The Mercedes-Benz A-Class continues to set the bar for passenger cars around the world. With more than 500,000 units produced within three and a half years, the A-Class is among the best Benz sellers and continues to show itself to be ahead of the trends. With recent additions and amendments, the A-Class is showing itself to be more youthful, environmentally compatible, and attractive than ever before.
The A-Class premiered in 1997 and has since been a trendsetter within its class, producing cars that have been innovative and fun to drive. With about 1.7 million customers so far, the A-Class features an outstanding safety rating, great reliability, and incredible flexibility.
With a new five-door sedan and a three-door coupe hitting markets in recently upgraded models, the A-Class is getting set to take yet another run at some major market share. The models feature newly designed headlamps, a redesigned front bumper, a lower air intake, and a newly designed radiator grille.
Fuel economy is also up from other models. The car will use a direct-injection diesel engine that has reduced fuel consumption by more than 8% over recent models of the same car. By fall of 2008, Mercedes will introduce the BlueEFFICIENCY package. This package will add further improvements to fuel efficiency, rolling resistance, aerodynamics, weight, and general energy management. The package is, so far, only scheduled for availability on the three-door coupe.
Also available for release in fall of 2008 will be an automatic shut-off switch that switches the engine off automatically while idling. The driver will be informed of the engine shut-off by a special display on the dash. Within fractions of a second, the engine is restarted as soon as the clutch is operated or the brake is released. To this end Mercedes-Benz uses a starter generator which is linked to the crankshaft via the drive belt, allowing the engine to start-and-stop much quicker and more comfortably than with a conventional starter.
Watch for the new A-Class to hit Mercedes-Benz retailers soon and take one out for a test drive to experience these changes for yourself.
