Mercedes A-Class

FIRST DRIVE We get a first taste of all-new premium hatch back.

- Richard Ingram

THE Mercedes A-Class is the premium family car that others want to beat. Not because it’s particularly spacious, good to drive or easy to live with, but because it sells by the bucket load.

Even as it neared the end of its life, Mercedes shifted 43,717 examples of the outgoing car in the UK last year. That’s more than every Jaguar saloon, sports car and SUV combined. But six years after it launched, the brand has been back to the drawing board.

The new A-Class looks different, and it sits on a revised platform, too, with a new interior, tech and engines. The sleek exterior moves the old car’s aerodynamics into a new dimension.

Mercedes says the changes it has made are equivalent to shaving 100kg from the kerbweight, while the cooling systems are so effective that the double shutter grille can remain closed almost entirely from August to April, apparently.

From behind the wheel, the A-Class is unrecognisable from its predecessor. Every model has digital dials and a wide central touchscreen as standard. But it’s the tech contained within these screens that impresses most. The software is more advanced than in the S-Class flagship.

Standout features include augmented reality navigation, which overlays images from the car’s camera with direction arrows, street names and house numbers. It activates as you approach junctions and proved surprisingly useful on our unfamiliar test route. It’s part of the Advanced Navigation Pack (£495), but to spec it you’ll need to upgrade from the standard seven-inch central screen to the larger 10.25-inch display, too.