Park and Drive: Mercedes compacts now with self-parking features

The new GLA-Class and A-Class

Last week, CATS Motors, Inc. the distributor for Mercedes-Benz in the Philippines, invited some members of the media to a short out-of-town drive to the scenic Tagaytay Highlands Country Club to test its complete line-up of its new generation compact cars (NGCC’s). These range from the A-Class, B-Class, C-Class to its newly introduced CLA-Class and just soon-to-be launched GLA-Class.

The Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class

The A, B and C-Class are familiar models since previous generation models were already being sold. This writer got to test drive the CLA-Class which was quietly introduced in its showrooms last July and the soon-to-be introduced GLA-Class. For the GLA model, only the diesel GLA 220 variant will be currently available.

First car to do perpendicular parking

What is new for this generation is that all NGCC models now has the proprietary Park Assist feature which allows these cars to park on its own with very little driver intervention for both parallel and perpendicular parking. While a number of cars have some form of intelligent self-parking features that allow parallel parking, the auto pilot perpendicular parking is an industry first.

As a car brand, Mercedes-Benz will focus not only on large and elegant luxury cars and SUVs but also sporty compacts.  These NGCC’s specially the GLA-Class, which is a compact crossover vehicle that is positioned to compete against BMW’s X1 or the Audi Q3 addresses a much younger and upwardly mobile market. While just hot off the presses, Mercedes-Benz is also coming up with a CLA-Class Shooting Brake variant, adding this sports station wagon to complement the NGCC family.

The Mercedes-Benz new generation compact cars

These new NGCC cars will become a significant series for the brand, targeting a fertile market where other European makes have enjoyed a significant share of in the past.  Daimler, the owner of Mercedes-Benz has been enjoying double-digit increase in sales volume and according to Daimler CEO Dr. Dieter Zetsche, as much as 80% CLA-Class customers are new to the brand. Daimler also expects that the new GLA-Class is expected to be in a similar market penetration range. For more information about Mercedes-Benz, visit CATS Motor’s Mercedes-Benz showrooms located in EDSA – Greenhills, Global City or Alabang.