In continental Europe, and no less so in the UK, Mercedes' new B-Class - engineered at great expense as a clean-sheet creation from the ground-up - is being pitched against the BMW 1-Series and Audi's brand-new A3. With its totally new B-Class MPV Mercedes seeks to rejoin the intensifying dogfight for growing buyers of Golf-class cars who are willing to spend just a little extra for a similar size car with a prestige badge, the versatility of an MPV, plus the newly added handling, executive sector ride qualities and safety features usually found in considerably larger and pricier prestige sector models. The new B-Class, which made its UK dealer debut in March, is the first of a mushrooming new range of front-driven Mercedes cars and will be followed this September by a conventionally bodied same DNA replacement for the A-Class.
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