Used Mercedes A-Class: Posh hatch is a catch from just £5k

The boot is also a touch small, at 341 litres, but the flip side of the reduced practicality is the compact feel on the road. The dynamics are excellent, and few would have expected Mercedes to release one of the best-handling hatchbacks of its day. The A-Class is immediate and direct, darting into corners and holding its line with tenacity. A BMW 1 Series seems stodgy by comparison and an A3 almost insipid. It's genuinely good fun to hustle down a B-road.

For those few readers who aren't keen drivers, you might lament the uncompromising stiff ride and poor sound insulation (improved with the 2015 facelift), which lets too much road and engine noise inside. SE and Sport models are firm, but AMG-lite trims can be uncomfortable on all but smooth roads. Adaptive dampers (available post-facelift) go only so far at taking the edge off the ride.

Another A-Class miss was the engine selection: none of the petrols or diesels stand out. That said, the 1.6-litre 156bhp A200 petrol gives a nice balance between economy and performance, and the 2.1-litre diesel became better refined post the 2015 facelift. The 134bhp A200d is efficient and punchy. Both engines are at their best when paired with the standard six- speed manual, although the seven- speed dual-clutch auto isn't bad. Worth hunting down is the rare A250. With 208bhp (215bhp in the facelift), it has Golf GTI pace with an unforgiving chassis that gives great agility when pushing on. It's a forgotten but worthy hot hatch.

What to look out for 

Interior: Check for rattles, possibly emanating from the centre console or, on early models, from the front seatbelt height adjusters, which were modified on later versions. Build quality was generally much better on facelifts, and additional sound deadening was welcomed.

Engines: Mostly reliable apart from typical particulate filter issues on the diesels. The 1.6 and 2.0-litre petrols and 1.8-litre (pre-facelift only) and 2.1 diesels are Merc units, while the 1.5-litre diesel is from Renault. It's a little underpowered (108bhp) but economical, reliable and no less refined than the bigger units.

Servicing: A noisy clatter on any engine indicates it's time for a new timing chain - it's normally due at 124,000 miles but often needs doing sooner. The A-Class requires servicing every year or 15,000 miles, whichever is first. The big service should be every four years. It's worth factoring this into the price if a change is due.

Gearbox: Jerky or delayed gearshifts could mean an issue with the automatic 'box - a seven-speed dual-clutch auto across the range. A service or replacement control unit should fix things.

Low-emission zones: All petrols are LEZ compliant, as are 2.1-litre diesels, from as early as 2013. The 1.8-litre diesel is not compliant, and neither is the 1.5-litre in the pre-facelift car (tell it apart by a '180 CDI badge', rather than '180d').