Nearly new buying guide: Mercedes-Benz A-Class

All the engines perform decently. There’s more road and wind noise than you would want from a posh hatch, though. The steering is quick and responsive, too, and the car handles corners with aplomb. It may not be fun, but it is stable and secure. It rides well, too, most of the time. It’s quite supple over patchy roads, and generally nicely fluid and compliant over bigger bumps. The downside is that it gets floaty at higher speeds and bouncy over undulating roads.

Inside is an interior of rare quality. Tech-lovers may prefer the Executive or even Premium pack for their larger screens, which, when combined, look like one giant widescreen that stretches across more than half of the width of the dashboard. It’s impressive, as is the design of the interior, and with its lashings of shiny piano black plastic, leather and metal in all the important places.

There’s plenty of space up front, too, although it’s tighter in the rear, especially if you’re sitting behind a taller driver. The boot is big enough for your weekly shopping or luggage for a holiday for two.

BUYER BEWARE

Interior Try to negotiate an extended loan or test drive to guage where there are problems with the driver display. A few owners report it failing and going blank, meaning the instruments cannot be seen.

Electronics On the test drive, check there are no issues with sensor-related functions including lane assist, speed limit assist and proximity alert. 

Need to know

The earliest cars cost from about £17,000. You need more than £20,000 for an A200 from 2019, while an A200d or A220d from 2019 or 2020 is more likely to be between £22,000 and £24,000. The AMG A35 starts at £32,000.

The A250e PHEV officially gets 256.8mpg, but you’re unlikely to see anything like that in reality. The A180d returns 62.8mpg, the A200d 57.7mpg and the A220d 55.4mpg. The best petrols are the A180 and A200, with 47.9mpg.