Mercedes-Benz is calling year 2013 the Year of the Offensive, the year when the company will pull out all the stops to seize back its leadership position in the Indian car bazaar. And leading the charge will be this little protagonist bearing the big star proudly. It’s a young at heart, sporty, dashing product from the M-B stable, the A-class, with great expectations resting on its small, but strong shoulders. Does it live up to the promise? We took the stylish, compact machine for a 300km spin to find out.
Mercedes A-Class Design and appearance
Visually bigger in the flesh than we assumed it to be, the A-class is a star to the core, a debonair character, a charmingly fresh sight. At the heart of its allure is its ornate grille which invites a thousand stars from the heaven above and arranges them in fascinating concave patterns to lend the A-class one of the glitziest faces around. Sitting proud within that galaxy of sparkling diamonds is the big, bold three pointed star dividing the classy, chrome laden horizontal slat holding it in two. That grille gives the A-class its distinctive personality, and without a doubt is the most appealing characteristic of its shimmering façade.
Apart from that arrow shaped, boldly styled nose, the matters have been kept relatively simpler and well defined. The bonnet doesn’t meet the grille in traditional style, but is slashed horizontally, letting the big bumper form the skin of the face above the radiator grille. The headlamps house sharply styled, inverted C shaped silver highlights within them. Above that you have your Daytime Running LEDs in an inverted boomerang shape. Holding the ‘torch’ (quite literally) of function within this form-biased detailing are Mercedes-Benz bi-Xenons.
At the bottom you have an ultra wide air dam flanked by two side dams, which we reckon should have done well with housing fog lamps. The business below the central air dam is finished by a body colored strip of plastic, adding further detail and character to the front fascia.
In profile, your eyes will go bling bling with the sight of those sexily designed 17 inch wheels. The big, titanium finish 10 spoke alloys go extremely well with the sporty character of this machine –naysayers need to have a good look at the profile images again and again till they concur with us. The greenhouse is small, with high window sills. The roofline itself doesn’t drop too dramatically, the top of the rear window sweeps down aggressively to lend the A-class a racy profile. The thick C-pillar, the big roof spoiler and the strong haunches further validate the sporty pedigree of this compact.
Below the green house, on the door surfaces there is strong resemblance with the recently introduced B-class and most other new M-B cars. The new design theme which sees a strong character line emerge from the headlamp, and pass through the fender before merging into the rear door is in line with the current-gen Mercedes design ethos. Below the horizontal line you have an inverted boomerang, another characteristic of modern M-Bs. At the bottom, a flared, interestingly creased side skirt keeps things tight and aggressive in profile.
The inverted C design theme from the headlamps has been carried over from the rear as well. The inverted C tail-lamps feature hi performance LEDs and are horizontally structured far down the flanks to lend the rear a wide, squat stance. Like with the tail-lamps, the emphasis with most of the elements at the rear is to make the car look wider. The rear bumper has a black grained diffuser insert underneath which also houses the dual exhausts with stainless steel tips, lending the rear a character as stylish and bold as the front.
The A-class is a classy looking machine, with some elements which clearly stand it apart. With its pronounced haunches, short roofline and big wheels, the A-Class looks the business. It exudes boldness and character from every angle. Not so much to us size obsessed Indian, probably, but the A-class would make a strong statement to a seasoned car lover, who appreciates sophisticated design.
On our white test car, the dazzling effect of that glitzy front grille and those lusty wheels didn’t look as pronounced as they should have, but still managed to turn heads. We can only imagine what this charming machine would look like in a blazing red color!