Category: Compact Executive 
Price Range: £19,672 to £52,567
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 new C-Class is lighter than the old one, but Mercedes is at pains to emphasise that the lightening is not at the expense of safety. On the contrary, there are tough new B-pillars to protect occupants in a side-on collision and the crumple zones are larger.
Trickle-down from the S-Class is most evident in the C's safety equipment, with seven airbags as standard, including one for the driver's knees and curtains along the whole length of the side windows. Driver and front passenger gets Neck Pro head restraints that push forwards within milliseconds to support heads and reduce the risk of whiplash injury. If the driver needs to brake hard at speeds above 30mph, the brake lights flash rapidly to warn following drivers.
Options include an intelligent lighting system that automatically switches between five modes to maximise your chances of seeing potential hazards, and you can also plump for Pre-Safe, the anticipatory safety system that tightens the seatbelts and closes the windows if it senses an impending accident.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Mercedes C-Class
wrote on 14 11 2006