Category: Compact Executive 
Price Range: £19,672 to £51,570
Baby Benz looks, much-improved driving experience, sumptuous cabins, smooth ride, refined engines
Still rather conservative, still not as sharp to drive as some rivals
C55 AMG apart, the C-Class isn't the most involving drive for high-performance enthusiasts, but it's a class act
It's a perennial Merc foible: the foot-operated parking brake is back again. You'd get used to it after a while, but it can be a bit of a pain. That aside, the C-Class saloons and estates are effortlessly easy to drive, with a fine driving position, good all-round visibility and user-friendly controls and cabin ergonomics. The basic design of Mercedes' cabins has changed very little over the past decades, so if you've owned a Merc before, you'll find your way around no problem. The Sports Coupe is a little less convincing, with its high-cut tail and awkward afterthought of a rear glass panel - it's not the easiest car to reverse, though rearward visibility is better than in many other high-booted coupes. The new manual gearbox is far slicker than its awkward predecessors, and more direct still in Sport, Evolution and C320 models with the short-throw shift lever, and the steering is much more precise than in the outgoing model. The downside of the C-Class's insulation and refinement is that it's not the most involving car of its type to drive - except in AMG form, it lacks the feedback and edginess of the 3-Series or 156, and just isn't quite as interactive. For all but the most enthusiastic drivers, however, the revised steering and suspension will have sharpened it up enough. The option is there to create a tauter, meaner machine, with the sports suspension and short-throw gearbox, but the C-Class's inherent character is more that of a comfy cruiser.
Can't fault the smooth, refined series of engines on offer; even the lower-powered petrol units deliver plenty of pull, and the torquey diesels are even better. The optimum balance between top-end performance, refinement and economy is probably the super-sophisticated C320, but you could be just as happy with a C220 CDI. Or better still, the C270 CDI. The supercharged (Kompressor) models feel more urgent, but all sound great, too. The C55 AMG is, predictably, blindingly quick - 0-60mph in 5.4 seconds, 155mph top speed - and unlike many high-performance saloons/estates, it actually feels as fast as the figures suggest. That comes with five-speed auto transmission only, though the new six-speed manual gearbox is a huge improvement over previous M-B stick-shifters - it really enables the driver to get more out of the C-Class, whatever the engine.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Mercedes C-Class
wrote on 14 11 2006