It is a car; a very nice car. It drives wonderfully well, has enough power to see off suicidal SUVs, fits like a glove and outstops almost anything but a brick hitting the ground.
However, comments of that ilk are not enough to describe the vehicle say advertising managers and their acolytes who have lunches rather too long and a grip on reality rather too feeble.
The Mercedes C-Class, the most successful of Mercedes range of car over the years since it was launched is, as one would expect from a company with such a long history of engineering excellence, is a well-engineered vehicle that gets you very nimbly — and with a high level of safety and comfort — from A to B.
Here we risk of being overwhelmed by the sound of collapsing advertising budgets and the colorful rhetoric about the Mercedes C Class appealing to the thrusting young executive market.
Mercedes has revamped the C-Class yet has kept the essential common-sense feeling of a very practical and useable vehicle.
First impressions: I had no idea this particular model was designed to appeal to the younger market. It relies on clean lines and a slightly sporty look, redolent of the S-Class to attract the customer.
Like Dr. Who’s Tardis time machine, the car seems much bigger on the inside. It is a neat trick, partly achieved by having all the seating controls door-mounted and partly by having the hand brake as a foot-operated lever. The car is only 42mm wider and 55mm longer than the previous C-Class.
The new C-Class is big on safety, comfort and agility. The front end has a distinctly wedge-shaped profile. Limiters reduce the force of the seatbelts acting on occupants during a crash together. The car also has two-stage air bags that deflate according to severity of impact feature in the internal safety setup. Optional crash-responsive head restraints support the heads of the driver and front passenger at an early stage during a rear-end collision, reducing the risk of a whiplash injury.
All Mercedes models employ new technology with a strong emphasis on upgraded occupant protection through an intelligently designed body-shell, 70 percent of which consists of high-strength and ultra high-strength steel. Compared with the previous series, Mercedes-Benz has enlarged the deformation zones and improved energy flows.
The front-end structure of the new C-Class has four independently acting impact levels, which enable forces to be distributed over a wide area that bypass the passenger cell.
The car comes with a choice of four or six cylinders that push out up to 14 percent more power than the previous C models with about six percent better fuel economy. The test model, with the so-called Advanced Agility package gives the choice of sport of comfort settings. This programs the shock absorbers, which have infinitely variable electronic control, for each wheel.
A newly developed speed-sensitive steering with a more direct ratio, variable centering and adaptation of the accelerator characteristics and automatic transmission shift points are also included in the package. The effect is that response is very crisp and precise and keeps the driver in touch with the feel of the road. The top-of-the-range C 350 has 7G-TRONIC, the world’s only seven-speed automatic transmission, as standard.
Flashing brake lights, fitted as standard, aim to reduce rear-end collisions. Braking hard at speeds in excess of 50 km/h, the brake lights flash rapidly to warn drivers following behind — or fascinate them so much that they forget to brake, of course.
Speaking of lights, the Intelligent Light System developed by Mercedes-Benz is available in this vehicle class for the first time. Powerful bi-xenon headlamps provide five different lighting functions suited to typical driving and weather conditions: country mode, motorway mode, enhanced fog lamps, the Active Light System and cornering lights.
The dashboard display and controls echo the sports models; clearly laid-out analog instruments in silver-colored bezels, black dial faces, white markings and glowing orange needles make for easy legibility. There is not a lot of information and — pet peeve here — it is of the reactive “you-have-just-run-out-of-oil” light school of design. Please, is it so difficult to fit ammeter, voltmeter and oil pressure? In the days of the all-electronic car, knowledge at least of battery condition is surely a must — especially in the extreme conditions in the Gulf region.
To counter some of the extremes, the “thermotronic” automatic climate-control system provides three climate zones and includes other functions such as diffused, draught-free ventilation and a combination filter with an air quality sensor. The overall effect is so good that you forget the car is air-conditioned and that this level of comfort is quite normal.
A comprehensive console with GPS and a radio/telephone/CD menu slides up out of the dashboard at the touch of a button. A helpful warning notice on the screen along the lines of “don’t look at this notice as it is distracting” introduces the driver to an interface that does not require a teenager to figure out.
The beauty of the new C-Class is the quality of the drive: Just enough road noise to keep you informed, enough feel to keep you in touch with reality and comfort levels to make a long wait in traffic or tedious long journeys completely bearable. Flicking from comfort to sports mode and giving the accelerator pedal a jab meets with a willing response and a most satisfactory diminution of aged rolling road-wreckage in the reassuringly large wide-angle rear-view mirrors.
Ever a believer in the idea that accelerating away from a hazard is probably as effective as braking, this exceedingly nice motorcar delivers formidable braking as well. No wonder the German market, which knows a good thing when it sees it, accounts for 30 percent of worldwide sales for the C Class.
Test car courteously loaned by Juffali Automobile Company, Jeddah.
