The orders were placed after the specialist fleet firms saw an A-class prototype on display at the Cologne taxi show. 'All three already operate our cars for high profile contracts which involve transporting staff working for city firms,' said corporate sales manager Mike Sands. 'These are customers who prefer a luxury car to a black cab for their journeys home in the early hours, and the operators are confident the A-class is well suited to this work. They say the car's interior is surprisingly large, considering the exterior dimensions are compact enough to make it easy to drive in the capital.'

A total of more than 6,600 orders have been placed for the car in this country, and thousands more are expected to follow a teaser advertising campaign in the next few weeks. In Germany, where the model goes on sale in October, 100,000 customers have signed up since dealers began taking orders two weeks ago.