A180 cdi Sport

Nice Looks, poor electrics, unfinished and cheap components used.poor visibility but drives nice

My car is a 2014 Mercedes Benz A180 cdi sport 5 door hatchback in Metallic Black.

Style exterior - Basically this car was purchased for its looks in the price range I had, I looked at the BMW 1 series Bland looking, Audi A3 again Bland looking, Golf to boxy looking, and Lexus which are a nightmare to find places that actually service them serious try finding a dealer near you. So I decided to go for the Mercedes as it looked in my opinion the best.

Style Interior - Nice seats but what happened to the dash board it does not fit inline with the door panels instead is about two inches higher than the door panels its just odd and unfinished. The worst part of the interior though is the cheap Binatone style sat nav wow i think they just screwed it into the dashboard as an after thought and the screen size and 1inch width screen surround seriously let this car down it just looks cheap. The dashboard functions are all easy to use and in easy to get used to locations. One thing to note the small tray lid near the gear know broke within the fist 3 months and the dealer cannot seem to fix this(it's been into the garage 4 times now)

Electrics - Wow all i will say is do not let anyone steam clean the seats or you will get an airbag fault message and have to fit a new sensor it's done this now every time the car goes for a valet. So much so that now I have given up fixing it, always the same passenger airbag fault always same reason always same solution replace it.

Also do not put anything on the passenger seat or the seat belt bonging noise won't stop until you take what ever is on the seat off.

Electronic parking brake - ok so the car costs circa 20k and has a really poor parking brake in terms of it gives you around 2 seconds to let you know it is on or off, park up put the brake on or did i how do i check put keys back into the ignition and wait for the light to come on or not. Mine even rolled back and crashed into another parked car even though the car was locked with the clipper key. You would have thought a car at this price would know there is no one in it locked and alarmed so put the hand brake on!

Visibility - POOR you cannot really see anything out the back window or very much over your shoulder as the seats are big and block visibility, the wing mirrors are OK but quite small. Don't break these they cost £300 each to fix

Boot - Small and not the best shaped the Audi, Golf and BMW 1 series all had more boot space

Driving - mine is a manual which is nice and smooth and the car does give great mpg, its comfortable if a little low to the ground with great handling and confidence inspiring, I drove from Chesterfield Derbyshire to Edinburgh in one go over 340 miles and when i arrived felt fine. This is a good bit they are smooth and nice to drive. I have had 4 Mercedes now and this drives as well as them all, it is however the road noise thats louder than any of the others but this is an entry level series to the brand so OK, the Audi is quieter to drive.

Engine - Mine is the 180 diesel I think its a 1500cc and was told a Renault engine but cannot confirm, It is loud and rattles when you put your foot down but does provide as mentioned a nice smooth ride, gear changes are slick and its OK, It is actually provides quite a strong pull when you accelerate and feels like you could drive anywhere and know you would be OK.

Tyres - Fine i am on my second set of front tyres and have done 43,000 odd miles no problem.

Lights - nice and bright but not LED on mine the headlights are nice and bright and visibility is good, i feel confident that cars driving behind you can see you at night due to the big rear lights and the rear window lights so all good

Paintwork - It looks like good quality paintwork and consistent everywhere on the car even the plastic bumpers are covered well quality finish, it does feel a bit soft though and is easily scratched. Again the Audi paintwork felt better harder if that makes sense.

Wheels - Alloy and I picked the four round circle version - reminded me of the Porsche tele dials so went for them, I have scuffed them hit all sorts of stuff and they are very strong and hard to damage, they still look good now after 40 thousand miles.

Radio and Phone connectivity - Great easy to pair and just works - good sound nice and simple to use.

Glove box - Tiny mine has the spare wheel locking nut toolkit and the sat nav disc box in and thats it because i cannot fit anything else in it - No point in have this its useless.

Centre box behind gear stick - you have an armrest which slides forwards and backwards? and beneath this a big tub for all you bits, think of this as the actual glove box, its good size and has a USB connector for charging you phone

Door trays - fine but nothing spectacular same as in every other car but go right back under the door handles and can be difficult to reach at times, you cannot reach the back when sat in the drivers seat without being very flexible

Rear head rests - adjustable but if you move the centre one up one notch you cannot see anything out of the rear window.

Summary - Buy this car if you want a good looking car over functionality think old Audi TT looks great and drives great but thats about it, It is ok in class for build quality but not class leading, the Audi is better built. If you don't want to have the interior valeted anytime than the electrics are fine, but once you start to get the car Valeted remember your £80.00 additional passenger airbag sensor replacement cost. Also if having a broken ashtray lid does not worry you then you will be fine, if it does then gaff tape is your only option as this fault has baffled two separate dealerships so far.

Would I buy this car again - For the looks and the way it drives then yes, for the build quality no it is nowhere near as good as others at the same price.

The next car I will replace it with is a 5 door Audi A3 sport diesel although in my opinion its too bland.

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