Category: Compact Executive 
Price Range: £19,672 to £51,570
Roomy, composed, comfortable, with a choice of good engines.
Short on flair.
A bigger, better car that's at its finest when it's most like the E-Class.
The C-Class returns with not one but two new faces. The fourth generation (if you include the 190, which was the first C-Class in all but name) is available as a Sport, with a big badge in the middle of the grille and standard fit AMG bodykit, or the Elegance, with the badge on top of the bonnet and a more restrained grille. The entry-level SE shares the Elegance look.
Initially, there will be three petrol engines and two diesels: C200K, C280, C350, C220 CDI and C320 CDI. In September they will be joined by the C180K, C230 and C200 CDI. Not every engine will be available in every specification level: there won't be an SE version of the C350 or C320 CDI, for instance.
The estate and sports coupe versions will follow, as will an AMG-engineered C63 hotshot.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Mercedes C-Class
wrote on 14 11 2006