Mercedes-Benz B-Class

Whatever niche the Mercedes B-class is in, it does it well. It’s a kind of small-ish front wheel drive hatch with MPV undertones, except with a faint sporting bent. No we don’t understand it either, but it works.

• Comfort

  A tad firm for serious miles and if you go for a very long journey then there's some tyre roar, ambient boom and wind noise if you've got the radio off. Otherwise there's plenty of space and the engines all work superbly.

  

• Performance

  The B-Class has the choice of two petrols with either 1.5 or 1.7 litres or two two-litre diesels with 109 (B180 CDi) or 140bhp (B200 CDi). The 1.7-litre petrol gets the job done, but it can feel short of breath if pushed hard. The B200 CDi is impressively modern in performance, economy and emissions. It's effective in the mid-ranges and the outright performance gap on the road is less than the power suggests.

  

• Cool

  Can be a guilty pleasure. Only in private will we admit that we like it.

  

• Quality

  For some reason some of the early B-classes feel strangely cheap in the plastics. Merc has pulled its collective socks up lately, so that's a bit of a surprise. Saying that, it's better than most, and still retains Mercedes' ability to make cars feel solid even when the materials are a little low-rent.

  

• Handling

  The little Mercedes is really very well resolved; great steering, excellent damping, quite bizarre agility for something that looks a little bit like a posh van. It's a really quite lovely surprise.

  

• Practicality

  ‘B' doesn't stand for ‘box', but the small B-class boasts E-class levels of interior space. The boot is E-class estate-sized (sort of) too, with 540litres of useable, square space. Option the Easy-Vario-Plus pack and you can bin the rear seats too, making for 1645litres of cave to throw old IKEA units in.

  

• Running costs

  Stand out engine is the two-litre diesel since it emits just 136g/km of CO2 putting it in VED Band E or £110. It will also return around 50mpg. But as an alternative, Merc has added a start/stop option to its 1.5 and 1.7-litre petrol engines (called BlueEFFICIENCY) and both their tax costs are £125.