The Mercedes-Benz B Class: Worry Free Driving, Hand Free Parking

MANILA, Philippines - As you might expect, the Mercedes-Benz B class is far from your ordinary sub compact vehicle. While it won’t necessarily garner the kinds of oohs and aahs the larger members of its family would, this car has many desirable design, engineering and safety features packed into it.

For one thing, the car is now more fuel-efficient than ever. Its 4-cyliner engine burns up to 7% less fuel that its predecessor and its emissions fall far below the existing EU limits. And to make the car even more environmentally compatible, various parts of it are made with high quality recycled plastics and natural, regenerative materials such as flax, cotton, coconut fiber and even abaca from the Philippines no less.

As far as passenger safety goes, Mercedes-Benz has found a simple but innovative way to better protect its passengers. In its current model, the B Class’ engine is angled at 59 degrees under the hood with ample space underneath the cabin so the power plant can slide down into this space in the event of a frontal collision instead of “sandwiching” the passengers. So far this is the only car on the market to enjoy such a safety feature. For those with young children who need car seats, the vehicle also comes with an ISOFIX Child Seat Attachment for ease child seat fastening. The vehicle has the Electronic Stability Program (ESP) with a new standard function – the automatic hill start which prevents the car from rolling backwards while the driver switches from the brake to accelerator pedal when on a slope. Requiring the “hanging” skill is a thing of the past.

But the B Class’ truly outstanding feature would have to be its Active Parking Assist function. Yes, this car can parallel park itself! Something that was once just a dream for those of us with spatial perception deficiencies, something we once thought we’d only see in futuristic sci-fi films has become a reality.

There are, however, certain criteria that need to be met in order for this function to work properly. First, you need to be sure that the Parking Assist switch is on. Then you need to drive the B Class past two parked vehicles (one in front of the other with a space big enough to park in between) at a speed of less than 20kph and at a distance of a bout 1 foot from the parked cars. The B Class’ ten ultrasonic sensors on its front and rear bumpers will pick up the information and a letter “P” with an arrow beside it will appear on the instrument cluster, indicating that the car has found a parking space with ample room. It asks, “Park Assist Activate?” at which point you just need to press the arrow up button on the steering wheel to indicate “Yes”.

All the pertinent information then gets processed by the control unit, which calculates the best bath to take into the parking space. This data is sent to the electromechanical power steering, enabling the motor to perform the necessary steering movements.

 You put the car in reverse and then comes the most unnatural part of the process – taking your hands off the steering wheel! Although you still need to man the accelerator and brake, the B Class does all the steering for you. The instrument cluster will also indicate when to put the car back to drive. When you do so, the car continues to steer itself and once you are nicely parked in the space, the panel will read “Parking Finished”. (It is important to “trust” the vehicle though, because if you steer the wheel before the “Parking Finished” sign lights, you will deactivate the Parking Assist process and you will have to park the Benz yourself).

The B Class comes in just one variant, though as with all Mercedes-Benzes you can be very specific about the aesthetics like exterior color, upholstery and other trim elements. The standard radio has Bluetooth connectivity and a 6 CD changer as well as a media interface kit with consumer cables.

With a cool combination of fun, sportiness, versatility, safety and ingenious engineering the B Class will set you back an equally cool P2,180,000.