By: Jason Woosey
Within Merc's large and flashy automotive family, the B-Class has always been the quiet and unassuming character sitting in the corner.
If you want a sexy hatch then you buy an A-Class, and above that there's a full entourage of cars to meet every taste, whether you're looking for a sporty sedan, hedonist limo or trendy crossover.
The B-Class, in contrast to its siblings, seems to be the voice of reason in the range, the sensible, practical choice. It's a fairly roomy car, treating its passengers to ample leg stretching space and headroom and there's a rather a useful 486 litre boot. It might not be as spacious as a Scenic, but the B is a bit more practical than your average Golf-class hatch.
This is as a result of it being designed from the 'inside-out' and the downside to this is an MPV-like shape that's not even a mild tremor on the aesthetic Richter scale. To make matters worse, designers went rather conservative on the front end, but that's now been rectified with the facelifted model that's just reached South Africa.
DESIGN ENHANCEMENTS
The second generation model's mid-life makeover brings a more expressive face, complete with a new bumper and shapelier headlights that follow the contours of the grille. The B250 now has LED High Performance headlights, which are optional on other models. At the back, the B gains a modified bumper with a contoured covering and additional chrome strip.
The cabin, which was quite stylish and smartly finished to begin with, has been mostly left alone, except for redesigned instrument dials and a larger 'head unit' screen, which now measures up to 20.3cm.
The model range has been realigned to the point where there are now three basic grades on offer - Style, Urban and AMG Line - and more gadgets have been added to the options mix, such as Keyless-Go. Furthermore, buyers can now opt for a Garmin Map Pilot navigation system - built into the standard 'Audio 20 CD' sound system - as a more affordable alternative to the Comand Online navigation system: R13 500 for the former, versus R22 500 for the latter.
Mercedes also upgraded the Collision Prevention Assist and Attention Assist safety gadgets, which are standard across the board.
FOUR TURBO CHOICES
The all-turbo engine line-up carries over, offering a choice of two petrols and two diesels. Your petrol options are a 115kW/250Nm 1.6-litre B200 and 155kW/350Nm 2-litre B250 and for diesel-heads it's either a 100kW/300Nm B200 CDI or 125kW/350Nm B220 CDI, both fitted with Merc's 2143cc oil burner, in different states of tune.
Mercedes claims lab-attained combined fuel consumption figures of 4.3 and 4.1 litres per 100km for the respective B200 and B220 diesel models, versus 5.6 and 6.1 l/100km for the B200 and B250 petrols. Six-speed manual shifting is standard, but an extra R18 000 will land you Merc's seven-speed DCT Dual Clutch automatic gearbox.
I spent some time with both B200 auto versions on the Gauteng launch and it was the diesel that impressed the most with its very reasonable performance that's served up in a smooth, quiet and lag-free manner. While the petrol version felt punchier once on the boil, the engine-gearbox combination was slow to react when sudden bursts of acceleration were needed.
While the B models certainly have a refined feel on the open road, and the steering has an intuitive feel, the ride was a tad firmer than I'd expect from this kind of vehicle, although it was by no means uncomfortable.
As nice as it is, the B-Class does have a formidable new rival to fend off, with BMW's 2 Series Active Tourer being launched locally as we speak.
THE BILL, SIR
B200 - R390 762
B200 CDI - R404 303
B220 CDI - R448 000
B250 AMG Line - R467 160