Mercedes-Benz B-Class (2012 – 2018) Review

The second generation of Mercedes-Benz B-Class aimed to be the premium manufacturer’s take on a small MPV or a beefed-up hatchback when it was on sale from 2012 to 2018. It’s a sort of ‘best of both worlds’ attempt of blending posh with practicality but without the huge price tag of the brand’s bigger SUVs. Mercedes isn’t the only brand to have tried this – the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer is a similar concept, as is the Volkswagen Golf SV (or Golf Plus) but it is a bit of a rarity.

The Mercedes-Benz B-Class is a development of the ideas originally thought up for the first generation of A-Class. This is why the B-Class has tall sides and single box styling, whereas the A-Class has developed into a more traditional premium hatch.

Those tall sides give the B-Class ample interior space for five, making it a plausible alternative to many MPVs and crossover rivals. Add in the appeal of the Mercedes-Benz three-pointed star badge, a large boot and strong build quality and the B-Class begins to build a case for itself.

There’s a choice of two petrol versions, which both use the same 1.6-litre turbo petrol engines in two different outputs. You can also choose from a 1.5-litre diesel or two versions of the 2.1-litre diesel and the most powerful diesel is also available with 4Matic all-wheel drive.

While the variety of engines and premium appeal of the B-Class will attract some to its ranks, this Mercedes-Benz does not offer much in the way of driving thrills. The handling is at best average for the class and the firm ride is necessary to stop the tall-sided B-Class from lolling about too much in corners.

Where the B-Class does regain ground is the amount of safety equipment supplied as standard with the car. All B-Class models have seven airbags, a Collision Prevention Assist Plus system to avoid accidents happening in the first place, plus a driver drowsiness warning. Mercedes-Benz also includes automatic child seat recognition to deactivate the front passenger airbag when a child seat is fitted.

There are three main trim levels on offer in the Mercedes-Benz B-Class, with SE, Sport and AMG Line. Given the market that Mercedes looks to appeal to, the standard level of kit is good even on the basic model. Even the SE cars got toys such as a reversing camera, leather substitute trim, a seven-inch display and active parking assist.

Sport adds more tech and some visual upgrades while AMG Line is the one that brings more in the way of a body kit and lowered suspension, for those of you that want your people carrier to have a degree of sportiness.

For many buyers though, the B-Class will be too expensive compared to rivals that make do without a Mercedes-Benz badge.

The driving position is good and affords an unhindered view to the front and sides of the car, while the raised position also lets the driver see over most other cars to gain early warning of any potential hazards.

It’s not so good when you look over your left shoulder when changing lane or reversing into a parking space as the thick rear pillars obstructs the view. To counter this, Mercedes-Benz supplies the B-Class with a reversing camera that shows its display in the dash-top screen.

Space in the rear seats of the B-Class is more than generous to accommodate three children, or even three child seats. A benefit of the tall sides of the B-Class is it also offers more than enough room for adults in the rear seats and headroom is never an issue.

Behind the seats is a 488-litre boot, which is much bigger than the class norm for small hatches. This can be extended to 666 litres with the rear seats slid as far forward as possible on their runners. The only downside here, perhaps, is the B-Class is strictly a five-seater where many of its MPV rivals offer seven seats.

Even if the higher-set driving position has more in common with an MPV, the clear white-on-black dials, trio of central air vents and stereo and heater controls all tell you this is a car with premium aspirations.

Let your hand roam around the driver’s environment and every surface, button and control you come into contact with further enforces the idea that Mercedes-Benz has not skimped on the quality of the B-Class interior.

All of the dials are clear and uncluttered and the B-Class also comes with a dash-top display screen, which looks great. However, this screen is used to operate a lot of the car’s functions and this is achieved through a variety of menus, which can become quite trying when a simple press of a switch would have sufficed. It isn’t as easy to use as the equivalent systems in BMW or Volkswagen rivals.

The screen itself looks a little like it has been tacked onto the top of the dash – it sits high up rather than being fully integrated into the panels as it is on the likes of the Volkswagen Golf SV.

When the Mercedes B-Class came off sale in 2018 the range ran from around £24,000 to about £32,000. The steps up through the range were fairly consistent, with the automatic gearbox attracting a premium of around £1600 and the steps between the trims all around £1000 to £1300.

Now, though, you can only get this version as a used car, and the B-Class’s desirability means that it has held onto its value fairly well. At three years old, it is still worth around 50% of its original price. This means that later models, at around two years old, will cost around £18,000 to £19,000. This brings you a low mileage – often as low as 10,000 miles or so – model with a decent specification.

Three-year-old models with higher mileage tend to be around £14,000 or so. Eight-year-old higher mileage models will set you back around £6000, heading up to around £8000 for ones that have covered fewer miles.

There is very little difference between the manual and automatic gearboxes when it comes to official figures, so economy needn’t be a factor when deciding which to go for. Those figures are on the old NEDC test cycle, though, so expect something around the 80% mark of that as a realistic figure – something around 50mpg for the diesels and 40mpg for the petrol.

The one to avoid if economy is important is the 4Matic all-wheel drive model, which takes a 20% hit on its mpg rating, with an official figure of 55mpg. You’ll have to really want all-wheel drive to want that, and given that go-anywhere ability is not this car’s main USP it makes it less of a worthwhile choice.

The B-Class is pitched somewhere between a full-blown MPV and family hatch. That’s a tough place to find yourself given how able so many other cars are that can do both. Unfortunately for the B-Class, this is not a line it treads with any great finesse.

For starters, the B-Class suspension always feels too stiff and unforgiving. It doesn’t matter whether you’re ambling through town or marking time along a motorway, the B-Class almost wilfully refuses to settle to a comfortable stride. The result is wearying combination of pitching and rocking motions that are far from ideal in a family car that is expected to carry children on a regular basis.

While Mercedes has achieved its aim and the B-Class wends its way through a bend with impressively little loll, it is a compromise we’d be willing to see moved more in the direction of ride comfort than outright handling ability.

If you opt for the Sport version of the B-Class, you’ll find both of the above traits accentuated to the point where the car is simply too uncomfortable on some of the UK’s more disparaging road surfaces.

We could forgive the B-Class some of its firm ride if it were a more sporting car or it made it up for it by being a joy to drive. Instead, Mercedes-Benz has further hampered the B-Class with power steering that does not deliver consistent, regular feedback. What you get is steering that is often too light in the straight-ahead position that then quickly transfers to being too heavy as you progress into and through a corner.

Luckily, all but the least powerful petrol and diesel engines are happy to work at lower revs and pull cleanly. The 122PS 1.6-litre in the B180 and the B180 d 109PS are fine around town and give good accounts of themselves for economy and emissions, it’s their more powerful sister motors that are preferable.

For petrol buyers, the B200 156PS version of the 1.6-litre turbo engine gives stronger acceleration with only fractionally less fuel economy but the same emissions.

As for the diesels, the B200 d is a good compromise between price, running costs, consumption and emissions. However, it’s hard to see past the B220 d that delivers a better turn of acceleration than the B200 d yet offers the same official 67.3mpg average economy and lower CO2 emissions.

If you choose the B220d, you also have the option of Mercedes-Benz 4Matic all-wheel drive. It shares its seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox with the front-drive B220d, but economy of 56.5mpg and 130g/km CO2 emissions versus the front-drive model’s 108g/km means you really need four-wheel drive to make it worth spending the extra.

The Mercedes-Benz B-Class performed well in its Euro NCAP crash test when it was first released, but as that was back in 2011 it’s worth bearing in mind that the tests have got somewhat stricter since then.

That said, it did as well as could be hoped under the contemporary conditions, scoring a maximum five stars and earning particular praise for its adult occupant protection.

The Collision Prevention Assist system was fitted from the start of the B-Class’s life and upgraded to a Collision Prevention Assist Plus system at the mid-life facelift in 2014. This meant the system could not only help with braking in the case of a front-on collision, but help mitigate the impact of a rear-end impact too.

Entry level B-Class SE models are the sensible buyer’s choice and come with 16-inch alloy wheels, comfort suspension and, reversing camera, Artico leather substitute trim, three louvre radiator grille, LED DRLs, LED tail lights, 7-inch display, Active Park Assist, air-conditioning, Collision Prevention Assist Plus, iPhone connectivity, Bluetooth, seven airbags and a leather covered multi-function steering wheel.

The Sport model adds 17-inch alloys, twin tailpipes ambient lighting and rain sensing wipers.

B-Class AMG Line versions go to 18" alloys, bi-xenon headlights, Artico/Dinamica upholstery, AMG body kits and lowered comfort suspension