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For an average Indian, the words ‘Mercedes Benz’ evoke the image of a big luxury car like a sedan or an SUV. But what we have tested here today is something that classifies itself as a compact sports-tourer. It is called the B-class and as the name suggests it sits under the C-class in Merc’s portfolio. This car creates headlines in more than one way – it is one of the smallest Mercedes Benz car sold in India and therefore one the most affordable one too. It is also one of the first Mercs to borrow the carmaker’s new design philosophy that is seen on the upcoming A-class and the CLA compact saloon.
The front end has the typical Mercedes Benz elements – a clamshell bonnet, the sporty twin-slat grille with the large three-pointed star in the centre and those chunky day-time-running lights in the bumper. The headlights have a design and layout inspired by the SUVs and the MPVs in the Mercedes Benz line-up. In fact, the headlights of the B-class look so similar to those the M-class, that differentiating between an on-coming B-class and M-class at night, by simply looking at the headlamp design could be a difficult feat for an uninitiated – especially given the relatively low-slung nose of the new ML.
Look at the car from the front-three quarter view though and the B-class looks a tad disproportionate. The nose is sharp but the raised bonnet, the large windshield and the high roofline make the face appear disconnected from the rest of the body. Move over to the side profile of the car and this fact is highlighted further due to the stubby dimensions of the nose.
The car has a new design for the alloy-wheels. Their ten-spoke layout is different and hasn’t been seen on any of the Mercs yet. On the Sport variant that we have tested here, the alloys gets an 18-inch rim size. The body panels get two prominent creases – an arc that forms the shoulder line and another one at the lower part of the car that look like a hockey stick. These are trademark creases that are seen on all the new-generation compact cars in the Mercedes Benz line-up.
Take one glance at the tailgate and you know it is a Mercedes Benz car – thanks to those E-class inspired taillghts and of course, the three-pointed star on the boot-lid. The boot-lid itself is quite big and gives easy access to the 400-litre boot space behind it. At the lower lip of the boot-lid, you have a textured chrome plate that is a lot like what you see on the M-class and gives this sports tourer a small, rugged element. There is a roof-mounted spoiler as well and twin tailpipes at the bottom – giving the tailgate its sporty bits.
Despite all those Mercedes Benz elements, the B-class has a design that is easily forgettable. But quite frankly it looks much smarter than the upcoming BMW 1-series hatch and more modern and premium than a Mini Cooper. In fact, the B-class is bigger too – in simple terms this car is part-hatchback, part-MPV – think of it as a Honda Jazz that is priced five times as much – but does it have five times the luxury as well? Let’s find out…
Open the door of the B-class and you have the convenient, door-mounted electronic controls for the seat adjustment. Once you are in, the first thing to catch your eye will be the SLS AMG inspired five air-con vents if you are an enthusiast; or the large tablet display that sticks out of the dash, if you are a boring commuter. It is not a touch-screen device though, but runs the latest generation of the COMAND infotainment system. While the audio quality and the telephony are as good as any other Mercedes Benz car in this spectrum, what I particularly like is the new satellite navigation system from Becker. It surely isn’t as feature-rich as a Map-My-India device or probably even Google Maps, but it provides all the essential data in a very simple manner.
Below the tablet and the A/C vents, is a centre console that looks a tad too busy with tons of switches on it for the audio and telephony controls. A simpler layout would have looked better on a car this small. You get dual-zone climate control, two storage compartments and the rotary dial for the COMAND control. But this one doesn’t get a wrist rest like the rest of the Mercs. You get steering mounted controls as well and the design of the steering wheel has a sporty three-spoke layout. Complementing it is a set of metal pedals that are standard on the Sport model.
Behind the steering wheel is the confusing layout of stalks. The gear-selector is where your conventional turn-blinker stalk generally resides – which means that you would be hitting Neutral every time you want to indicate that you are turning left. This needs some getting used to. The cruise control stalk is placed at the lower left hand side of the steering wheel and comes in handy when you are planning to munch miles on long, open highways.
Moving on to the rest of the cabin, our test car follows a black and beige colour combination of its plastics and upholstery. The upholstery though, can be customized. The all-black dash adds to the sporty character, while the bright upholstery adds a sense of space. Contributing to this fact further is the presence of a panoramic roof – but since we tested this car in the scorching heat of Mumbai, we preferred to keep it shut for the better part of the day.
The seats of the B-class are large enough than what its compact form factor would suggest. The cushioning is comfortable even for long distance commutes. The B-class will be more of a self-driven vehicle, however, the rear bench too is quite comfortable. It is good for three and a half people and the absence of a big transmission tunnel (this is a front wheel drive car!) means that your kid can seat in comfort even in the centre of the back-bench.
Now the negatives – the rear bench could have done with better under-thigh support; the rear seats could have carried forward the ‘recline’ function that you get on the B-class that is sold outside India – after all it’s a sports tourer; the fabric below the panoramic roof feels low-rent; the plastics on the centre-console and door-pads feel clumsy and the lack of electric controls for the front passenger seat makes the cost-cutting evident.
Nevertheless, the fit and finish of the B-class is very good and exceeds the expectations that I had from an entry-level Mercedes Benz. What makes me happier is that the same level of fit might make it to the A-class, CLA and GLA as well – meaning that the newcomers to the Mercedes Benz brand aren’t going to feel shortchanged, owning an entry-level car from the German brand.
The B-class belongs to the New-Generation-Compact-Cars platform (NGCC) that also underpins the A-class, CLA compact saloon and the GLA compact crossover. The highlight of these cars are the new range of compact, small-capacity engines and the front wheel drive architecture which aim at makings these cars more affordable and fuel efficient as compared to their larger siblings that have bigger engines and rear wheel drive configurations. The B180 Sport is powered by a 1.6-litre petrol engine that puts out 122 PS of power and 200 Nm of torque. Quite frankly, it doesn’t feel that this car puts out only 122 PS – it feels a lot more, thanks to the direct injection tech and the linear, yet responsive power delivery.
The engine is mated to a 7-speed, dual clutch gearbox. When in automatic mode, the gearshifts are soft and at a lower rev-range for better fuel economy. Sport mode though lets the engine rev to 4,500 RPM before it shifts up. However, if you compare the upshifts to the downshifts, the former feels a tad slow in response – more so in the Eco mode. Shift into manual mode though and you’ll get better acceleration and engine braking but at the cost of fuel economy. Our test car returned us between 8 to 9 kmpl throughout the test.
Since B-class touts itself as a sports tourer, in India it will have to tackle everything from smooth highways to roads that are practically non-existent. The suspension setup and the ground clearance did tackle the craters that we threw at it, but it wasn’t an easy task. With a full load, you may end up scraping the under-body protection on awkwardly tall speed humps or through deep potholes. On the highway though, the B-class offers good ride quality and you don’t experience any thudding inside the cabin. Around the twisties, the suspension setup is firm enough to tackle corners with minimal body roll.
The front wheel drive architecture of the car is what creates headlines. At lower speeds, the steering is easy and the turns-ins, quick. Even through corners the car behaves the same way as your regular hatchback or mid-size sedan. But high speeds, the FWD configuration becomes its enemy as the inherent understeer makes lane-changes or high-speed cornering a tad difficult than a regular rear-wheel drive Mercedes Benz car.
The overall performance of the B-class is quite good for its body and engine size. The car offers a good level of luxury while being a potent performer. The level of space and kit is also quite decent and in a way, warrants the price tag.
Conclusion
The B-class is certainly not going to generate big volumes for Mercedes Benz, unlike the Audi Q3 or the BMW X1. But that said, it will not have problems raking up decent numbers for the carmaker because it actually caters to a wide variety of consumers. Being the cheapest Mercedes Benz car, it will attract quite a few newcomers to the brand. The car will also play a good second fiddle to bigger luxury cars and will therefore become a good second car for existing customers of the brand. And last but not the least, the B-class also makes sense for consumers who are looking at buying a car that has a very good level of luxury, but want smaller exterior dimensions for convenience in congested metros. But to live up to the claim of being a sports tourer, I believe that it still needs diesel propulsion even if it caters to a fairly rich clientele.
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