We use cookies on whatcar.com to improve your browsing experience and to provide you with relevant content and advertising, by continuing to use our site you agree to this. Please see our privacy policy for more details. Continue

For The A180 is powered by a 1.6-litre turbocharged engine, which is tuned to produce 121bhp. It’s smooth, flexible and offers a good compromise between performance and economy.

Against For this kind of money most rivals offer a lot more power. Even the Comfort suspension version is very firm.

Mercedes-Benz A-Class Hatchback

What Car? says

2 out of 5 stars

Choose the right levels of equipment and suspension options, stick with the manual gearbox, and the A180 represents the pick of the A-Class range.

What Car? readers say

4


Key facts

0–60mph
9.2 secs
Top speed
126 mph
Average mpg
51.4
Tank range
miles
See all running costs

Features

See all equipment

Size

View the whole Mercedes-Benz A-Class Hatchback range

Cheaper

More expensive

Read in full

The full Mercedes-Benz A-Class review


Buyer's notes

Target Price team says:

There are three choices of suspension on the A-Class; Comfort, AMG Sport and Engineered by AMG.

Even the Comfort suspension will be too firm for many tastes, feeling jittery on any road that isn’t perfectly smooth. The AMG Sport is even less comfortable, but it does provide better body control to complement the car’s strong grip. Don’t even think about the Engineered by AMG arrangement; it’s so firm, you’d have to be a masochist.

The diesel engines are disappointing because they’re noisy and generate too much vibration. The petrols are better, being smooth and happy to rev, but they’re also relatively underpowered compared with key rivals.

The standard six-speed manual gearbox is fine, although the twin-clutch gearbox is also worth considering. This is standard with the 1.8 diesel and 2.0 petrol, and a cost-option across the range.

We reckon a A180 petrol car, on Comfort suspension with 16-inch wheels and a manual gearbox represents the best compromise.

Reader test team says:

Mercedes-Benz A-Class Hatchback A180 BlueEFFICIENCY 5dr

I ordered my car prior to it being officially launched in the UK and I have to say I took a bit of a flyer on it as the available information was…

Andrew Bathie

4 out of 5 stars

Mercedes-Benz A-Class Hatchback A180 CDI AMG Sport 5dr

Well I don't know what road testers smoke these days but the banality of the 1-Series and A3 didnt attract me one bit. The A-Class is a very classy…

Brian Robertson

4 out of 5 stars

Mercedes-Benz A-Class Hatchback A200 CDI AMG Sport 5dr

I wanted to put in a review here after test driving an A class C200D auto, and reading What car knock it. Let's get the negatives out first. Yep, the…

Matthew Soul

4 out of 5 stars
Post a reader review for your car View all reader reviews

A-Class rivals

A-Class used rivals