Warning: The following review is extremely long, please be patient.
The launch was held at my local dealership last night, and i went with my friend and forum member asd101. The venue was packed with a lot of well dressed people. I was the only one who showed up wearing a T shirt.
There were four C200k and three C280 on display in classic, elegance and avant-garde trim. I was hoping to see a white C with the AMG package but it wasn’t on display. The cars are in obsidian black, cubanite silver, palladium silver, and tenorite grey. The tenorite grey C280 Avant-garde with black leather and black birds-eye maple looks extremely sexy.
When the covers were pulled off, the 1st thing I noticed was how muscular and solid the car looked. It looked like the car has been chiselled from a solid block of metal. The C-class has a sporty proportion and the car has a great stance; it looks like a combination of the S-class and the CL, and this result in a very sexy car.
As the crowd of curious people left, the car enthusiasts like us can have a better opportunity to have a close inspection of the new cars. The new C-class looked a lot more expensive than the old W203. Simple touches like the polished aluminium window trim and styling details on the projectile headlights has greatly enhance the exterior of the C-class. I went over to the back of the car to check out the ventilation holes on the edges of the taillights. Most people do not notice them until I point it out to them. The ventilations are very discrete but they are bigger than I thought. There are some nice design details that is a bit difficult to spot, but under the right lighting, you can see there is a ridge line running along the middle of the bonnet, and then it finishes off at the slightly pointy tip on the edge of the boot lid. The line and the tip are subtle and it is not easy to spot.
All the shut lines and panel gaps on the cars are very tight and uniform. Lexus still does a slightly better job but their cars have boring shape and mostly flat panels with awkwardly positioned shut lines, so Mercedes engineers have done an extremely good job here.
The door handle action has the quality feel that the W203 can hope for and the doors feel solid. It closed with an appropriate thump. Like the S-class the inner door pull has groves behind for your fingers to get a more comfortable grip on the door.
I have read all the reports and impressions from other forum members about the interior of the C-class, so I knew want to expect when I sat on the very comfortable driver seats (more on that later). 1st impression is pretty good. The top half of the dash is made from high quality, soft touch, non slip, heavily textured plastic. The plastics on the lower half of the dash are made of similar material but it feels a tad harder. The same quality material was not applied to the transmission tunnel. The plastics look the same, with the same texture but it feels hard, and a bit slippery. I was knocking on it and the plastic sounds a bit brittle.
There are virtually no panel gaps between the air con vents to the dashboard and the central dashboard control panel fits perfectly onto the rest of the dash. The gap lines are so tight it is almost non-existent. The cover for the radio or command screen is not that obvious as well because it is so well integrated with the rest of the dashboard. Right now you might be thinking “why is this guy going on and on about panel gaps?” Well it is because the MB engineers didn’t maintain the same standard when they join the top half and the bottom half of the dashboard together. It is a small thing, but it is still annoying since the fit is pretty much flawless in the rest of the interior. There is a small but noticeable gap between the 2 halves of the dashboard can I can run my nail through it.
All the major buttons and rotary nobs are extremely solid, with the excepting of the A/C nobs. They are an improvement over the old ones but they are not as solid as they can be. They feel very light to rotate and the rotation movement felt a bit loose. Other than this minor quality issue, all the buttons have a damped, solid quality feel to them.
The steering wheel design was subjected to much debate back when the car was unveiled, and after seeing it in person, the steering wheel design for both Elegance and the Avant-garde looked very nice. After seeing it in real life, my opinion has changed completely. For some reason, the spokes on the steering wheel did not appear to be as long and thin as they were are in the photos, so the wheel did not look ugly anymore. The centre section of the steering wheel resembles the shape of the centre of the dashboard and I think the styling of the steering perfectly complements the rest of the interior styling. The steering wheel is slightly small than before, and the rim thickness and softness is just right for a sports sedan. I can see MB engineers have paid great attention to detail when they are set to design the new C-class, these tiny things do count and it all adds up to the driver’s impression of the car.
The instrument cluster has a clean, modern design. The dials have whitish blue LED lighting and it is absolutely fantastically clear and sharp. The same thing can be said for the central LCD display. It is much bigger and clearer than that on the E-class but I find it a bit difficult to navigate through the sub menus on the screen because they have additional features that you can scroll through and that require some additional buttons to press.
You can open and close the COMMAND screen in both ways, either by pressing the “ON” button in the middle of the rotary nob on the dashboard, or press the square button on the scree cover. I did not expect the cover to open and close electronically, so it was a nice surprise when I saw it in action. The opening and closing sequence is quick, very smooth and absolutely silent. The CD charger cover opens in a similar way in our E-class but you could hear the mechanism at work, in the C-class the entire process is silent.
The LCD screen is crystal clear with a high resolution. I am particularly impressed by the navigation graphics, not only does it look upmarket (unlike the cheapo Lexus), the maps and the direction arrow are extremely clear and well defined. It looks way better than any navigation systems I have seen and used, including the ones on BMW and Audi.
The aluminium COMMAND rotary control feels nice to hold, and it rotates with a quality click. It does take a degree of familiarisation to go through the various menus in COMMAND, things like returning to the main menu, inserting the DVD, or start playing the DVD isn’t as easy as I thought. There is a return button next to the rotary control but it doesn’t work in some menu. Call me old school but I still prefer the older COMMAND because I am used to it, but I have no doubt the new COMMAND will be faster to use once you are used to it.
While we were fiddling with the COMMAND system, we had a little fun with the sound system. The standard sound system in a normal Mercedes is impressive already and the new C-class does not disappoint. I am no audio expert but I know when I listen to a good sound system. The speakers only started to distort when we turn up the volume to extremely loud.
Located behind the rotary command control is the compartment for your phone and the storage area. Everyone was trying to pull them open and it didn’t work, none of them noticed the rectangular buttons on the side of the transmission tunnel. You press the upper button and the top half of the compartment will fold out, much like that in the E-class. When you press the button below, the bottom half of the compartment can be pulled open, again, similar to the one in the E-class.
Unlike those older style seats, the new front seats in the C-class have a gentle curve on the middle section and both my friend and I find them very comfortable. The rear seats were shaped similarly as the front seats and I find them more comfortable than the rear seats of an E-class.
Shoulder, leg and head room at the front is sufficient, but despite the more squarish side profile of the new car, there isn’t as much rear headroom as the W203 (we jumped into that afterwards).
For those who said the C-class interior doesn’t look luxurious, I can honestly say they are wrong. Luxury is not only about the amount of wood trim inside a cabinet, it is also about the entire feel of the package. There is the right amount of wood trim inside the interior, but not too much that it will compromise the young, sporty feel of the new C-class. Overall I will rate the interior 8.5/10.
We were hanging around checking out the cars until the closing time. By that time, only us 2, the salesman and a family is left inside the now empty showroom.
I am highly impressed by the new C-class. I think this is the best looking mid sized sedan on sale right now. The interior design is the best as well, the quality is definitely better than that of a BMW 3 series and it almost equals the Audi A4. The new C-class is flying out of the show room like there is no tomorrow, with a 3 months waiting list my salesman said I will be lucky to get a car before December if I order one now. I would have considered the new C-class if MB Australia imports a wider model range. Right now, only the C200k, the C220 CDI and the C280 are being imported. I have already driven the older version of the C220CDI but I hate the noisy idling of the engine. A C200k is way too slow, and a C280 is way too expensive. A C280 Avant-garde cost $97K drive away, which is only $10k cheaper than an E 280 or a CLK 280. I hope MB Australia will import something cheaper but more powerful than a basic C220CDI and a C200 but not as expensive as a C280.
Photos will be uploaded soon.
There might be a C320 CDI.
