There is no car more crucial to Mercedes’ ambition to be the globe’s top luxury automotive brand by 2020 than the C-Class. The S-Class may be more totemic, the CLA or GLA more in keeping with modern motoring mores, but the C-Class is the Benz big-seller. Around 20 per cent of Mercedes sales worldwide carry a C-Class badge, and 8.5 million of them have been sold since 1982, if you count the original 190E as being something of a proto-C.
Being as it is so important, it’s perhaps no surprise to see Mercedes making the new C something of a mini S-Class, even referring to it as such in the launch literature. There are, as before, two “flavours” of C-Class. There’s a traditional Exclusive trim, which has an old-style radiator grille and the good old three-pointed gunsight on the bonnet. In this form, the C-Class really does look uncannily like an S-Class that got washed at too high a temperature.
The Avantgarde and AMG Sport versions take the star off the bonnet and put it front and centre (and large) in the grille.
Reasonable prices
Prices for the new car start at a pretty reasonable €37,750 for the C180 petrol; later this year you'll be able to get a C180 CDI diesel for €37,950. For now, the only diesels available are the C200 CDI and C250 CDI, using the same 2.1-litre four-cylinder engine, with prices starting at €43,300.
That represents around a two per cent price rise, model for equivalent model, but Mercedes claims you’re getting a lot more C-Class for your money. Certainly, there’s physically more of it (it’s 95mm longer, 80mm of which goes into the wheelbase) and 40mm wider, but thanks to using a lot of aluminium in the structure, it’s around 100kg lighter than before. That, added to impressively slick aerodynamics (Mercedes claims the C-Class’s low drag numbers improve the fuel consumption by as much as 0.4-litres per 100km all on their own) means that it’s very efficient. The big-selling C200 CDI has CO2 figures of just 103g/km, and fuel consumption around the 62mpg mark. The C300 BlueTec Hybrid which arrives in September will emit just 94g/km, yet have V6-diesel-like performance figures.
All of which is very impressive, but doesn’t necessarily make Mercedes’ job any easier. To hit that ambitious 2020 target, Merc needs to muscle past BMW and Audi, both of which have expressed the same ambition to be the planet’s biggest premium car brand. Mercedes Ireland’s Ciaran Allen is sanguine about the Teutonic rivalry, however.
“C-Class globally has been Mercedes’ best-selling car; it hasn’t been here, bridesmaid to the E-Class, but we do think that the new one has grown up a little bit, and we see its sales mix within our range increasing. Obviously that may affect some other models . . . but in its AMG styling it’s a progressive competitor with the 3 Series and A4.”
Traditional
To drive, the C is very much a traditional Merc. It wafts along smoothly, somewhat aloof from the road (bear in mind we have only sampled a comfort-oriented Exclusive model thus far), so it might struggle to draw in the handling-centric 3 Series buyer. Its quality levels are unimpeachable, though.
It will have a tough job to do, however, in helping Mercedes push past BMW and Audi in sales terms. The 3 Series is well established and there’s a new A4 due next year.
For now, though, we'd say the new C-Class makes potentially the most compelling purchase from the ranks of German sports saloons. It's more high-tech and comfier inside than an A4 or 3 Series, with quality to beat the band. If you want to see a struggle between mightier titans than this, perhaps a trip to the new Godzilla movie is in order . . .
