2019 Mercedes-Benz A220 4Matic Review

2019 Mercedes-Benz A220 4Matic Review

The A-Class suffers from a high price, not to mention a lack of user-friendliness from its new infotainment system. Just as genetics can bless humans with good traits, it can also pass on some less desirable ones. And the same is true of Mercedes' new compact sedan. Well, it's certainly priced like a Mercedes-Benz. 32,500, our 4Matic-equipped tester adds the entire kit and kaboodle. 50,660. It's a good thing Mercedes isn't charging by the foot because there's not a lot of car for the money. But what's here is good, and the price isn't so egregious compared to its chief rival, the Audi A3. 32,500. And that's before dipping into the three available trim levels. The A-Class has no trims, just packages, which is easier to interpret and configure. The A-Class ditches the swoopy styling pioneered by the CLA-Class for something a bit more mature. It's like Mercedes ditched the Supreme hoodie and Chucks for a well-tailored sports coat and leather loafers from J.Crew.

The result is an attractive but anonymous exterior design. Our tester stands out more than the norm, though, thanks to its optional 19-inch AMG wheels and associated body kit. 339-per-month-lease cars that will eventually start arriving in dealerships. That's true of the cabin, as well. Our tester wears optional contrasting leatherette, and while there's an attractive black-and-white scheme or a tasty toffee-and-black shade available, our silver sedan features a garish black-and-red palette inside. Ignore the eye-catching leather, though, and this scaled-down E-Class cabin is a sight to behold, complete with ample real aluminum accents and interesting shapes, like the circular HVAC vent housings and the ball-socket-style vents. It's an extremely pretty interior. In fact, if you're currently driving a CLA and are looking to upgrade, the A-Class's handsome insides are the single best argument we can make for pulling the trigger. The front seats are supportive and comfortable, but they're also a bit cozy. Headroom is at a premium, although the front seats offer a wide range of adjustments to make the most efficient use of the available space.

Heating and ventilation certainly help matters, as does the adjustable lumbar support. The back chairs are more of a mixed bag. While you can put a couple adults in back, we'd hesitate to force the second row on them for more than 45 minutes to an hour. But working in favor of the A-Class is its more conventional roofline relative to the CLA-Class. Although the backseat is snug, ingress and egress are far easier than in its swoopy sibling, while visibility from the back is much improved, too. Cargo space is merely adequate, with 8.6 cubic feet (or just 70 percent of the 12.3 cubes available in the A3). That's a bit more than a weekend's worth of bags. There are ample little cubbies and such in the main cabin, though, and a sizable slot in the door, a healthy center console storage bin, and a generous glovebox. We also like the little iPhone-sized cubby beneath the HVAC controls, where drivers can find an optional wireless charge pad. We could go on for a week about the tech in the A-Class.

After a mixed review of the MBUX infotainment system following the A220's launch in Seattle last September, we're here to confirm that it still doesn't feel like a fully baked product. The aspects that worked well in Seattle work just as well in Detroit: the augmented-reality navigation remains revelatory and the primary physical interfaces for MBUX are extremely impressive. During our week with the car, we routinely cycled between the steering-wheel-mounted controls, the center touchpad, and the touchscreen itself. Each felt natural, interpreting our commands quickly and smoothly. The twin 10.3-inch displays are lovely, too. But the fourth interface remains an issue. MBUX has some of the best voice controls around, but that's like saying you're the valedictorian at clown college. While MBUX didn't sass us as it did during the first drive, it seems like Mercedes has replaced that bit of personality with a more generic response. During our week behind the wheel, MBUX answered most questions it didn't understand - and especially the ones that required it to reach up to the cloud for answers - with a repeated 鈥淗ow can I help you today? 鈥?or a 鈥淲hat would you like to do?

The A-Class does earn points for its variety of standard and optional equipment. Both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are here, in case you don't want to use MBUX. We're also huge fans of the impressively adjustable ambient lighting system, which features 64 individual colors as long as a number of multi-color presets and the ability to select from different zones and adjust the brightness in them.. Like most other small cars today, the A-Class features a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine. Shared with the C-Class, GLC-Class, and countless other Mercedes products, this less-powerful variant of the 2.0T is perfectly satisfactory. There's a minimal amount of turbo lag, and the engine is calm, quiet, and generally likable. The A220鈥檚 nine-speed automatic transmission is the only gearbox Mercedes offers, but that's A-okay. It's a peach in both everyday conditions and in the friskier Sport driving mode. The composed upshifts fade into the background, even in Sport, while the amount of hunting during downshifts is forgivable.