Mercedes-Benz A-Class concept
In case you forget, the Mercedes-Benz Concept A-Class debuted at the 2011 New York Auto Show accompanied with a teeny-bopper dance and prance routine. Your daddy’s Benz it ain’t. And to emphasize that point is the following video, which features commentary from two designers of the Concept A-Class.
“Someone who sees Concept A-Class should be surprised. They should think, ‘This is not what I expected from Mercedes-Benz,” said interior designer Jan Jaul. “It should be something where you would think, ‘Maybe this is a car my daddy wouldn’t buy. This is a car that I would buy.” (Or have daddy buy it for me.)
And what father wouldn’t want their soon-to-be sorority girl tooling the A-Class around her college campus? When it finally arrives in the States, it should be one of the most safest and stylish front-drive hatches on the market. According to Kaul and cohort Mark Fetherston, inspiration was pulled from airplanes. “We looked at wings, the way the ends of the wings twist,” said Fetherston. “And certainly lightness and flow was very important.”
Aviation-themed cars are nothing new, but “lightness” and “flow” appear to have executed nicely in the concept, from the aerodynamic sheet metal and the glowing, turbine-style interior air vents that appear to float on the dash. Let’s hope the production version is just as sharp as the concept. The A-Class should arrive in the U.S. sometime in 2013, with a world debut expected at next year’s Geneva Auto Show.
