-kind tax will pay slightly less for the petrol B-Class, due to its mild-hybrid system, but will ultimately be better going for the 2 Series Active Tourer. You see, that rival offers two plug-in hybrid (PHEV) options that’ll be way cheaper, despite their higher P11D price. 

As you might expect, the diesel is the most efficient of the pair, managing up to 55mpg. That’s not to say that the petrol is inefficient, though, with official figures promising up to 47mpg. 

There are four trim levels to choose from, but even the entry-level Sport Executive comes with plenty of standard kit, including 17in alloy wheels, keyless entry and start, LED headlights, privacy glass, wireless phone charging and the features that we’ve already mentioned. 

Upgrading to AMG Line Executive adds 18in alloys, sportier styling and the really comfortable seats. Meanwhile, the two AMG Line Premium trims come with all the bells and whistles, including 19in wheels, an upgraded sound system, bespoke styling, the electrically-adjustable front seats and dual-zone climate control. 

The Mercedes B-Class wasn’t included in the 2024 What Car? Reliability Survey as a model, but Mercedes as a brand claimed a fairly disappointing 22nd place out of the 31 included manufacturers. That’s below Dacia (6th), BMW (8th) and Volkswagen (18th).

Every B-Class comes with a three-year/unlimited-mileage warranty, which matches BMW but falls behind the seven-year/75,000-mile warranty that you get from Dacia. 

The safety experts at Euro NCAP awarded the B-Class a five-star rating in 2019. The 2 Series Active Tourer also achieved the full five-star rating in 2022, although under a more stringent testing regime. 

You get lots of standard safety equipment with every B-Class, including automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane-keeping assistance and a system that monitors driver alertness.

“Top-spec AMG Line Premium Plus comes with the option of adding the Driver Assistance package, which gets even more safety equipment. Given the list price and the amount of standard kit, though, I don’t think it’s worth the extra.” – Chris Haining, Sub-editor

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