Mercedes-Benz’s smallest car and its first attempt at a premium supermini, launched in 1997 as a short, tall five-door hatchback built around a novel “sandwich floor” that pushed the engine and running gear beneath the cabin rather than in front of it.[1] Four generations have followed, moving the car from B-segment supermini to C-segment hatchback along the way, and finally adding a saloon body in 2018.
This entry covers the original W168 of 1997 (a car more famous for failing a Swedish elk-avoidance test than for anything in its spec sheet, and recalled and re-engineered as a result) and the third-generation W176 of 2012, the first A-Class properly aimed at hot-hatch buyers via the A 45 AMG. The second (W169) and fourth (W177) generations are gaps in this catalogue.