Circa £4k Merc A-Class - a wise choice?

[ehyouwhat]

Someone I know is considering a smallish car to use as a second car, for localish runs and commuting to and from a train station. They're after a hatchback for practicality, and they're after an auto or semi-auto gearbox, but they don't want a large car or even one with a large engine - they're really thinking of something 1.4litres or smaller. The budget is £4k, and they want something with less than 50k miles.

They've looked at a large number of different options; Pug 206, Vauxhall Corsa, Toyota Yaris - all are in the frame. But as a left-field choice I'm wondering about the Mercedes-Benz A-Class. Their budget gets them a year 2000 model A140 semi-auto in Avantgarde or Elegance spec.

Is something like this a wise buy? Is the car extremely expensive to service and repair? Is the build quality any good?

Any advice on these cars would be passed on to the person in question, and very much appreciated!

Cheers,

EYW

[deva link]

I get the impression from various things I've read that this wouldn't be a good idea - these cars have issues and one big bill could write the car off.

See: www.honestjohn.co.uk/index.php?url=/carbycar/index.htm

Edited by deva link on Wednesday 9th May 14:15