The other day I had the chance to see and drive the new A-Class in Barcelona, and it's definetly better looking than the one shown here.
Got to say that the one I tried (150 hp petrol - ¿A200?) had a really smooth drive and felt really good. Had the chance though to test it only in the city, but it look that it have strenght enough to move pretty quick. One thing if found pretty strange is the clutch (I tried the manual version - the blue one on the photos), it felt soft, really soft for a cluch pedal :S Maybe it's just a matter of geting used to it, but it did surprise me.
But what it's true, and what you can see in this pictures, that like the 1 series, it definetly changes a lot with/without the M-Sport or AMG kit in that case.
[Grey-AMG, Blue-stock]
Enjoy
