Mercedes B-Class

The B-class, a larger relation of the A-class, appeared in 2005. Optimistically labelled Compact Sports Tourer, it was intended for the USA but never went there, which is probably just as well as it also failed to live up to Mercedes’ premium brand values.

The nightmare for Mercedes was that although they felt and looked cheap, the A- and B-class were expensive to make. The double-floor construction devised to give the cars a high seating position and the same crash protection as the bigger cars, dictated a powertrain arranged like a slice of cheese so that it could slot under the upper floor. The compact four-cylinder engine lying back at 59 degrees and the special transmission behind it shared nothing with any other cars in the Mercedes range. Mercedes decided that the new generation of these cars should be more conventional: lower, single-floored and transverse-engined with the gearbox alongside, like everyone else’s front-wheel drive designs. Determined to expand its small car sales, it called for a new Compact Car Platform (code-named MFA) which could be produced with five different body styles. The first of these is a compact MPV – the new B-class. It is a quantum leap from the previous model and Mercedes is confident enough in its prospects that it will be offered in most markets around the world.