Six months on from the launch of W177 Mercedes-Benz A-Class hatchback in Malaysia, it’s finally time for the V177 A-Class Sedan to make its debut. The compact four-door will come in the same variants and similar levels of kit as its sibling, giving buyers greater choice in the fledgling premium small car sector.
With the separate boot comes a slight price premium – the A 200 Progressive Line retails at RM229,888, RM2,000 more expensive than the equivalent hatch, while the A 250 AMG Line gets a RM4,000 increase over the five-door version, priced at RM267,888. Both prices are on-the-road without insurance, inclusive of a four-year, unlimited-mileage warranty.
The sedan tacks on an additional 130 mm to the rear end plus a six millimetre increase in height, with measurements totting up to 4,549 mm long, 1,796 mm wide and 1,446 mm wide (the wheelbase remains the same, at 2,729 mm). Mercedes claims that the sedan offers class-leading rear headroom and above-average shoulder and elbow room, while its 420 litre boot is 50 litres more than its five-door sibling.
Design-wise, the sedan retains the hatch’s low shark nose front end, featuring tapered headlights and a trapezoidal grille with a dinner plate-sized three-pointed star. Also retained is the strong shoulder line, simple upswept character line lower down and a sweeping glasshouse, while the rear gets angular two-piece tail lights that decorate the pert rump, emphasising the car’s width.
Both models come with LED High Performance headlights (not the top-spec Multibeam units) with auto high beam, along with visible twin exhaust exits and 18-inch five-spoke alloy wheels. The AMG Line package on the A 250 adds aggressive bumpers, side skirts, larger cross-drilled front brake discs and AMG-badged alloys. The A 200 comes with run-flat tyres, while the A 250 rides on standard tyres and adds a tyre repair kit.
The cabin will again be familiar to hatch owners, with a thoroughly modern design carrying Stuttgart’s latest design language. That means that the wing-shaped dashboard is dominated by a large freestanding display panel – here without an upper cowl, like on the hatch – and round turbine-style air vents. There’s also a 64-colour ambient lighting system with 10 colour themes, or “worlds.”
The twin 12.3-inch instrument and infotainment displays utilise the new Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX) interface. The main highlight is a voice control system with natural speech recognition – using the phrase “Hey Mercedes,” users can operate key features such as the air-conditioning and navigation, and the system will also learn their preferences over time using artificial intelligence.
For interior accoutrements, the A 200 comes with black open pore linden wood trim and Artico faux leather upholstery, while the A 250 gains heated sports seats with integrated headrests, a Nappa leather-wrapped flat-bottomed steering wheel, brushed aluminium decor and Artico and Dinamica microfibre upholstery.
Standard equipment is identical to the hatch and includes keyless entry, push button start, power-adjustable seats with memory and four-way lumbar adjustment, cruise control, single-zone automatic climate control (no rear vents), auto-dimming and auto-folding mirrors, illuminated door sill plates, hard disk-based navigation and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto functionality.
Under the bonnet, the A 200 now uses a smaller 1.33 litre M282 four-cylinder turbo engine, developed in conjunction with Renault. It makes 163 hp at 5,500 rpm and 250 Nm of torque from 1,620 to 4,000 rpm, and when paired to a new Getrag seven-speed wet dual clutch transmission, it results in a zero-to-100 km/h time of 8.1 seconds, a top speed of 230 km/h and a combined fuel consumption figure of 5.4 litres per 100 km.
The A 250 gets a revised M260 version of existing 2.0 litre mill, churning out 224 hp at 5,500 rpm and 350 Nm between 1,800 to 4,000 rpm. It hits 100 km/h in 6.3 seconds, reaches a top speed of 250 km/h and delivers fuel consumption rated at 6.3 litres per 100 km. This one gets a revised version of Mercedes’ own DCT, which is also a wet clutch unit.
Both models ride on comfort suspension, with passive dampers and a 15 mm lower ride height than standard. The A 250 is the only one to come with multilink rear suspension, whereas the A 200 receives a new, simpler torsion beam setup. Safety-wise, all models get seven airbags, Active Brake Assist (autonomous emergency braking), a tyre pressure monitoring system and Active Parking Assist with a reverse camera.
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