Sunday, March 25, 2012

Congratulations Mercedes... welcome back to the car business.

I've written several articles in which is easy to understand that I hate most Mercedes.
In particular I hate the A and B class Mercedes. But I was right to hate the A-Class, and WAS is the keyword.
The new A-Class is a car built with logic and brains. So I congrat Mercedes for quitting the construction business and entering the car making world.
The new A-Class is no longer built in high but rather (and like this post I've written before) like the best cars on it's segment. It looks like a mix between the audiA3, the Golf and the BMW3 series.

My Opinion:
I'm honestly anxious to test-drive this car. In engineering terms this makes perfect sense and it's a REALLY big evolution from it's ancestor. But dynamically you must drive-it to feel-it. But I will try to pull a few strings (a.k.a. contacts inside Mercedes) and make a real test drive and review out of the next article.

Improvement is obvious and easy to spot. The Old A-Class Mercedes was both ugly and dangerous. It was a dynamically nonsense and the tip-over during the moose test proved-it immediately.
But this one, this one is a CAR... not building.
Does this mean the car loses habitability? Probably, but who cares? IT'S A CAR! Not your living room! It's supposed to carry you from your work-place to your living room at home in a safe and logical manner. And when you arrive home, then you can enjoy the comfort of your living room.

Like the article mentioned above, this car clearly copies a lot from it's rivals... but if sometimes I condemn this, in this particular case I applause-it and congratulate Mercedes for the excellent evolution.
Copy-cat? Copy-cat is good when it comes to improving the "should never be born" old A-Class.
Cousins?

 More like Brothers!?

I've seen that ass before!!! Sisters for sure!

So I've clear that Mercedes pulled out the biggest automotive Orgy in the history of the auto-mobile. It must have been quite a Gang-bang between the Audi-A3, the Citroen DS3, the BMW 1 series and the Volvo S60.... but hey, it worked and I like it.

It's my new favourite "bastard". And I'm actually thinking, that if this car drives? I could even consider-it in my buy list...and that is quite a compliment.

Dislikes? Sure, a couple so far... but nothing odd

I would agree to these "X" shaped venting decorations, but the Mercedes logo is more logical and I can only understand this if it's going to première the car in the next X-Men movie.


I can't understand this latest trend of substituting a steel sheet (and a B pillar union reinforcement bar) with heavy-glass. Want to see the sky? Buy a Cabriolet... but don't go fitting something heavy on the top of the car, or it will unsettle the handling. It's just stupid!

It's going to be Front Wheel Drive... and I kinda Expected it to be Rear Wheel drive, but copying out BMW didn't go that far. Pity, cause the car is prettier than the frankensteinic BMW 1 Series, but I doubt it will be able to eclipse it's chassis driving everything through the 2 front wheels. Guess it's a wait and see.

The BEST?
It seems that AMG is already working on it, and there are plans for an 1.6 and 2.0 direct injection turbo, making the car available from factory with up to 200bhp...but the cherry on the top is that it will be available with an optional 7 speed gearbox, and that could make-it quite a rocket. That one I MUST TRY! ;)

Conclusions:
While some of the best car makers I've always loved are making mistake after mistake, some of the ones that I've always hated are making progress after progress and creating interesting products. I like this! I would love a world with nothing but well engineered, involving, passionate cars.
Seems like I'm going to have to test drive a Mercedes because I want to, instead of HAVING to,and at the same time have to test drive a Honda because I have to instead of actually wanting to... you have no idea just how bizarre this is.

Behold, the best Mercedes since the Gullwing (in my scale):
 


 






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