• Reasonable leg room front and rear
• Headroom is quite limited in the back
• Fair-sized boot with wide opening

How much space is there?

If you were expecting the A-Class Saloon to be nothing more than a cramped C-Class, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. Inside, it’s very similar to the hatchback on which it’s based, which means there’s plenty of legroom and ample rearwards travel for the front seats. It’s also very bright and airy in the cabin, especially if you spec it with a panoramic sunroof.

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You do make some compromises, though. If you’re sat in the back with a particularly tall driver ahead, your legroom will evaporate. Headroom is tight, too, which can’t be said of the hatchback. Even though the bench has room for five in theory, you’d be hard-pushed to consider the A-Class Saloon a practical five-seater. It’s uncomfortable with three in the back.

Boot space and storage

Boot space is adequate rather than stellar. Petrol and diesel versions offer 405 litres of space, which is 35 litres more than you get in the A-Class hatchback, but 20 litres less than you get in the Audi A3 saloon. But at least the A-Class’s boot is a good shape. The aperture is wide and low, too, which makes it easy to load heavy items.

Space in the rear of the plug-in hybrid A-Class Saloon is less impressive. The battery pack is mounted under the boot floor, slashing its capacity down to 315 litres. At least the seats fold flat in a 40/20/40 split. That means, if you need to carry luggage and passengers you can, albeit uncomfortably.

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Interior storage is the same as the A-Class hatchback. Up front, you get some deep door pockets and two reasonably sized cupholders in the centre console. The glovebox is smaller than we would have liked, while the storage bin in the centre console is narrow and deep.

Is it easy to park?

Unsurprisingly, as the smallest model in Mercedes’s saloon car line-up, it is. The A-Class Saloon measures 4,558mm long and 1,992mm (including its door mirrors), which means you won’t have an issue fitting it into the average UK garage or parking space.

Rear visibility is a little limited but, thankfully, every A-Class Saloon comes as standard with front and rear parking sensors and a rear-view camera. If you’d like a little extra assistance, the range-topping AMG Line Premium Plus model gains a 360-degree parking camera.

Safety

• Hatch received five-star Euro NCAP rating
• Loads of standard safety equipment
• Two sets of Isofix points in the rear

Euro NCAP hasn’t yet crash-tested the A-Class Saloon, but when it battered the A-Class hatchback around its facility in 2018, it ended its trials with a five-star safety rating.

That result looks great on paper but bear in mind that Euro NCAP has revised its safety protocols since then, introducing some extra tests that make it harder for cars to achieve a five-star rating.

We’re not suggesting the A-Class Saloon is unsafe (far from it, in fact) but newer five-star cars, crashed according to the most recent Euro NCAP rules, might fare better in an accident. The only issue with that is there haven’t been any small saloons launched since the rules changed. So, if you don’t want to step up in size, the A-Class is probably as safe as they come.

You get loads of standard safety equipment, including autonomous emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, lane-keeping assist and a clutch of airbags. There’s even an active bonnet, which can sense when a pedestrian is about to collide with the front of the car and pop the bonnet up by 65mm to create a landing pad for them to minimise injury.

Watch: Mercedes A-Class Euro NCAP crash test video