SA Roadtests
South Africa
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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
*To read one of our road tests, just select from the menu on the left. Hover your cursor over the manufacturer's name, then choose from the drop-down menu.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.
Supermarket parking lot car fans loved the Mercedes-Benz A250 Sport. They smiled, stopped to chat, waved or simply gave a thumbs-up. The regular car guard practically plucked this writer out of the driving seat in his haste to let the inner ambience wash over him.
Perhaps it’s the eye-catching red accent stripes across both the lower air intake and the deeper rear diffuser with its twin oval pipes; or the in-your-face crimson of the brake calipers. Maybe it’s the blood-rimmed anaconda eyes of the high beam projectors; or the scarlet seat belts, bold upholstery stitching and rims around the dash air vents. Or those aggressive black and silver AMG alloys fitted with 235/40 ZR18 Conti runflats. Whatever it is, the A250 gets noticed, whereas the A220 diesel we drove a fortnight earlier just faded facelessly into the suburban milieu.
In any event, this sporty derivative in Mercedes’ more youth-oriented A-class line has all the credentials of a “gentleman’s gti.” Its muscle power and performance is very close to that of the Golf that made the badge famous, it’s priced less than R13 000 above the DSG version of that car and it’s a Mercedes. Did someone in one of the marketing departments make a mistake?
Let’s look: 2,0-litre turbocharged motors in both of them; 155 kW for the A-class vs. 162 kW for the Golf; 350 Nm from both, although the Mercedes starts delivering from 300 revs earlier; maximum speeds of 240 and 244 km/h and zero-to-100 times of 6,6 and 6,5 seconds – pretty academic when you consider that it probably depends on tyres or which car’s plugs are cleaner that day.
Both have DSG gearboxes, seven-speed for the Mercedes and six cogs on the Golf, although the latter uses a traditional stick shifter rather than the column-mounted wand of the A250 Sport. As for suspension, both have lowered sports setups using McPherson struts in front and multilink systems at the rear. Similarly, each has a full house of electronic safety aids, including an electronic limited-slip differential to counteract understeer when the driver is pushing the boundaries.
Ergonomically, we wish the A250 had a little more “lift” to its steering wheel because it’s difficult for long-legged drivers to work their ways in beneath it, even when the chair is all the way down. Headroom in front is a bit stingy too, although the optional sunroof probably stole some space. Apart from the nasty but fashionable electronic parking brakes fitted to both, our final whine concerns the gear shift.
A sporty car is supposed to have a proper stick; in the middle, where it can be found. We hated groping at empty air whenever we wanted to change gears manually. Paddles might be necessary in Formula 1 cars where cockpits are narrow, but on street cars they are just plain pretentious and they upset one’s driving rhythm.
In summary, this A250 is a dynamic little car that goes like a rocket, handles like a dream and is also an unexpected challenger for Golf’s GTI crown. Just fit a proper shifter, forget the sunroof and we’ll learn to live with the low steering wheel.
Test car from MBSA press fleet
The numbers
Basic price: R395 479
Engine: M-B M270 series, 1991cc, 16-valve, four-cylinder turbopetrol
Power: 155 kW at 5500 rpm
Torque: 350 Nm between 1200 and 4000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 6,6 seconds
Maximum speed: 240 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 8,7 l/100 km
Tank: 50 litres
Boot: 341 to 1157 litres VDA
Warranty and maintenance: 6 years/ 100 000 km
This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.
I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.
My reviews and launch reports appear on Thursdays in the Wheels supplement to The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles each month, most months of the year (except over the festive season) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police.
Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8