2019 Mazda 3 vs Mercedes-Benz A-Class

What's the difference?

If you will indulge me, I'd like you to cast your mind back to the mid-90s. If you're too young, ask your parents or Google to do the same.

Have a peek at the pretty but not especially amazing 323 Astina. Some folks call it a four-door coupe, but it's a sedan. It was not nearly as attractive as the more adventurous hatchback.

The 323 went dull for almost a decade and then when the 3 arrived, it was the sedan that I thought was the looker. Sure, they weren't completely different like the old days, but the proportions were nicer and it was just a better thing to look at.

Then along came the most recent fourth-generation 3, the BP. The hatch, I think, is the gorgeous one while the sedan is a more sober. And while still made of lovely proportions, it seems to have been... flattened a bit.

Thorough as we are here at CarsGuide, I spent a week with the new sedan to ponder not only its looks, but whether it's much different to the hatch.

Unicorns. They exist. The thing is there aren’t many of them and if you want to find one you need to know where to look. 

Now, I don’t normally give secrets away, but I’ll let you know where one is: it’s this 'early release' version of the Mercedes-Benz A 250 4Matic, and chances are you will never see one like this again.
 
See this A 250 4Matic is a sort of early release version of the car because it’s different to the model which will arrive later in 2019 – it’s also more affordable.

So, what’s the catch? We drove this special A 250 4matic at its launch recently to find out, if there was one.