Pictures ***My New Ride is FINALLY here!***

[cawimmer430]

Hit 220 km/h today in comfort mode. The suspension behavior in this mode is generally good, but at this speed it was way to soft and made the car difficult to control.

Later I switch to sport mode and I could feel the handling of the car improve big time. The suspension became harder aiding my high speed driving. Amazing what this Adaptive Suspension can do!

 

[hoffmeister_fan]

Haha, your review has me hankering for an A-Class now.

 

[cawimmer430]

Haha, your review has me hankering for an A-Class now.

Get one!

If you really want to have some fun you must start with the A250. The A200 is peppy and plenty quick, but as far as I know it lacks an LSD. The A250 comes with an LSD and it shows. Pretty good handling in tight corners, no noticeable understeer!

 

[hoffmeister_fan]

Get one!

If you really want to have some fun you must start with the A250. The A200 is peppy and plenty quick, but as far as I know it lacks an LSD. The A250 comes with an LSD and it shows. Pretty good handling in tight corners, no noticeable understeer!

We are getting the sedan State-side........

Unfortunately, it will be out of my price-range.

 

[cawimmer430]

We are getting the sedan State-side........

Unfortunately, it will be out of my price-range.

I prefer the hatch (I am biased!) but the sedan should still be a great car. Mercedes definitely hit a home run with the new A-Class. It‘s an expensive car for sure, but I was able to lower the price by buying the car through my business and getting a good discount rate plus a generous sum for my ex-BMW - and by only selecting the features that I would want and will use!

Will you get the A250 Sedan in the US? So far I‘m only seeing references to the A220/A220 4Matic.

 

[hoffmeister_fan]

I prefer the hatch (I am biased!) but the sedan should still be a great car. Mercedes definitely hit a home run with the new A-Class. It‘s an expensive car for sure, but I was able to lower the price by buying the car through my business and getting a good discount rate plus a generous sum for my ex-BMW - and by only selecting the features that I wo...

It looks like we are only getting the A220 sedan. And, no, despite your glowing review of the A, an A-class or something of its ilk is not in my forseeable future. I just recently picked up a used CR-V and that'll be my chariot for awhile. If I get anything else later, it'll probably be something comparable to it. *sigh*

 

[cawimmer430]

It looks like we are only getting the A220 sedan. And, no, despite your glowing review of the A, an A-class or something of its ilk is not in my forseeable future. I just recently picked up a used CR-V and that'll be my chariot for awhile. If I get anything else later, it'll probably be something comparable to it. *sigh*

Honda makes great cars, nothing wrong with a CR-V.





With an abandoned Mercedes-Benz L710 "Kurzhauber" ex-firefighter truck.

 

[Deleted member 1071]

Ein WEISSES Feuerwehrfahrzeug ??

 

[Srbb]

do you have the ambient lightning on your doors too?

 

[Deleted member 1071]

Get one!

If you really want to have some fun you must start with the A250. The A200 is peppy and plenty quick, but as far as I know it lacks an LSD. The A250 comes with an LSD and it shows. Pretty good handling in tight corners, no noticeable understeer!

The A250 has LSD as standard equipment ?

No wonder you're enjoying your new ride, man.

 

[cawimmer430]

do you have the ambient lightning on your doors too?

Nope. No ambient lighting. I skipped that feature. It's cool but it's also a gimmick (to me). I only spec'd my car with features that I know I would use.

 

[cawimmer430]

The A250 has LSD as standard equipment ?

No wonder you're enjoying your new ride, man.

Yes, the A250 comes standard with LSD. Two Mercedes' salesmen confirmed this to me.

And coming from a RWD BMW, I was worried about living with FWD but so far I have nothing to complain about. I still have to get used to driving the A250 hard in corners, because I am still conditioned to driving the BMW and how to react should the tail break out. I have to say I've been pushing the A250 a little hard, slowly getting to know how it handles. In hard corners I don't really feel any understeer, but I can feel the car pulling me into the corners. I have to get used to this feeling.

I will say that past 220 km/h you can kind of feel the limitations of FWD having to both propel and steer the car at the same time. Past 220 km/h the BMW was easier to drive and control, it also offered more steering feedback. For some reason the A250's steering feel in sport mode gets a little vague at 220 km/h+. As good as the sport mode in the A250 is, it doesn't come close to the directness that my ex-BMW 1er offered. I was expecting that. And in the end it's all a question of truly getting to know the car. Once that is achieved driving even faster shouldn't be a problem!

 

[cawimmer430]

Just programmed my own Individual driving setup.

I generally keep the car in Comfort mode which is great for most situations. There's only one problem; in this mode at higher speeds on the Autobahn, the suspension is too soft and the steering feedback is a touch too vague. This makes controlling the car difficult. Sport mode takes care of these issues up to a certain point (past 220 km/h the steering feedback becomes a little vague). However, Sport mode is too aggressive in terms of transmission management (you need to either manually up-shift or drive near the redline zone for the transmission to finally up-shift) which means louder engine noise and a higher fuel consumption.

What to do? Create your own mode! Here's what I did.

Transmission Mode: Comfort
Suspension Mode: Sport
Steering Mode: Sport
ESP Mode: Sport

It's incredible and really gives me what I want. One downside to the sport suspension mode is that it's really quite hard/harsh. It does provide you with superb and easy control of the car, but the trade-off is more noise and less comfort, especially on our crappy amateurishly patched-up German road surfaces (don't believe the myth that Germany's roads are all smooth and in perfect condition).

I am amazed at how you can feel the different modes take over. I could be cruising in comfort mode with the comfortable suspension and somewhat light steering feedback, then switch to sport mode (or now my Individual mode) and instantly feel the steering feedback and suspension tighten and change in character. Amazing stuff!

One more thing. I love the power this thing has on tap. Overtaking long columns of trucks and slower cars on country roads is a breeze. The A250 is incredibly responsive and accelerates very fast! This is seriously a fast car! I can only imagine how brutal the A35 AMG is and how utterly barbaric and uncivilized the upcoming A45 AMG will be!


Some new late afternoon snapshots. Man, I am so in love.

Can't wait for the summer when the really nice AMG wheels come on!

 

[Srbb]

Nope. No ambient lighting. I skipped that feature. It's cool but it's also a gimmick (to me). I only spec'd my car with features that I know I would use.

i thought you cant escape it if you go with premium pack or premium pack plus

 

[Mr. Mercedes]

Just programmed my own Individual driving setup.

I generally keep the car in Comfort mode which is great for most situations. There's only one problem; in this mode at higher speeds on the Autobahn, the suspension is too soft and the steering feedback is a touch too vague. This makes controlling the car difficult. Sport mode takes care of the...

Such a pretty car Christian. Seeing more on the road here and they look great.

The A250 has just arrived so I'm looking forward to checking that out.

 

[cawimmer430]

i thought you cant escape it if you go with premium pack or premium pack plus

I believe it depends where you live. In North America or Australia it might be standard or unavoidable, but here in Germany I can create a fully-loaded A160 or order a poverty-spec A250.

 

[cawimmer430]

Such a pretty car Christian. Seeing more on the road here and they look great.

The A250 has just arrived so I'm looking forward to checking that out.

Thank you.

I am very happy with my car. An A200 would have been sufficient, but I am glad I went for the A250. The effortless power on the Autobahn is addicting!

 

[cawimmer430]

Parking next to a real AMG...

 

[Srbb]

Nice. Did you exchanged the cars ?

 

[cawimmer430]

Recently discovered a cool feature in the car; how much accelerator pedal and brake pedal pressure (in percent) you're exerting. Not sure what the point is of this, but hey, it's cool in a silly sort of way.

Love how in the graphic the wheels spin when the car is in motion and stop when the car is not moving.