A-CLASS W168

About the A-Class W168

Mercedes launched the A-Class in 1997 and immediately learned a painful lesson about compact car engineering. The original W168 famously failed the moose test, forcing a recall and the rapid addition of ESP stability control — a technology that eventually became standard across the entire industry. Once sorted, the tall-boy A-Class was a genuinely clever package: a sandwich-floor construction that pushed the engine under the cabin in a frontal collision. Ahead of its time in safety thinking, behind the curve in execution. Mercedes got humbled and came back stronger.