Well I hope the quality is better than on Merc commercials.

We avoid them now, not a single one on the fleet.

Looking at the price of this it should have been against a Golf R, Audi S3 or a TT-RS to close the price gap.

Great cars will beat cars from the price bracket above, not the one below IMO.

The Atego was one of the biggest piles of poop i've been near. We took two 7.5 tonners on trial and both broke down repeatedly. Stayed with DAF FA45s, basic but hellishly reliable.

Merc quality has been pretty shoddy of late (parts sharing with Chrysler?) my uncle's 53 reg E320 was a bag of bolts, awful awful car. I understand that they've really upped the game lately and judging by how many '13' plates there are around they could be back in the game.

I don't know if I was dreaming it but I was certain Clarkson slated the FQ400 for feeling like it was a gear change away from cracking and that the lower powered versions were a much better drive?

Not enough development went into the FQ400 to make it a genuinely quicker car then lesser powered versions. Atleast with them you could make the most of the power you've got.

Day

The Atego was one of the biggest piles of poop i've been near. We took two 7.5 tonners on trial and both broke down repeatedly. Stayed with DAF FA45s, basic but hellishly reliable.

See on the flip side, out Citaro buses have been very good. A few alternator issues but nothing major. They are solid too, smooth quiet even after 5 years service use.

I was following a 60 plate sprinter yesterday though, covered in rust spots. Merc haven't sorted their rust issues out on vans yet I'm guessing.

Not enough development went into the FQ400 to make it a genuinely quicker car then lesser powered versions. Atleast with them you could make the most of the power you've got.

Day

Hubris I know, the Merc looks a far more sorted motor from the journalism around it. I wouldn't begrudge Merc a return to form as I have admired many of their motors down the years, used to have a Corgi model of a 190e Cossie which i'd always dreamed about owning one day!

Matt the Ategos we had weren't too long after launch and if I remember rightly were three months old when we got them. Just found them so unreliable even for a newly launched vehicle. The engines were better than the gutless predecessors mind. Thing is the DAFs were not only cheaper but they were better on juice and so much more reliable. The corrosion issues still persist too and have you ever tried to work on a Vito? Ideal if you don't like skin on the top side of your fingers.

Hubris I know, the Merc looks a far more sorted motor from the journalism around it. I wouldn't begrudge Merc a return to form as I have admired many of their motors down the years, used to have a Corgi model of a 190e Cossie which i'd always dreamed about owning one day!

Matt the Ategos we had weren't too long after launch and if I remember rightly were three months old when we got them. Just found them so unreliable even for a newly launched vehicle. The engines were better than the gutless predecessors mind. Thing is the DAFs were not only cheaper but they were better on juice and so much more reliable. The corrosion issues still persist too and have you ever tried to work on a Vito? Ideal if you don't like skin on the top side of your fingers.

 

It would be nice to see Merc finally come back on form. The A45 does look a really nice car and does promise a competitive package, lets just hope it delivers the goods. 

 

Day

I know of a guy going from a B7 RS4 to this and he was blown away by the performance. That's saying something coming from an RS4.

Mercedes interiors aren't very nice though. I was in a 90k S500 at the weekend and yes it was nice but not 90k. I also looked at buying a C63 but the interior didn't inspire me for 60k.

360bhp? Surely that should be against a golf R not a gti.

 

there isn't a mk7 Golf R to compare it to yet

I want one......

Lol at everyone going on about evo turbo lag, tbh this is only a problem if you cant drive, why would you need to drive a turbo petrol car from 30mph in 6th gear anyway!

i went out for a proper road test in one this week (my friend works for a dealers and had one)...

 

Well its fast, really fast, with a proper nice burble from the engine, even some popping on overrun. Sounds a lot more throaty than a normal 4 cylinder, almost more v8 imo. It pulls and i have never seen a car change gear so fast (tiptronic) its some fancy double setup apparently. It doesn't stop pulling all the way through the gears, and at 0-60 in 4 something seconds, its epic. Its got launch control too, its really really good too, not tried a decent one before, but in this its seamless and pretty brutal tbh.

 

It handles properly too, its got haldex, and merc really seem to have sorted this car out unlike their bigger cars, been in a c63 before and it didnt feel as fast, this feels proper hot hatchy and not lardy in the slightest.

 

Interior wise, its a bit odd, with a weird av unit display on a pod from the dash, i don't like it. I do like the recaro bucket recliners however, they are proper proper nice seats.

 

 

 

Looks Lovely Altho i do too many miles to run it and it's a bit small

 

i own an E250 CDI AMG and Love it to bits - it replaced my Superb...

 

Yes, the "old" E Class was poorly built, but i can't see how 10 year old car can be classed as "cars of late" - My Wife's 6 year old Kia Cee'd bares little resemblance to the new Cee'd! 

 

Al. 

I quite like it I got to say. Would be curious to see if there would be any room left for tuning though. Main issue for me would be the sheer cost of the thing, Mercs do shed value pretty quick though so maybe a used one in a year or too would make a nice upgrade

I quite like it I got to say. Would be curious to see if there would be any room left for tuning though. Main issue for me would be the sheer cost of the thing, Mercs do shed value pretty quick though so maybe a used one in a year or too would make a nice upgrade

Makes sense to me.

Any engine that's quite highly stressed from the factory needs a bit of time for issues to be found.

Second hand could save you several trips to the dealers.

I wouldn't expect a lot from a remap and further mods will be expensive, it's already producing a lot of power from a relatively small capacity.

Although it's probably not in need of many mods as it does look well set up and very quick.