Would not touch one as they cannot rapid charge, you really are stuck with the single charge mileage. If that fits your needs, ok, but however bad EH is on the msa, the B250e is worse.

 

You may not touch one but without knowing someone's personal circumstances it's impossible to answer. A friend of mine has one and has a "free" 22kWh post at their work place, they travel 80 miles a day every week day for free, that's almost 20k miles per annum. As the charging post is shared with colleagues he can charge the B250e at 11kWh on 3 phase which means it's all done in around 2.5 to 3 hours.

We also have a Hyundai in the family. From a quality perspective would I rather spend 80 miles a day in the Hyundai or the Merc? Hmm, that's a hard one to answer...…..Not.

If you want a town / commuting shuttle with an 80 mile a day limit the B250e is perfect.

If you want to travel more than 80 miles a day and need to use the charging network the B250 is next to useless.

 

Lease deal on 225xe worth a look if you can stomach a PHEV )

 

I have a second car, a 14 year old diesel, so long journies are not an issue, nor is lack of rapid charge, because it’ll be used for running to and from Manchester of Liverpool, from Warrington.

Reluctant to take another lease as it will only be (hopefully) around 9-10 months before the I-Pace is ready. And having had a PHEV in the e-tron, I don’t want to go down that route again - worst of both worlds as the EV part is having to lug around an ICE lump and vice versa.

 

We liked the B250e we had for 7 months but it is only really suitable as a local runabout. The 3kW home charging is also a pain as if you get home flat it doesn't add many miles per hour to go back out again.

 

If I did go for one, it’d be a cash purchase, keep it for 9 or so months, and then shift on again. Shouldn’t lose much if anything in that time in value I’d have thought.

Reluctant to go ICE, don’t want to take out another PCP on another car as I’ll be starting the Jag payments shortly, just want a cheap BEV with decent build for a few months. Having been in Audis for the last couple of decades, I can’t bring myself to go Korean or Japanese.

 

Having been in Audis for the last couple of decades, I can’t bring myself to go Korean or Japanese

Why? Clearly not reliability as used Audi are statistically far less reliable than Toyota and Honda!

 

If your only going to keep it for a few months get one that will still be under warranty for that period. Mine has been totally reliable. Make sure you get one with the energy assist option, which gives you an extra 12 miles of range. If your regular journeys are under 85 miles, then the B250e is fine. Regular long journeys are a pain with max 11 Kw charging. I have checked them at auction and get the feeling Mercedes are attempting to support values until leases expire over the next few months. I have seen one entered into six consecutive Mercedes auctions at Chelmsford and failing to get any bids or meet it's reserve, which I guess is £14,000. I considered buying it but it doesn't have a warranty or MOT and the Sat Nav doesn't work. I though I'd put in a cheeky bid but it opened way above what I was prepared to pay. Oh and according to the inspection report the engine oil level need attention!

 

I think that the price they are for sale at is OK. £15K ish for a 2 year old car originally at £38K with the extras most have. As above, get it in warrantee and then no shock costs. Recently they look like they are depreciating at about £2k each 6 months, but they may stabilise or get worse after 3 years old. I think that there are a few coming off lease as Heartwood mentioned.

They may be hard to shift when you come to resell though.

 

Having sat inside some of the best designed interiors for the last 20 years, that’s why I can bring myself to buy Korean, Japanese or even French for that matter. Reliability wise, I’ve probably been very lucky with my cars, but I’ve not had problems at all really, and never any breakdowns.

I didn’t realise that they were being discounted from new to around the £20k mark - that is a bargain!! I’ve seen a few sitting around for months in dealers so was looking to go in with a bunch of notes and get one for around the £13k mark, which for a still warrantied car, isn’t bad. It’s just the selling on in a few months that concerns me. If I could though, I’d keep it as a runabout BEV, with the I-Pace taking up longer-distance work. However, I don’t was 3 cars (my old diesel is now part of the family and will only go when the government prices diesel vehicles off the road) and I’d rather not have cash tied up in a car which will be surplus to requirements. Wonder if Jaguar would take it as an extra PX??

 

Wonder if Jaguar would take it as an extra PX??

Who knows.

I put my 15mth old, 12k mile B250e Sport (17" alloys and none of the gash decals/odd-coloured mirrors) Exec (=heated seats and sat nav I think) with range plus into the Hyundai calculator to see what they'd give me, and it offered £16,750.

 

Oh, and I nearly forgot another reason why I can't go with the Asian/Oriental/French BEV offerings is space - there's nothing out there that offers the same front and rear leg room together with boot space as the B250e does.

 

If you get one hit the right price, I’d possibly be interested in buying it for the wife when you’re ready to sell it on.

She’s coming round to the idea of electric big doesn’t like the look of either the Zoe, the Leaf or the Soul!

 

Good to

If you get one hit the right price, I’d possibly be interested in buying it for the wife when you’re ready to sell it on.

She’s coming round to the idea of electric big doesn’t like the look of either the Zoe, the Leaf or the Soul!

Good to know - if I do get one, it'll be a top spec model - and I'll post it on here first for the forward thinking to have first dibs at. Theres one at auction today, but it looks like it's had a hard life and is quite tatty. Doubt it'll sell.

 

Thoughts?

The B250e would be a great EV if it had rapid charging.

 

Or if you don’t need to use rapid charging!

 

Love ours, can't think of a better place to be for 60 odd miles a day commute. Even though not rapid charge, it's rapid enough on a 22kw post if out in MK shopping for example, plenty quick enough (is there a faster EV for 15k) and driven sensibly fairly frugal

 

...is there a faster EV for 15k...

i3 is marginally quicker to 60 (both are around 7 seconds, ignore Mercedes official 7.9s - that was just so it didn't trump the contemporary fastest petrol variant which was 7.8s), but Merc can always reach the charge station first by virtue of being limited to 100mph rather than 90-odd

 

Personally if it's a get you by car then what does it matter about the interior and badge? A cheap leaf would do the job for a few months and make you appreciate the ipace more, albeit personally I'm not convinced they are worth the hype

What would worry me the most about the MB is the depreciation as more come off lease over the next 6 to 9 months and the used market can't be held up by Merc once warranties are out...

 

The interior only matters in terms of space - a Leaf would be a retrograde step and is smaller inside than my little Audi A2, believe it or not. Of all the BEVs on the market, the B250e has by far the biggest interior, when you’re putting a baby rear-facing seat in there, as well as a pram chassis and carrycot, you’ll soon appreciate that I need the space in the cabin and the boot that the Merc offers.
Badge, not really an issue, but it’s quality that counts and I don’t want to be buying and using something where the trim and finish would be more at home in a dodgem car.

I agree that with more and more vehicles coming onto the market at the end of their lease, prices will drop and I’m aware that I’d have to buy wisely and cheaply. However, it’s not going to lose as much as if I kept hold of the e-tron until the balloon payment becomes due - £4.5k and then still in negative equity with the balloon.

 

B250e Electric Art in BCA Nottingham on 22/08/2018
White, 5,740 miles
Grade 2
CAP Clean = £17,050
CAP Average = £16,250

 

Already had that one forwarded to me on my BCA alerts. Looks like a clean car. Interesting to see if it sells and what for. If bids start around £15k, it'll be unsold I guess. As I'm not a trader, I can't bid online it seems from BCAs rules and I can't get to Notts next Weds, so will just have to be an interested watcher on this one.

 

Well, the B250e interim buy seems to be off the table. Tested one yesterday and even though the boot is much larger than the A3 sportback, I still can’t get a child seat behind me when I’m driving, so internally, it’s not really much bigger than the current Audi.

Also, the B-class is now not available to order - it’s been discontinued pending the new B-class which will be built on the A-class chassis, so will probably be smaller still. This means that the B250e shape will soon be a giveaway that it’s a defunct model and values will plummet further.

There’s a nice fully loaded one in Surrey (even had electric memory seats) for £16.5k if anyone is interested.

As I can now secure an I-Pace before Xmas, I’m going down that route.

 

Well, the B250e interim buy seems to be off the table. Tested one yesterday and even though the boot is much larger than the A3 sportback, I still can’t get a child seat behind me when I’m driving, so internally, it’s not really much bigger than the current Audi.

Also, the B-class is now not available to order - it’s been discontinued pending the new B-class which will be built on the A-class chassis, so will probably be smaller still. This means that the B250e shape will soon be a giveaway that it’s a defunct model and values will plummet further.

There’s a nice fully loaded one in Surrey (even had electric memory seats) for £16.5k if anyone is interested.

As I can now secure an I-Pace before Xmas, I’m going down that route.

Sorry, we all probably thought that it was common knowledge that MB stopped making the MB250e about a year ago. Mercedes won't be making a new B or A class in an electric guise in the future, their electric cars will be under the EQ banner.

 

No, you misunderstand me. I know that the B250e was killed around a year ago for new orders. However, the B-class as a whole has now been discontinued - got that from a franchised dealer yesterday, who wouldn’t even try to order me a petrol or diesel one.

The A-class platform has been made to allow for easy adoption of ‘alternative power trains’ apparently. This may or may not include pure electric, but a PHEV version is very much on the cards, to directly compete with the BMW 225.

 

Blimey......that was all hard work!

 

Rear-facing child seat may not fit behind you in iPace either.

Fortunately my 11yo doesn't need a booster now, and my 2 younger get away with booster cushions so they all go in the back of my B.

All 3 could go in child seats in the FRV back in the day (2 isofix and 1 belt tethered)

 

It does fit and with room to spare. With my son being 11 weeks old today, I’ve got a long while to go before simple boosters are an option for me. The MaxiCosi ISOfix base and seat fit really well in I-Pace in any of the 3 seats.

The other thing I found odd about B-class was the headrest - even when pushed down and back, it was forming my head and neck into a very strange position.

 

There's a button on the side of the headrest that allows fore-and-aft movement.

 

Yes, I found that and the headrest was all the way back.

 

Odd - I need to actively lean my head back to touch the headrest. I like an inch or so between the back of my head and the restraint so it never touches me if I'm looking over my shoulder.

I sit quite upright, with the steering wheel fully towards me as I prefer a relatively bent elbow when driving as I feel that gives me significantly better wheel control than the slightly leaning back, arm almost straight position many seem to prefer in saloon cars.

A throwback to my sports car/Subaru days perhaps and fitting in them as a 6'4"+ lanky git...

 

Yes, I found it odd too and I also tried another B class that was there to check but that was the same as the first. I’m 6’2” and like to have my wrist on the top of the wheel with a straight but not stretched arm.

 

Already had that one forwarded to me on my BCA alerts. Looks like a clean car. Interesting to see if it sells and what for. If bids start around £15k, it'll be unsold I guess. As I'm not a trader, I can't bid online it seems from BCAs rules and I can't get to Notts next Weds, so will just have to be an interested watcher on this one.

If anyone's interested, the dealers were all over it, bidding started at £15k, shot through the reserve at £16,500 and the hammer price was £18,100!!!! Someone badly wanted it!

 

Thats interesting. Don't the dealers look at Autotrader? We have seen them going for the £15K mark regularly, so why would you pay more at Auction. Am I missing something?

 

Looks like the days of scooping up 3yr old LEAF for 5-6 grand are gone forever!

 

Agreed, it looks like it. I went to a conference earlier this year and got a snapshot of one of the slides on residual values. I certainly wish I had snaffled a LEAF when they were cheap.....

 

I travelled just shy of 600 hours in my B250e and echo the other comments. Very very slow to charge, even at 400v.

Winter mileage on a full charge was 60odd miles, town runs for us.

If you want real figures check the USA MB website, the UK figures of 142 were not achievable.

However it’s a quick car and fun to drive. Styling wise the EV version is nicer then the ICE model. We had the Premium Art model in SSB.