New A Class Test Drive - Bridgnorth 19th Febuary 2005

This day was organised with the help of the Independent Newspaper Motoring Section. The test cars were loaned from the Mercedes-Benz UK Press Fleet.

Tony, Gilda (tony), Richard and Ann (rich) were already waiting in the carpark at Bridgnorth (Severn Valley Railway) when and Andrea and me (admin) arrived. Not that we were late or anything!

Although in theory this would have been an ideal meeting pointing, the car park was very full and hard to find. The fact that there was a Sixties Theme day on did not help matters. We were not able to park together only near each other.

Once John (babymerc2000), Mike and Junko (mykp), David, Andrew and Gavin (A190) and Gary (garyw) had arrived, we waited for the team from The Independent to arrive.

Elizabeth brought her own A160 Elegance, bringing the total of original A Classes to eight, while David and Shaun brought the new A150 5dr Classic SE and A180CDi 3dr Avantgarde respectively. Lots of comments about the differences between the original and new could be heard both positive and negative.

Whilst the members had a good look round the new cars I went off the look for a better spot to meet. On my return we drove round to outside a school with a big layby that was big enough to house ten A Classes. Could this have the largest convoy of A Classes ever in this country? Even if it was not, it certainly looked impressive and certainly caused a bit of a stir.

Following shuffling the cars about for the Independent's photos, we had a last had chance to drive the new cars. Our members' comments will be published in the newpaper at a later date, and on this site.

During the test drives two different members had located two different places to go for lunch, a decision was made to go to the location outside Bridgnorth, on the road to Shrewsbury. For some reason this message did not get to everyone, so I spend the next hour or so trying to locate the lost members who had gone to the other pub. As I was the last but one car in the convoy I did not know this had happened, till too late. However it meant that I got longer to drive one of the new A Classes for longer than I would have done normally. The fact that my mobile phone could not get a reception did not help either! Nearly had a sense of humour failure.

Following a great lunch, lots of chat (not just about A Classes) we made our way back home.

Many thanks to those who attended, for those who did not, you missed a great day, in my opinion the best Baby-Benz day so far.

Photos Richard and Ann

More photos in the Gallery

Steve