Overview
 
People carriers aren’t very fashionable. On the other hand Mercedes, more than most, should be able to make a decent fist of their template. It’s all about roomy, comfy, passenger-first travel.
 
So here’s another generation of B-Class. The first two have quietly done decent business – 1.5 million of the things have been sold since 2005. It’s just that no-one seems to have noticed, which says a lot.
People pay high prices for their B-Classes and want high-end equipment. So it can be had with any amount of the fancy cabin and driver-assist technology that gets headlines in the sister A-Class.
Although it’s roomy, the B-Class isn’t very versatile. The rear seat is just a simple bench with a split-fold backrest.
 
Technical Overview
 
Off-trend though they might be, minivans don’t have to resemble an egg. Instead the B-Class has the silhouette of an upwardly stretched hatchback, with a definite bonnet and slim sharp headlights. It’s smooth too, with a Cd of 0.24 in some versions.
 
It also comes as an AMG-line trim, with gulping air intakes (and some fake ones), prominent airflow management and big multi-spoked wheels. Mrs Mutton meet Miss Lamb.
The B200d and B220d have Mercedes’s excellent OM654 2.0-litre diesel, and this is the first time we’ve tried it in a transverse installation, though it’s coming on-stream in the A-Class at the same time. It comes as standard with a brand-new eight-speed twin-clutch transmission.
 
Other engines, in the B180d (1.5-litre diesel) and B180/B200 (1.33-litre petrol) we know from the A-Class, where they are a bit of a drudge to drive. Commendably clean though. They get a seven-speed twin-clutch. The suspension and platform are A-Class too.