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Kraftwagen König
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Since the dawn of the previous C-Class, Mercedes has given us all its wobbliest era ever. By introducing a spectacular array of ambitious new technologies at the same time as a bewildering expansion of their model range, the Germans stretched their engineering people and money to, and beyond, the limit.
The result has been a world of pain - a dive in reliability and a distinctly rebellious owner body which has grown weary of paying Rolex prices for Bangkok-market fake-Rolex quality.
So the aim of the new C has been quality, quality, quality. This car hasn't set its course for some brave new future. It's characterised not by innovation but by retrenchment.
The number-one aim has been to get back to the old days when a Mercedes was a car that was worth the high price because it would be assembled with surgical exactness, feel absolutely impregnable, and go serenely on for decades, faithful as the sun rising in the morning.
So, despite a new digital proto-typing technique that meant, in theory, they needed to build fewer actual prototypes, they built more than ever, and tested them for 14-million miles, a Mercedes record.
And to keep the risk down, compared with recent Mercs this one is surprisingly light on hey-wow technology. Don't expect an options list stuffed with kit to match a 3-Series.
There's no active steering, no radar cruise control, no direct-injection petrol engines (even though Merc now sells one in the CLS in Germany).
And there's surprisingly little of the kit from top-end Mercs either. None of your active braking, collision-avoidance or night vision - not even an electric handbrake. Why not? 'Because Audi has it on the A6 and we heard it causes trouble.'
Instead the new C-Class is straightforward under the surface and straightforward to drive. In a new German luxury saloon, that makes a refreshing change.It looks big, though actually it isn't by the standards of a 3-Series. But the cues are big - the tall, bluff front has a bit of the giant GL-Class about it; the flanks have echoes of the S, though the tail is short and pert.
It's a hard shape to read, because in most lights you don't see the curved undercut crease that runs beneath the door handles. As usual Merc gets a surprisingly good drag coefficient at 0.27, and has found the time to sweat the aerodynamic details.
The tail lamps, for instance, have little vents to channel clean air over them so road clag doesn't build up. There are two front ends. The Sport model gets a socking great star in the centre of the grille, like a CL.
Our test car also had an AMG body kit to deepen the spoilers and emphasise the sills. The other equipment lines, SE and Elegance, get a trad Mercedes saloon grille with a modest little three-pointed star standing like a figurehead on top.
In the absence of earth-shattering technical changes, Mercedes' people are making a big fuss of this two-grilles strategy, but really, it's no big deal.
As you sit inside the wide cabin and feel the cushioning ride, the big-car feeling pervades. The general sense is of something solidly made, though the switchgear doesn't have the jewel-like look of the stuff in the S-Class.
As to the interior design, well, maybe this is unintentional, but several of the visual cues sent my mind back to the era when every Merc was built like a piece of military hardware.
Instead of the departing C-Class's amorphous curves, the instrument binnacle has an angular top to it, and there are several clean, straight edges in the dash and doors. Just like the 1980s W124 series really. Maybe they did want to remind us of one of the most solid Mercs ever. Or maybe it's just some obscure part of the Eighties retro thing. Go ask your barber for a flat-top.
But press the 'on' button and something very 21st century emerges from that dash - or at least it does if you've coughed up a couple of grand for the optional Comand system. Like something from Tracy Island, a shutter motors back and, from beneath, a colour screen whirrs up and hinges into your eyeline. It then sits there, looking like a bit of an afterthought, but acting as a well-integrated bit of the car.
In conjunction with a controller wheel on the console by your thigh, it makes the navigation, phone and entertainment remarkably simple to use. Especially as it comes with surprisingly effective voice activation - just say a whole street name and it's pretty good at deciphering it as a destination without you needing to laboriously spell it out as if you're shouting down a crackly line to some poor sap in a Delhi call centre.
If you don't stump up for navigation, don't worry, Bluetooth phone connection is standard.
You can be confident that the stuff Mercedes has always done well, it continues to do well. The seats are superb, lights and wipers terrific, - all the dreary stuff you don't think about in other cars until you find deficiencies on a long winter journey.
The body is - and feels - rigid, and is bound to see you right in a crash. It's slightly bigger than before, but the shell actually weighs less because it uses a large proportion of fancy high-strength steel.
The suspension arms and hub carriers have been switched to light aluminium. The engine is a little lower and further back, and the battery for diesels is in the boot.
So, model for model, spec for spec, it's lighter than the old car, plus the weight is better distributed and there's less of it unsprung. All noble achievements, especially in a big car.
Performance and economy are up in the four-cylinder engines - when all's said and done, the ones everyone buys - as they've all had an efficiency boost. The base engines are C180 Kompressor petrol and CDI at 156 and 136bhp. Ho hum.
More useful are the C200K and C220CDI, which go to 184bhp and 170bhp, the diesel getting 295lb ft of torque. If you get picked up from Stuttgart airport by a C220CDI taxi, you should post a pretty respectable time to the hotel.
The V6 engines are as before. They start with a 230 petrol - no faster than the 200K - and ramp up through 280 to a 272bhp 350. The V6 diesel is a 320, at 224bhp. It was only the top diesel and petrol engines that Merc fielded for us to drive. Both are all very well by the standards of five years ago, but this is 2007 and they're severely embarrassed for refinement and performance by BMW's twin-turbos, the 335i and 335d.
Ah well, if Merc is feeling daunted by those BMW sixes, the AMG storm troopers will charge to the rescue. The upcoming C63AMG will get the 6.3-litre with 480bhp. It should see off the pesky Audi RS4 and new-gen M3.
The AMG gets a totally re-engineered rear suspension to try and strap the craziness down, but even so I'm thinking that its traction-control light is going to be flashing like a glitter ball. Should be an addictive car, by turns maddening and hilarious.
Slightly more relevant to the rest of us, a C estate comes by the end of this year. There will also be a new Sportscoupe, but that stays on the old car's platform.
Sorry, got a bit diverted there. Ah yes, the new C320CDI, and a clear motorway. It likes it here. It's quiet and quick, and bolted reassuringly between the white lines even through undulating fast curves. On other roads it's a majestic overtaker, thanks to the thoroughly convincing shove when it's in the sweet spot of roughly 2,700-3,700rpm.
But there's definite turbo lag below that and a lack of enthusiasm above. Which means that even with the seven-speed transmission, it can fall down in the gap between second and third. It's a little rattly too, if we're being picky, and I think we can be picky when, optioned like this, we're in a car that'll roll out of the dealers only when you've financed roughly £40k.
Our C320CDI Sport came on 17-inch AMG wheels as part of the AMG styling kit, and the seven-speed automatic 'box as an alternative to the standard six-speed manual.
It also featured something called the Advanced Agility package, which consists of slightly more direct steering than the standard car - itself more direct than before - plus electronically adaptable dampers, lowered springs and an over-ride for the auto 'box via steering-wheel paddles.
You can press a Sport button on the dash to firm up the dampers, but their basic adaptive programme is just fine - Sport simply makes things crashy in a straight line without greatly adding to the gaiety of cornering.
Corners are a good place to be in the new C-Class though. It keeps roll and pitch well under control, and all its reactions are well-measured and proportionate, so you get a good feel for what it's up to and it's usefully more agile than the old one. But the ride is truly superb too.
At low speeds it rolls uncomplainingly over town potholes, and on a heaving, broken country road neither the small shocks nor larger motions bother it in the slightest.
The 350 petrol engine is quick, getting to 62mph in 6.3secs with its standard auto 'box. It feels decently torquey too, but it's a bit tingly at the top end. The C350 I drove did without the Advanced Agility pack, but as standard all C-Classes without it have dampers with a passive oil-controlled adaptive function, and they work well.
In fact, despite its theoretically slower steering and softer suspension, the C350 sniffs out corners just as enthusiastically as the diesel, presumably because the lower mass of the engine offsets the less 'sporty' suspension.
Hardly anything to choose between the two on ride comfort either - if you want an educated guess, I'd say the Advanced Agility pack probably isn't worth it on anything but the big diesel.
So, Mercedes has managed to turn out a C-Class that's more sporty than before, without losing the long-haul refinement and comfort that is its bedrock.
OK, I haven't driven them side-by-side, but I'd put a quid on it not being quite as fun as a 3-Series, and of course, come early next year, Audi will have an all-new A4 based on the A5 coupe. The C remains a car for Mercedes lovers - it's hugely capable but it keeps that quiet until you press it.
But then, too many Mercedes lovers have had a break-up these past few years. If the new C can persuade them to reunite it'll be a success. And for that it's probably just the car that was needed. No revolution but a solid improvement. That's solid in both senses.
The result has been a world of pain - a dive in reliability and a distinctly rebellious owner body which has grown weary of paying Rolex prices for Bangkok-market fake-Rolex quality.
So the aim of the new C has been quality, quality, quality. This car hasn't set its course for some brave new future. It's characterised not by innovation but by retrenchment.
The number-one aim has been to get back to the old days when a Mercedes was a car that was worth the high price because it would be assembled with surgical exactness, feel absolutely impregnable, and go serenely on for decades, faithful as the sun rising in the morning.
So, despite a new digital proto-typing technique that meant, in theory, they needed to build fewer actual prototypes, they built more than ever, and tested them for 14-million miles, a Mercedes record.
And to keep the risk down, compared with recent Mercs this one is surprisingly light on hey-wow technology. Don't expect an options list stuffed with kit to match a 3-Series.
There's no active steering, no radar cruise control, no direct-injection petrol engines (even though Merc now sells one in the CLS in Germany).
And there's surprisingly little of the kit from top-end Mercs either. None of your active braking, collision-avoidance or night vision - not even an electric handbrake. Why not? 'Because Audi has it on the A6 and we heard it causes trouble.'
Instead the new C-Class is straightforward under the surface and straightforward to drive. In a new German luxury saloon, that makes a refreshing change.It looks big, though actually it isn't by the standards of a 3-Series. But the cues are big - the tall, bluff front has a bit of the giant GL-Class about it; the flanks have echoes of the S, though the tail is short and pert.
It's a hard shape to read, because in most lights you don't see the curved undercut crease that runs beneath the door handles. As usual Merc gets a surprisingly good drag coefficient at 0.27, and has found the time to sweat the aerodynamic details.
The tail lamps, for instance, have little vents to channel clean air over them so road clag doesn't build up. There are two front ends. The Sport model gets a socking great star in the centre of the grille, like a CL.
Our test car also had an AMG body kit to deepen the spoilers and emphasise the sills. The other equipment lines, SE and Elegance, get a trad Mercedes saloon grille with a modest little three-pointed star standing like a figurehead on top.
In the absence of earth-shattering technical changes, Mercedes' people are making a big fuss of this two-grilles strategy, but really, it's no big deal.
As you sit inside the wide cabin and feel the cushioning ride, the big-car feeling pervades. The general sense is of something solidly made, though the switchgear doesn't have the jewel-like look of the stuff in the S-Class.
As to the interior design, well, maybe this is unintentional, but several of the visual cues sent my mind back to the era when every Merc was built like a piece of military hardware.
Instead of the departing C-Class's amorphous curves, the instrument binnacle has an angular top to it, and there are several clean, straight edges in the dash and doors. Just like the 1980s W124 series really. Maybe they did want to remind us of one of the most solid Mercs ever. Or maybe it's just some obscure part of the Eighties retro thing. Go ask your barber for a flat-top.
But press the 'on' button and something very 21st century emerges from that dash - or at least it does if you've coughed up a couple of grand for the optional Comand system. Like something from Tracy Island, a shutter motors back and, from beneath, a colour screen whirrs up and hinges into your eyeline. It then sits there, looking like a bit of an afterthought, but acting as a well-integrated bit of the car.
In conjunction with a controller wheel on the console by your thigh, it makes the navigation, phone and entertainment remarkably simple to use. Especially as it comes with surprisingly effective voice activation - just say a whole street name and it's pretty good at deciphering it as a destination without you needing to laboriously spell it out as if you're shouting down a crackly line to some poor sap in a Delhi call centre.
If you don't stump up for navigation, don't worry, Bluetooth phone connection is standard.
You can be confident that the stuff Mercedes has always done well, it continues to do well. The seats are superb, lights and wipers terrific, - all the dreary stuff you don't think about in other cars until you find deficiencies on a long winter journey.
The body is - and feels - rigid, and is bound to see you right in a crash. It's slightly bigger than before, but the shell actually weighs less because it uses a large proportion of fancy high-strength steel.
The suspension arms and hub carriers have been switched to light aluminium. The engine is a little lower and further back, and the battery for diesels is in the boot.
So, model for model, spec for spec, it's lighter than the old car, plus the weight is better distributed and there's less of it unsprung. All noble achievements, especially in a big car.
Performance and economy are up in the four-cylinder engines - when all's said and done, the ones everyone buys - as they've all had an efficiency boost. The base engines are C180 Kompressor petrol and CDI at 156 and 136bhp. Ho hum.
More useful are the C200K and C220CDI, which go to 184bhp and 170bhp, the diesel getting 295lb ft of torque. If you get picked up from Stuttgart airport by a C220CDI taxi, you should post a pretty respectable time to the hotel.
The V6 engines are as before. They start with a 230 petrol - no faster than the 200K - and ramp up through 280 to a 272bhp 350. The V6 diesel is a 320, at 224bhp. It was only the top diesel and petrol engines that Merc fielded for us to drive. Both are all very well by the standards of five years ago, but this is 2007 and they're severely embarrassed for refinement and performance by BMW's twin-turbos, the 335i and 335d.
Ah well, if Merc is feeling daunted by those BMW sixes, the AMG storm troopers will charge to the rescue. The upcoming C63AMG will get the 6.3-litre with 480bhp. It should see off the pesky Audi RS4 and new-gen M3.
The AMG gets a totally re-engineered rear suspension to try and strap the craziness down, but even so I'm thinking that its traction-control light is going to be flashing like a glitter ball. Should be an addictive car, by turns maddening and hilarious.
Slightly more relevant to the rest of us, a C estate comes by the end of this year. There will also be a new Sportscoupe, but that stays on the old car's platform.
Sorry, got a bit diverted there. Ah yes, the new C320CDI, and a clear motorway. It likes it here. It's quiet and quick, and bolted reassuringly between the white lines even through undulating fast curves. On other roads it's a majestic overtaker, thanks to the thoroughly convincing shove when it's in the sweet spot of roughly 2,700-3,700rpm.
But there's definite turbo lag below that and a lack of enthusiasm above. Which means that even with the seven-speed transmission, it can fall down in the gap between second and third. It's a little rattly too, if we're being picky, and I think we can be picky when, optioned like this, we're in a car that'll roll out of the dealers only when you've financed roughly £40k.
Our C320CDI Sport came on 17-inch AMG wheels as part of the AMG styling kit, and the seven-speed automatic 'box as an alternative to the standard six-speed manual.
It also featured something called the Advanced Agility package, which consists of slightly more direct steering than the standard car - itself more direct than before - plus electronically adaptable dampers, lowered springs and an over-ride for the auto 'box via steering-wheel paddles.
You can press a Sport button on the dash to firm up the dampers, but their basic adaptive programme is just fine - Sport simply makes things crashy in a straight line without greatly adding to the gaiety of cornering.
Corners are a good place to be in the new C-Class though. It keeps roll and pitch well under control, and all its reactions are well-measured and proportionate, so you get a good feel for what it's up to and it's usefully more agile than the old one. But the ride is truly superb too.
At low speeds it rolls uncomplainingly over town potholes, and on a heaving, broken country road neither the small shocks nor larger motions bother it in the slightest.
The 350 petrol engine is quick, getting to 62mph in 6.3secs with its standard auto 'box. It feels decently torquey too, but it's a bit tingly at the top end. The C350 I drove did without the Advanced Agility pack, but as standard all C-Classes without it have dampers with a passive oil-controlled adaptive function, and they work well.
In fact, despite its theoretically slower steering and softer suspension, the C350 sniffs out corners just as enthusiastically as the diesel, presumably because the lower mass of the engine offsets the less 'sporty' suspension.
Hardly anything to choose between the two on ride comfort either - if you want an educated guess, I'd say the Advanced Agility pack probably isn't worth it on anything but the big diesel.
So, Mercedes has managed to turn out a C-Class that's more sporty than before, without losing the long-haul refinement and comfort that is its bedrock.
OK, I haven't driven them side-by-side, but I'd put a quid on it not being quite as fun as a 3-Series, and of course, come early next year, Audi will have an all-new A4 based on the A5 coupe. The C remains a car for Mercedes lovers - it's hugely capable but it keeps that quiet until you press it.
But then, too many Mercedes lovers have had a break-up these past few years. If the new C can persuade them to reunite it'll be a success. And for that it's probably just the car that was needed. No revolution but a solid improvement. That's solid in both senses.
