Owner Review: Sleek & smart MPV with all the bells and whistles - My 2014 Mercedes-Benz B200 1.6T BlueEfficiency

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Basic information

2014 Mercedes-Benz B200 1.6T Blue Efficiency

Reason why I bought this car

After 7 years driving a Perodua Alza, I have decided that I needed a more powerful car within the MPV body type, with more proper boot space and also with better fuel consumption. I don’t mind losing the third row of seats to have a better boot space. I have considered getting a saloon car, but I still wanted to have a SUV-like height driving position and better head room space, which a MPV can offer.

I was looking for a second-hand MPV within the budget that I had set by that time, with more power and a more premium brand. More powerful engine was a top priority as the Alza engines lacked power and the car handled very badly. So a car that is turbo-charged was a good option, and I don’t need to get a bigger engine and to pay a lot of road tax, thus this was the choice! An 1.6 engine with 136HP and turbo-charged, it was a combo to find this B200.

This car is mainly to commute from work-home on a daily basis and sometimes to do road-trips with my friends.

Car selection process

• I had a budget of: RM 80k
• Models that I have considered include: BMW 2 Series Active Tourer (MPV) & Mercedes-Benz C Class

The reason why I choose this car

I have chosen this car because of the look. Everyone always relates Mercedes-Benz to saloon cars like C & E Class, but they hardly think that Mercedes has good MPVs. This B200 is not a common car on the roads, there’s a few, but not that many like a C Class or BMW 3 Series.

Something more posh and elegant on the road, without paying a lot for it, that will be the B200. My friends have told me that Mercedes are expensive to maintain and they were kind of scared of my decision. I have spent a month checking what the costs are to run a Mercedes in Malaysia and I have found out that it is not that expensive. Yeah, I know spare parts are expensive, but once you have changed them, they will last for another 10 years. What you spend on spare parts, you will save on petrol on a weekly basis. Is like giving and taking.

User experience

• I have already done 15,000 km
• My average fuel consumption is 15 km/L

Since I have this car, I am in love with it! Actually, I was pretty lucky to have found this car, the previous owner hasn’t removed a lot of plastics from it, thus the seats are new, there are no worn-out buttons. The car was in stock condition when I bought it, but with time I got rid of all the chrome and I have changed the rims colors.

The engine runs like a clock, it's quiet but also has enough power when you need to overtake someone or even go beyond national speed limit. The most impressive thing is the smoothness of the gear changes which are seamless and it's always at a very low RPM while city driving (1.100RPM).

For long journeys it is very stable and spacious. The driving position is SUV-like but it always feels neat and precise at all times on the road. It has all the bells and whistles, like auto head beam lights and auto parallel parking.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Smooth gear changes;
• Quiet cabin in high-speed;
• Spacious knee and head room;
• Fuel Consumption its low for a car of this size;
• Powerful Turbo-charged Engine (136HP);

Cons

• No reversing camera;
• Collision Warning system without auto-brake;
• The car body is too low from the ground;
• Not enough USB ports;

Ratings

Total Score: 4
Performance: 4
Quality & Features: 5
Space: 5
Ride Comfort: 5
Fuel Economy: 4
Price & Cost: 3

Summary

Sleek & Smart MPV with all the bells and whistles.

Some interesting events

I have once double parked my car at the office and usually we leave the car in N and we don't pull the hand-brake, to be easy to push the car if someone needs to go out while my car is blocking people. The thing is that with that car, I forget that we cannot simply release the hand-brake as it is automatic (you turn off the engine and the hand-brake is activated immediately).

I blocked my boss's car! And she needed to go out for a meeting, and she couldn’t push my car away and by that time she didn’t know that I was the owner of the car. She ended up calling everyone in the office to find out whose car was blocking hers. The whole office after that knew about the situation and I ran to the carpark to move my car – luckily, she wasn't mad.

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