I test drive one in 2001 with the intention of buying it. The dealer was insufferable but I never bothered to find a better one because the car was so incredibly dull to drive. I bought a Mini the next day.

Yep. It was utterly flawless and a brilliant car to drive. I sold it 20 year ago, but it still has an MOT at 23 years and 100,000 miles old.

The A2 rear seats can be removed completely to create a mini van, superior to the Jazz.

You don't need to remove them in the Jazz. Its superior design (in terms of space utilisation) of having the fuel tank under the from seats (rather than rears) allows the rear seats to fold down much lower. This means that with them folded (along with the taller roofline and more squared off rear end) results in more load space volume than in the A2 with its rears removed. And, being able to remove the rear seats entirely for more load space is only handy if you have somewhere to store them.

Also worth pointing out that on the original A Class, not only could the rear seats be unclipped and removed, so could the front passenger seat. So (assuming you have somewhere to put them) you can actually carry items not much shorter than the car itself and much longer than you can put in an A2 or Jazz (despite the A Class being much shorter). That feature also means you could easily sleep in it lying on the (completely flat) floor.

Edited by badbusdriver on 24/05/2025 at 07:25

<< ... you can actually carry items not much shorter than the car itself and much longer than you can put in an A2 or Jazz ... >>

Reminds me a bit of the BMC Maxi, which could do that all through the 1970s ! On one occasion I got a kitchen worktop and a complete greenhouse (for assembly) in ours. Luckily I didn't have to travel many miles tho.

Chap I used to work with told me about how, as a young man, he had a Maxi. Fathers of any young lady he came to pick up, upon seeing his choice of car, assumed he must be a sensible and responsible type. They were of course unaware the Maxi's front and rear seats could be reclined to create a makeshift double bed!