Mercedes A-Class hatchback - Reliability & safety

The Mercedes A-Class’ reliability is untested at the time of writing, but the A-Class boasts a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating. The car’s seemingly excellent build quality should translate to reliability – although there are now plenty of electronics to go wrong. Only time will tell how the A-Class will fare.

Mercedes A-Class reliability

The Mercedes A-Class finished 36th out of the top 75 cars in our 2020 Driver Power survey, with 12.8% of owners reporting a fault in the first year of ownership. Its infotainment was highly rated, along with styling and how it drives, but fuel-economy and servicing costs were said to be on the high side.

Safety

This A-Class has been crash-tested by Euro NCAP, achieving a five-star rating. All models get a good level of sophisticated safety kit as standard: automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assistance, Mercedes' ‘ATTENTION ASSIST’ system that looks for signs of drowsiness in the driver, speed-limit assistance and cruise control all feature. Adaptive Brake Assist incorporates hill-hold and hill-start systems, while all models have an electronic handbrake.

There’s also an active bonnet that pops up in a collision to help minimise pedestrian injury. Optional equipment that helps improve safety includes adaptive LED headlights and Mercedes’ Parktronic with front and rear parking sensors and automatic parking ability.