or any experience of them ?

my mum has one. diesel. London to Edinburgh on one tank, very efficient, she loves it, i love it, not many moose in SE England. comfortable.

there is one fansite that has much info.

Bro has a LWB one with the bigger engine. Likes it a lot.

We had one until fairly recently. A real tardis. Not the most exciting car to drive, but amazingly practical for something so small.

I've still got the mercedes roof bars for it (going very cheap indeed) if you decide to get one…

missus is looking at one so just need some real personal experience of them thanks all and keep it coming please

not many moose in SE England.

But plenty north of the border.
I'll try not to let the door hit me in the ass on the way out… 😉

Voodoo – actually, my mum is looking to sell hers in the next couple of months because she's moving country. IIRC, it's an A190 Diesel Manual, Elegance package, 2005, "champagne" (gold) colour, some sort of light cloth interior, I think, not sure. Don't remember exact mileage but won't be much, perfectly maintained by Merc stealership. She's down in London and I see you're in Merseyside but if this is more or less the kind of thing you're looking for, say so here and I can check the exact details.

Looked at one myself – high service costs and parts. Pretty reliable – ended up with a passat.

My partner has one – a 180 Diesel. The air con is awful, but the rest of the car is pretty good. Does about 45 to the gallon. It's a base level "Classic" so no extras (apart from the rubbish AC). I think it would handle much better with some wider tyres.
Some parts are a bit "cheap" – the load cover for example is a sheet of thick plastic and the rear windows have winding handles.

Not sure we'd have another one, I preferred the Golf plus, but she wanted a "Merc".

As mentioned – service and parts are expensive. Colour is important with Mercs as well – silver or black are the one's to go for.

We had a 52 plate classic 1.4 petrol with 120,000 miles on it without any mechanical problems but sold it recently due to worn steering bushes (big costly job)
Other than that it was robust but interior trim can be flimsy especially around the seat edge.

1.4 was a bit weedy but ok in the real world. probably got 40mpg generally.

It did the commute from Wigan to Manchester every day from 40,000 (mileage when we got it) until the day we sold it. Pretty hard miles indeed so it did well.

We also took it to France, Belgium and Holland as well as right down to the Loire valley simply because it had more usable space than my Mondeo.

Great car but servicing can be dear.

thanks for all the advice ,she is still looking out for one

I had a 2004 Elegance. Plus's? Lovely car. Really is/was. Downsides? Masses of them Im afraid. One biggy can be the steering rack thats set for lefthand drive and botched over by an extension to the righthandside. Ours was starting to go and its a costly job (it was creaking).

The 1.4 is appallingly slow- Im mean almost dangerous with 30mpg real-world.

Newshape? I had one on 24hr test drive- liked it but didn't like the way it was affected in crosswind.

I'd rather have a Honda Jazz.

we have a jap import honda jazz too but too expensive as a second car

Used one for 6 months.

Loads of room, 1.4 is a crap engine though, seats really didn't work for me though, I am 6'4 and the seats never fitted me properly. I had to put a cushion behind my back to get them to fit without back ache.

Cruise control can be a bit hairy as well when going up hills, it had a habit of down shifting at the peak of the hill and accelerating.

The 1.4 is appallingly slow- Im mean almost dangerous with 30mpg real-world.

I gave up overtaking in it. A few hairy 'oh shit' moments when I remembered it didn't have any power was enough to put me off.

I drove to Plymouth from Newcastle and just managed 38mpg on the motorway at 62mph all the way there.

Agree. Big roundabouts in Stalybridge Ashton were highly interesting.

I'm all for a trade-off i.e. slow car but highish mpg or fast car, low mpg but not slow car and shit mpg! That takes the biscuit. Lovely finish and materials etc on the doors and with the seats in the back out of the way surprisingly spacious.

If its the old shape get the diesel and a 1yr warranty.