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Road Test

Mercedes-Benz A170

Test date 22 February 2005  Price as tested £18,030

Mercedes first patented its ideas for a sandwich-floored passenger vehicle in the early ’90s and it spent the large part of a decade formulating its entrance into the Golf sector. When the A-class failed the elk test, some commentators wondered if the company could cope with the total failure of a project that had received such huge investment. Mercedes fitted ESP stability control as standard, proved the car was safe and it sold 1.1 million units over a seven-year life. And Mercedes did see the funny side: at the car’s re-launch after publicly passing repeated elk tests, journalists were presented with small elk cuddly toys.

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