Mercedes-Benz A-Class teases us

It's been a long, long time since Mercedes-Benz had a baby car as charismatic - and vitally important - as its all-new A-Class hatch. Actually, this might be the first.

The 190E of 1984 was a giant breakthrough, and was even delivered in Australia for the first time with racer red paintwork, but was really just a shrunken S-Class at a much nicer price. This time around, the hero colour for the all-new A-Class is matt silver. And there are tasty little tweaks, inside and out, provided by the same AMG operation that builds road rockets like the C63 Black Series beast.

Parked outside the Mercedes-Benz museum in downtown Stuttgart, an A250 Sport looks hot. "Is this it?," asks one beanie-clad youngster as a crowd begins to form. "Is it real, or just the concept?," asks another. "Can I get inside, please? Just for a minute?," says a third, opening a door, as a security guard arrives.

Yes, it's that kind of car. "We want younger people. More sporty people," A-Class project chief, Johann Buss, confirms to Carsaguide at an exclusive briefing once the crowd has been cleared. "Our A-Class is the key to open that door. We want somebody between 30 and 35, but people who feel young. If you feel young, and want to drive a dynamic car, we offer you the new A-Class."

The top man at Daimler, Dieter Zetsche, admits Mercedes-Benz has become too much like a Swiss army knife - efficient but with zero personality - and Buss is one of the men chosen to change things. He is a 40-something engineer who dresses as young and fresh as the A-Class, which he believes will spark things up in a fight with the Audi A3 and BMW 1 Series. And perhaps the Volkswagen Golf.

He points to big things, like a five-door body that's a close match to the original Benz concept car, and little things like the cabin plastics, the back-seat space, and the giant display screen sitting proudly in the centre of the dashboard. "If you look at the details, it's not a cheap car," Buss says.

The specification of the car includes the stuff you get in bigger Benzes, like the Pre-Safe crash system, but the look is way more adventurous than the sister B-Class that's aimed at families. In fact, the new B-Class is intended to mop-up the people who have bought either a stumpy A-Class or the boxy B-Class hatch in the past, leaving fresh ground for the A despite the car's sharing their basic mechanical package.

"It's totally different, where the B-Class is the follower of the predecessor car," Buss says. "This is something we've never had before. But it still has to be affordable - and 100 per cent Mercedes-Benz. That's tricky." The final result shows lots and lots of promise, and it's promised for Australia with a starting price of less than $35,000 in the early months of next year.

So, finally, what does Buss say about the A250 Sport shining brightly in the spring sun? "It's the point of the point." But there is no way he is letting Carsguide get an early drive ahead of the official press preview next month. "Sorry, you just have to wait," he says. Just like all the others, including the crowd gathering again, who can finally see a new future for the world's oldest carmaker.