• Appealing design with some luxurious touches
• Infotainment system now fully touchscreen
• Quality doesn’t feel as rock-solid as rivals

How is the quality and layout?

Mercedes has gone all-out with the design of the A-Class’s cabin. It aligns closely with other Mercedes models but, unlike the brand’s most recent cars, the main infotainment screen is aligned landscape rather than portrait.

Material quality is a mixed bag. The cabin uses a wide variety of materials and while some, like the cool metal on the doors, feel quite premium others, such as the fingerprint-prone shiny black plastic on the centre console, feel a little low rent.

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The same goes for the fittings. We love items like the heavy, tactile air vents and easy-to-use physical climate control panel. But the steering wheel controls are touch-sensitive and awkward to use. You’ll also find the piano black plastics and heater controls creak and bend if you jab them too hard. Overall, the quality doesn’t measure up to the rock-solid build you’ll find in the BMW 1 Series or Audi A3.

Infotainment and tech

The A-Class comes with two displays and, from the 2023 facelift, they both measure 10.25-inches diagonally. Previous models had 7.0-inch displays on lower trim levels.

The displays are laid out in a single slab under a seamless glass panel, making them look like one, ultra-wide display. The effect works well and the screens themselves are high-quality, bright and clear.

They’re powered by the latest generation of Mercedes’s MBUX operating system. This could previously be navigated by a touchpad in the centre console, but for 2023 Mercedes has removed this in favour of making the interface touchscreen-only. We’re not stoked about this change, if we’re honest – the central infotainment screen is set quite far back in the dash, which looks great and is fantastic for visibility but does mean that you’ll need to lean forward if you want to operate it.

You can still use the steering wheel controls, though. They’re touch-sensitive, which isn’t our favourite means of interacting with software, but they are simple to use. The left-hand side of the wheel controls the infotainment display while the right-hand side deals with the instrument panel, as well as the cruise control.

The standard digital dials give you a choice between several displays. There’s also a clever augmented reality add-on for the sat-nav on some models, which uses the front-facing camera to show a live feed of the road ahead of you and overlays graphical instructions onto it. It’s useful if, for example, you’re at a large roundabout and not totally sure which exit to take. We think it works better on the portrait screens found in larger Mercedes models, though, as the camera feed reduces the map to a very thin strip, not ideal if you’re driving through a city with lots of complicated junctions one after the other.

Comfort

• Comfortable seats up front
• Seats are firm but supportive
• Some driving position issues

The seats in the A-Class are typical Mercedes – not particularly soft and cossetting, but very supportive. You don’t sink into them like you do some rivals, but you won’t suffer back pain after a long trip, and to us that seems a fair compromise to make.

There’s a slight issue for drivers with long legs, though, as when the seat’s set far enough back to make the pedals comfortable, the steering wheel’s a little too far away. The seat base also sits relatively high compared to the low-slung 1 Series and A3.

Refinement is good, with all A-Class engines remaining hushed – and the slippery shape means little wind noise, too. Rear seat passengers get a slightly better deal than they do in rivals, too, as the A-Class’s window line remains low right the way to the back, giving them a better view out and more light.