To modern for most of us but can you tell me if the 2005 onwards A class is ok

[Vince70]

As my mothers arthritis is getting bad and my dad wants a car that is easy to park and get in and out of he decided on getting an A class after driving my uncles, so I went on good old eBay and bought a not to shabby one yesterday morning which is a classic model that has only done 34000 for the not to autoshite price of £2350 (I could have it for £2300 with a PayPal code, but the seller prefers cash and I rather hand over the cash on collection and wouldn't want to muck the seller about trying to get the money across on the day of collection.

 

I wonder if anyone could give me any advice on any potential problems with one, This particular car is a 1500 petrol with a manual gearbox and the mot history seems ok apart from it saying rusty front suspension components 4 years ago on an advisory which hasn't been brought up since..

 

So anyone want a very nice BMW

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/bmw/e36-3-series-91-99/bmw-3-series-316i-comp----------------1997/5400344?v=b#

 

Or the dog duty 2002 Volvo V40 for £350 which has only just gone through a ticket.

[Rocket88]

A class.........................I wish you the best of luck.............

[SiC]

Saw a red 59 plate go through Cannock the other week - went for £950. The new owner looked well chuffed.

[Vince70]

I'm not sure if we will go ahead now as the owner said she's not sure if it's got any service history..

 

And on a car that's only done 30 odd thousand I expect it to have some books and a couple of stamps for the odd oil change so alarm bells are starting to ring..

 

She didn't sound impressed when my father suggested pulling out of the deal unless it has at least some books with it and I have to phone her later to find out.

[Rocket88]

Ask her where it was serviced.............they should be able to provide a print off of the service history......if she won't do it, suspect it's never been serviced.

[Vince70]

I managed to bring up the original dealer plates in the picture and phoned the main dealer and merc are emailing me the details..

 

My father has also phoned up the lady who's car it is and she went home and sent him a picture of the pages from the service book and it's got 9 stamps in it so there seems nothing to worry about now apart from selling his two cars so at least it's put his mind at rest..

 

So Another long long road trip to follow on Wednesday but I won't bore you with the details being a modern..

[Pete-M]

Serviced a newish A class diesel recently. Oil filter came from Mercedes. Upon inspection there was a big strip of insulating tape on the filter, peeled it off and in big letters the word Renault appeared...

[SiC]

Serviced a newish A class diesel recently. Oil filter came from Mercedes. Upon inspection there was a big strip of insulating tape on the filter, peeled it off and in big letters the word Renault appeared...

At least Merc bothered doing this! The Nissan Qashqai my future father-in-law had Renault branded filters in the engine bay out of the factory.

[lisbon_road]

Perhaps Nissan would not bother given the tie up between Renault and Nissan, so that the cars are known to interchange parts and so on ie it isn't a secret.  Hardly the same with Merc and Renault.

[Anthony]

The missus has a 2007 A150 that's she's owned from about 3 years old and now got just shy of 80k on it.

 

It's not my cup of tea at all (it's bland white goods with a Merc badge on it) but she loves it and to be fair it's been reliable, drives well enough for what it is and never FTP.  As with any Merc from that era, check for rust - hers had the tailgate replaced under warranty due to rot and it is starting to look a bit grim on the underside despite the full-length undertrays covering everything.  I had to replace the front-rear brake lines for the last MOT due to corrosion too, which I've never had to do on anything that new.

 

Otherwise it's just been mainly consumable bits that it's needed really, which is just as well as the engine bay is a complete pig to do any major work in.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

My sister has owned a 57 plate A160 Diesel Automatic for a few years. She does 25,000 miles a year in it. The maintenance schedule is based around some randomised process she has devised. The only FTP has been a broken fuel pump relay, and the only complaint I've heard from her over the last trillion miles in it is about uncomfortable seats. I agree, the seats are uncomfortable. 

 

I wouldn't call it 'easy to park' because visibility is terrible. But all my cars have windows so maybe I'm just out of touch with modern stuff. 

 

Conelrad Verdict: ok

[Anthony]

I wouldn't call it 'easy to park' because visibility is terrible. But all my cars have windows so maybe I'm just out of touch with modern stuff.

It's got the same issues as many other moderns - high waistline, small-ish rear window and the thick A-pillar being miles in front of you mean that you can't see the corners of the car very well when trying to park or manoeuvre.

 

Which is quite funny really when it's like that in the name of "safety"...

[garethj]

Would some aftermarket parking sensors help?

[RoadworkUK]

Serviced a newish A class diesel recently. Oil filter came from Mercedes. Upon inspection there was a big strip of insulating tape on the filter, peeled it off and in big letters the word Renault appeared...

Yep, the newest W176 can be bought with the OM607, AKA K9K dCi, AKA Renault 1.5 dci.

 

The W169 (the generation OP is discussing) was all Merc, and though some bits are a real pain in the arse (plugs etc.) they're pretty much the least troublesome of the bunch. Unlike the bigger cars they tend to be booked in for maintenance rather than repair.

 

I'd avoid diesels (just because they aren't very nice) and I'd avoid the CVT thanks to the five-yearly ATF fluid changes. I'd also avoid the Classic SE for its ghastly non-leather steering wheel, and the Avantgarde SE for its sports suspension. Get an A170 Elegance with a manual. 5 door for practicality- the three door models look really stupid.

[chancer]

Had a 57 plate A150 classic for 2 an a half years now. Put 20k on it with no trouble at all. Only thing to look for really is rust on bottom of the doors and tailgate. Spark plug change is a bit fiddly, best done on a ramp. Oh, and the front springs break for fun. Not a costly job to fix, springs are around 15 quid from ECP. I'd happily recommend one.

[Vince70]

Thanks roadwork and chancer for the advice..

 

The train tickets and insurance are sorted now so I pick it up from Nottingham tomorrow..

The one we are buying is a classic SE but it looks quite posh in the pictures and has alloys so it has at least one option and is in resale silver like I think 99.9% of them are.

 

My father wanted a five door so we ticked that box and got a petrol 150 with a manual box on a 55 reg

The only time I've been or driven one was my uncles which seemed quite plush inside but I think it was an elegance model but it didn't seem that long ago that he paid 8 grand for his so it seems the cars are now taking a nose dive in price as there's some nice ones about for between the 2 to 3 grand mark.

[binhoker668]

*Too

 

 

 

Sorry.

[RoadworkUK]

Nice wee thing. I reckon they'll actually win some shite credence in later years, thanks to their being so odd compared to their "rivals".

[andrew e]

The permenant digital KMH on the speedo will drive you nuts though. They handle quite tidily really and have loads of room inside, the CVT does sound like your breaking it though if you "ahem" press on. My mums CVT diesel seems to eat the edges of the front tyres however, but it's all tracked straight and neve been stuffed, might be a characteristic though. Verdict: SWB Zafira.

[Ghosty]

I remember somoeone on here saying these have gone up in demand since the new model A came out, seeing as it moved to a more traditional large hatchback style.

[overrun]

The A Class may cause too much pain in the hand department.

 

She needs one of these:

 

[HH-R]

The permenant digital KMH on the speedo will drive you nuts though. They handle quite tidily really and have loads of room inside, the CVT does sound like your breaking it though if you "ahem" press on. My mums CVT diesel seems to eat the edges of the front tyres however, but it's all tracked straight and neve been stuffed, might be a characteristic though. Verdict: SWB Zafira.

Did you ever drive Seamaster's? I rather liked it as a passenger. He offered me a drive but I'd left my geps at the hotel, I wouldn't have minded a go.

 

They're impressively roomy inside.

[Vince70]

I just got back from over a 5 hr drive picking up my parents new car and thanks for the advice...

It drives very well but was glad to get out of it and I do prefer driving my old chod than a newish modern but it does everything well as a modern should.

 

It's not quite immaculate as the inside of the doors are just starting to go along the seams but without your advice to be honest I would most probably of never known and I think a good coating of wax oil will keep the rot at bay and it has a small scrape under the rear bumper which I could most probably repair with a rattle can or two..but at the end of the day it's a 10 year old car and as its only done 35000 so it should last a few years and £2350 is cheap for a low mileage one.

 

The only thing I can find with it is the handbrake seems a bit high but I'm not sure if it's due to the seat position as I think my uncles was the same.

[Vince70]

I gave the inside of the doors a good coating of waxoyl today and they didn't clean up bad in the end there's no rust on the outer door skins though so hopefully it should keep the rot at bay for a couple of years.. but the mastic strip has just started coming away on one of the doors.. I was temped to cut it away and hammerite along the seam but then it would look a lot worse.

 

I did hear somewhere that the rust protection on these things is supposed to be 30 years but knowing merc I can see that as soon as the car is outside the dealer network that they won't honour it and it's last couple of services have been done at an independent garage.

 

I would rather have an old 190e any day of the week.