(first posted 8/7/208) We’d been waiting in line so long at the rental agency. Melbourne rush hour traffic was piling up. The caretaker of the holiday home we were staying at for the weekend was waiting for us. It’d been a long day and we now had to rush two hours out of town. You can imagine, then, how frustrating it was to get into a car and have to figure out where the shifter was. It was an inauspicious start for our rental of the new Mercedes-Benz C200, the lowest-priced version of Australia’s best-selling luxury car. Fortunately, it didn’t tarnish the entire rental experience.
To call the C-Class important to the Mercedes brand is an understatement. In Australia, the W205-series C-Class dominates the compact luxury sedan segment. Here, Mercedes-Benz is the top-selling luxury brand overall – as it is globally – and the C-Class the best-selling luxury car. Our industry reporting organisation, VFACTS, lumps the C-Class in the “Medium Sedan” segment and last year the Toyota Camry was the only “medium sedan” to outsell the C-Class. The sedan found 8,549 buyers and the coupe accounted for another 2,818 sales, enough to earn the two-door the #2 slot in the “Sports Cars” segment. In comparison, the BMW 3-Series found 2,584 buyers and the Audi A4 only 2,117. There’s a similar gulf between C-Class and 3-Series sales in the US.
The lure of the three-pointed star is too strong for thousands of Aussies to resist – Mercedes has the best or second best-selling cars in every luxury segment and even the CLA outsells the BMW 3-Series. Surely, I surmised, it can’t just be the badge that attracts buyers.
I approached the C200 with high expectations, only to initially be met with disappointment. Let’s start with the shifter. Firstly, having not driven a new C-Class, I didn’t even know where the shifter was until I found the stalk on the column. Now, I’m not averse to a column shifter even if it’s not my first choice. And there’s nothing wrong with the feel of the well-crafted, metal paddle shifters in the Mercedes, although they could be a tad longer. But the actual shifter has the girth of a conventional column stalk and is in roughly the same location as the turn signal stalk in my own car; the wiper and turn signal controls are on a single stalk on the left-hand side. This meant the first hour of driving the car was a little nerve-wracking as I kept thinking I’d accidentally knock it into Neutral on the highway. Yes, you mostly acclimatize and it does have a high-quality feel but it seems a confounding location for a shifter.
There were also a couple of other irritations in the cabin. The speedometer is on the left-hand side and the odometer on the right when most cars have them the other way around. This makes it more difficult to read your speed unless you’re driving 200 km/h. There’s a nicely-sized screen in the gauge cluster that can display, for example, your navigation directions. Unfortunately, the digital speedometer is a tiny readout above that and it can display either miles per hour or… nothing at all. There didn’t appear to be any way to change it to kilometres per hour, nor make it appear on the larger screen in the gauge cluster.
The revised interior
Our rental was a 2017 model. For the 2019 model year, the C-Class has received numerous tweaks to its infotainment, as well as a new steering wheel and a fully digital instrument cluster. Said changes may well mitigate the issues I experienced.
Mercedes’ COMAND interface takes some getting used to initially. At first I grumbled at the lack of a touchscreen – different strokes for different folks – but the rotary controller is arguably less distracting while driving and you won’t leave smudges on the eight-inch display. You quickly figure out that you can press it down like a mouse and the buttons are duplicated on both the raised portion and next to the knob itself. Overall it’s a fairly intuitive system and it hasn’t completely taken over the interior, the climate control settings remaining button-operated.
The positioning of the infotainment controller and the gear shifter frees up space for a huge cubby at the base of the center stack with a 12V power outlet. There are also two well-sized cupholders. Their location is preferable to most cars’ cupholders which often require you to move your arm back or twist your wrist.
There was one more black mark in the interior, however: the Bluetooth. I don’t know whether to blame Mercedes-Benz or the folks at Apple because every time I turned the car off, it unpaired my phone. I didn’t have that problem in a lowly Toyota HiAce earlier this year and I expected better from a Mercedes.
The interior itself is very attractive with a flowing center stack and Mercedes’ traditional, elegant seat adjustment controls on the door. Build and material quality is excellent, as expected, from the plastics to the exquisitely tactile switchgear. Even the plastics on the lower part of the door are padded – unlike in, say, a Lexus IS – and there’s no evidence of cost-cutting at all in the cabin. I expected a high-quality interior and the Mercedes delivered—everything feels just right. There are even neat touches like “Mercedes-Benz” illuminated in the front-door sill panels. Even though Australian-market C200 sedans aren’t built in Germany – ours come from South Africa – the build quality is still superb.
As a personal preference, I’d rather seats that are a touch softer but the firm Artico synthetic leather pews are certainly supportive. They’re also highly adjustable. Even with the seat adjusted for my height – 5’11’’ – I could comfortably sit behind myself. The C-Class has certainly become more hospitable since the days of the cramped W202.
The 12.6 cubic-foot trunk is also fairly capacious for the class and the rear seats fold 40/20/40 for more cargo room.
Standard equipment includes front and rear parking sensors, nine airbags, automatic headlights and wipers, forward collision warning, power seats and blind-spot monitoring. This isn’t a poverty-pack 180E with wind-up windows. Sure, a better-equipped, more powerful, top-of-the-line Mazda6 costs $10k less so the value proposition isn’t airtight. But how many people are cross-shopping a C-Class with a car from a non-luxury brand?
Let me preface my driving impressions by saying I’ve no problem with turbocharged four-cylinder engines. Unfortunately, the C200’s is noisy. The clatter under the hood gave me pause – when I picked it up, I didn’t check the badge on the trunk and I found myself wondering if I had rented a diesel. Even with the stereo on, I was startled at how rough the engine sounded. Cadillac’s turbocharged 2.0 – an engine that is often criticized for its lack of refinement compared to rivals’ – seemed more refined. At least the C-Class was quiet at idle, with a relatively seamless stop/start system that can still be switched off if you so desire.
I could perhaps forgive the racket if the C200 was a rocketship but it’s not. This was the base engine in the C-Class until this year, rated at 181 hp at 5500 rpm and 221 ft-lbs at 4000 rpm. That’s down 36 ft-lbs from the base turbocharged four-cylinder engines in the Lexus IS and Infiniti Q50, although it’s up 22 ft-lbs on the 2.0 turbo in the comparably-priced BMW 320i. Fortunately, the C200 doesn’t feel underpowered, although I can’t speak for the less powerful C160 and C180 available in other markets.
The C200 never pushes you back in your seat but it has plenty of power for passing and no noticeable turbo lag; Mercedes quotes a 0-60 time of around 7.3 seconds but it definitely doesn’t feel any faster than that. The facelifted version which has just debuted now has a smaller turbocharged 1.5 in the C200, producing the same horsepower figures but 14 fewer pound-feet of torque.
The nine-speed automatic shifts smoothly and you can manually change gears with the paddle shifters, although the car will shift back into automatic mode eventually. That nine-speed auto undoubtedly helps the C-Class achieve its excellent fuel economy: It is rated at 8.4/5.4 l/100km and 6.5 l/100km combined (28/44/36mpg converted). Even after over 200 km of (admittedly mostly highway) driving, I still had more than two-thirds of a tank. If you want more power but don’t want to pay any more at the pump, Mercedes has a C250 with similar fuel economy figures but around 20 extra horses.
Mercedes’ Agility Select system allows you to choose between five drive modes: Sport, Sport +, Comfort, Eco and Individual. The latter allows you to customize the five different elements within each drive mode: engine performance, steering feel, the stop/start system, climate control and, in Cs equipped with the optional Airmatic suspension, the firmness of the suspension. Through Agility Select, you can also opt for the C-Class to shift via paddle inputs only. It’s a nice touch if you love shifting your own gears and don’t like the car overriding your inputs.
Even without the Airmatic suspension, the C200 has a rather comfortable and compliant ride without any major impact harshness, even on pockmarked country roads. One does wonder how appreciably better the vaunted Airmatic system would feel, though.
When thrown down the twisting back roads of Hepburn Springs, the C200 impresses with confident, secure handling. The speed-sensitive, electric power steering is marvelously calibrated, being light when you need it to be and more hefty when you want it to be while still affording tangible road feel. Overall dynamics are commendable although the C200 isn’t exhilarating to drive and doesn’t quite shrink around you. Perhaps with some more power under the hood, it’d come alive.
I was left with the feeling the C-Class probably needs a few ticks on the order sheet to transform from capable to transcendent, including the Airmatic suspension and the punchier turbo 2.0 in the C300. Hopefully that engine is more refined than the C200’s.
Does the C-Class deserve to be the best-selling compact luxury sedan in Australia and in many other parts of the world? For most luxury car buyers, absolutely. The elegant cabin, refined driving manners and that big three-pointed star are enough to satisfy the masses. For enthusiasts, I’d recommend a test drive and a diligent look at the options sheet.
Related Reading:
COAL: 2016 BMW 228i xDrive (F22)
CC Comparison Test: The Best And Wurst Alternatives – 1st Place, 2014 Cadillac CTS 2.0T Luxury
CC Comparison: The Best And Wurst Alternatives – 2nd Place, 2014 Lexus GS350 F-Sport
I don’t know whether to blame Mercedes-Benz or the folks at Apple because every time I turned the car off, it unpaired my phone.
Could it be that the COMAND was programmed by the car hire centres to do that every time?
I have a similar experience with television sets in the European hotels, configuring them to show the closed-captioning. Every time I switch the set on again, back to the square one. I learnt that the hotel version was configured differently from consumer version as to reset themselves to the original configuration every time.
I am surprised that Mercedes-Benz hasn’t chosen to swap the gear selector with the turn signal indicator. It is one thing that gets to me when driving the RHD vehicles. Having the turn signal stalker on the left hand side makes it harder for me to shift the gears and signal the turn. My biggest peeve is the ignition switch on the right side. It’s easier to hold the keys in the left hand while you use the right hand to open the door and close it.
The COMAND screen looks smaller so it’s more basic than COMAND Online (bigger screen). A couple of disadvantages with touchscreen is that you would probably have to reach out to touch the pad and that they get dirty real fast with fingeprints and such. The control panel on the centre console is easier to reach and work with.
I kind of like the interior of the C Class
The C, E, and S classes are probably the only mass-market Mercedes models I like. Even though the three look the absolute SAME (and I hate that), they manage to have some dignity for the brand. Unlike the CLA or the new A class which do everything they can to look flamboyant, even putting LED lights on the air vents.
Who’d have thought that Audis would become the most differentiated and best looking German sedans?
I’m so tired of Audi’s design language. For the past decade or so, they’ve been the worst at not only differentiating between each line but also differentiating between each generation.
The winds seem to be changing though: the new Q2 and Q8 are quite distinctive. But then again, maybe those cues will just find their way onto the next Q3, Q7 etc.
I’ve just started noticing the Q2. Not a fan; that chiselled motif along the top of the doors seems forced – a far cry from their mastery of the curve from some years back now. They seem to be following the decline experienced by Honda after they peaked with the simple yet sophisticated (and category-leading) language of the 92-95 Civic.
I don’t know, people said similar things when they introduced the single-frame grille. Then it became so normal and Audi design just faded back to seeming inoffensive. I’ve seen enough Q2s now that they’re starting to seem pleasantly familiar after the initial surprise.
I thought that grille was an inspired move, though the purity of the rest of the body language was lost not long after. Still not seeing any CUV that lights my wick, but I have to say I’m more and more impressed with the shape of the Tesla X. I think that could be shrunk quite well.
I must also acknowledge that my aesthetic sensibilities are increasingly the outlier; I got talking to a guy from Nissan who said their Juke is going gangbusters for a number of demographics who like its non-traditional shape (which I detest), and now I’m noticing some of the other manufacturers mimicking aspects on their own CUV.
The Q8 is great looking, the Q2 not so much.
Yep, since the nineties Audis always looked the same. I drive an Audi from the nineties (photo) and I can see cues from it on the current A4.
The thing is, so many brands follow the Audi route that it’s now easier for me to distinguish and A4 from an A6 from an A8 than a Mercedes C from an E from an S, and that wasn’t the case before.
The W212 E Class was considered bad looking for many, but I love everything in it. The quad headlights, the horizontal LED taillights, the pontoon flares… You wouldn’t mistake it for a C or an S. Late 2000’s was peak Mercedes in terms of sedans for me. The W204 was also very elegant.
For me the current reference is Volvo. Have you seen how different their crossovers are from each other? And even the sedans are different enough.
Excellent review of a car that (for me) has no appeal at all. I have disliked Mercedes styling for quite some years now, melty, blobby, that dreadful banana lower window line now bespoiling the entire range, and all faced by a very loud blingette of overstated badgedom. Are folks really that desperate to be validated?
Mechanically, Mercedes has never made a nice four cylinder engine. Ever. Pick, almost at random, over many years, any Japanese effort and it will feel much more refined. Minus the sand Merc puts into it’s ones. I’ve driven the combo you have here, albeit with the 7 speed. I actually thought performance was ok, but rather too peaky; 4,000 rpm is a high torque peak.
And only Mercedes could get away with the cheek of selling a $60K plus car with bloody vinyl seats! In truth, it being one of the longest-lasting and cheekiest automotive cons, I kind of admire them.
I will say that the last C-class I drove (a 2014?) was very nicely finished, and had a thoroughly excellent ride for a car that handled as nicely as it did, though it did need that compliance because the seats were the trad Mercedes butt-bruisers. It also had an immensely solid feel as a unit, which I’m sure will last beyond the mechanicals. That last is a proper long-time virtue of the brand. But nowhere near enough to get me into one. I’m amazed at how completely it outsells the 3 series.
I hope yours had heated (vinyl) seats, William. Hepburn Springs in winter can commonly get to zero overnight – a bit of a shock coming from Brisbane, I’m sure. (Great spot though).
The first part sums everything up.
Mercedes became a brand for the badge snobs. I actually miss the days of the W211, and that car was hated by a lot of people.
Now. Illuminated stars? Air vents with LED rings? WTF?
And the CLA is one of the most overwrought designs ever. Ever seen a Renault-engined base CLA180d with 16″ wheels? They look like 14″….
Oh, gee, W211 is the worst of all E-Class. My late father had a facelifted E280, and it was nothing but trouble for him and a very expensive money pit.
Gradually, he trusted me to repair lot of mechanical issues that could be rectify by the official Mercedes-Benz service centre only at a price of more than an arm and leg. It turned out that we could repair many things for less than €50 each rather than €1,000 or more thanks to lot of YouTube videos and forums posted by the shade tree mechanics. I’ve come to resent enormous time and effort to fix lot of mechanical issues.
In 2008, the four doors were badly rusted out and were replaced by the recall campaign in Germany at no charge. That meant my father had no car for three weeks. No loaner car for him. Nice…
Yes it was bad (btw, my neighbor has a mint E220 CDI with about 50k miles on it.), but very good looking and I loved the interior (would never own one though). I thought that by the time the facelift came, the problems had been sorted. Guess I was wrong.
I can remember when you had to get the Sport option, or drive an actual sporting model to get that huge three pointed star in the front. Then came the CLA (the badge whore’s Benz) in the US, and ever since you have to be able to scream, “I own (lease, actually, I can’t afford to own one) a Mercedes.”
Hell, some of them actually light up!
It says something about the quality of cars nowadays when a major complaint is Bluetooth pairing.
For my $60K, I rather get either a SS-Redline or a Calais V8, VF-II.
This car looks so much fresher than the current 3 series I’m not surprised at it all it outsells it. Specially the interior.
I like BMW’s very driver-oriented dashboard designs but they do box themselves into a corner with said designs because they can’t really reinvent themselves with each redesign. Look at Mercedes: you had the angular center stack of the first C-Class, then the more flowing design of the second, then back to an angular and almost cell-phone inspired design in the third, and now it’s curvier and more flowing than ever.
As for the Holdens, as polished as those final VF interiors were, they’re still not at Mercedes’ level. That being said, I’d rather a 6.2 V8 over this 2.0 turbo in terms of performance… but would I get tired of the big fuel bills?
Also Holden’s infotainment is pretty mediocre compared to Mercedes’.
If FE is your thing, even the V6 would kill this 4-pot. Yes, the Holden probably is not as nice inside. And still, it is $ for $, better value than this car. The LS3 is surprisingly efficient for the big beast it is.
Now… if the potential owner of a $60K car and is pinching pennies for fuel…
Yeah $60k for fake leather is a no sale for me, vinyl is for work trucks.
I think there are probably plenty of buyers who really don’t care if it’s synthetic leather if it looks and feels the same… and probably even more buyers who are happy a cow didn’t have to die!
Me? I don’t care if it’s synthetic so long as they get the feel and, almost as importantly, the smell right.
There certainly are people who don’t know and can’t tell the difference, and I seriously doubt there are more who prefer fake leather because a cow didn’t have to die. I do have to wonder how my friend who is an animal rights type who won’t buy leather clothing, shoes ect rationalized the fact that her “lowly” Ford has genuine leather seating surfaces and steering wheel.
I’ve yet to find a imitation leather that doesn’t share the same sticky hot feel of vinyl when it is 90 degrees out. The old Comfortweave Vinyl was a big step in the right direction, I just wish it was still available.
Saw one of these recently in the wild I caught it overtaking cars up a passing lane by which time we were both well past the speed limit so I just sat behind it at a comfortable 110kmh, those things do hold the road quite well if a bit skippy on bad sections, both of us had fun ignoring corner speed warning signs,with a D in the rear badging I figure it was a diesel I was behind, the black smoke under hard acceleration was a bit of a giveaway too, I wouldnt swap my car for one though especially after reading this writeup and watching one in action.
A “d” badged modern Mercedes (2015 or newer) throwing out black smoke? That’s weird… If it was a CDI the situation would be much more common…
Enjoyable review Will! I had to think, but surprisingly enough I have yet to drive this generation C-Class. The closest I’ve come is a GLC 300 crossover that’s very related to it.
I agree with you assessment of this car’s strengths and weaknesses. Having the CLA below it has allowed Mercedes to noticeably upgrade the W205’s interior over the W204. I’m still not a fan of the turn signal-like stalk shifter – my mother’s GLK 350 has it and still never feels totally intuitive. I prefer a console shifter to rest my right hand on while driving.
My main gripe with the C-Class here is like the 3 Series, it’s just all too common, lessening its special feel.
I drove an AMG-packaged GLC250d a couple of weeks ago. The interior was very, very good.
I didn’t even care about the ugliness of the exterior.
You don’t like the look of the GLC? I preferred the GLK’s exterior but to me the GLC is one of the best-looking crossovers in its segment.
And I never thought I’d say this but… even the GLC Coupe is growing on me. I know, I know. I said I’d never like the look of the BMW X6 either but here we are…
The standard GLC is nice looking, I forgot to say I drove the coupe with weirdo silver running boards on the sides, and I don’t like it that much
Looked exactly like this one
I have never been in one of these and appreciate the virtual ride-along.
To build on Syke’s point – is it really necessary to have *two* MB stars on the front of the car? I can deal with the huge star that screams MERCEDES at we plebes (“I have money and I’m not afraid to use it. Now get out of my way.”), and I also get the tasteful little heritage badge on the hood (“Ve have been buildink ze finest motacahs foah longah than anyone elze”). But just decide which image you want to hawk and run with it.
A ton of older Mercedes had two stars on the front – the hood ornament and the badge on the grille.
…or a small badge above a huge 3-pointed star.
It was worthy of ridicule then too.
“It’s a Mercedes, son . . . a Mercedes, ahhh say”
It reminds me of Ford Econoline vans that get rebuilt with a ’90s/early ’00s hood with an ’03-07 style grille, resulting in two Ford ovals.
Funny that the C-class is just a regular D-segment car in its Heimat. Number 4 on the 2017 list, after 3 VW models. And ending before car models like the VW Polo, Skoda Octavia and Opel Astra.
“Synthetic Leather?” If it were in a car of less rarefied image, it’d be called what it is: Vinyl.
It’s like “creme,” a chemically-concocted white liquid that has never seen the inside of a cow.
Nah, even Dodge calls it leather.
Most “leather” out there today is fake, some more obviously so than others.
Even if it is really from a cow, much leather has the costly top grain peeled off for more expensive uses than mere Mercedes, and the lower, cheaper layers get faced in … Grained vinyl.
Like “Corinthian Leather” from the Corinth Plastics Company, Corinth, Texas?
Why not carry on the MB Tex name? I think it has cachet.
I really annoys me that every manufacturer seems to want to re-invent the shifter. A lot of very bad designs out there.
This is a very well written, thoughtful and fair review by someone who clearly knows much more about cars than do I. I enjoyed it especially because the brand discussed has long been a favorite.
The writer’s reaction to the interior of the MB reflects mine to many new cars. New cars are disconcerting. Finding the shifting mechanism is a problem. Then one must learn how to use it and to not mistake it for something else. The intrusive screens, perched on the dash, are not part of any design that could be called “cohesive”. They look to only be an afterthought.
A commenter touched on the design integrity of current Audi cars. I am not familiar with them but I do believe current VW Golf models also have reasonably traditional and easily understandable interior design. This Mercedes, and its siblings, do not.
So, being a crusty old fart, I cite the simplicity and ease of use of the Mercedes of 30 years ago – the W124s. Anyone renting one could jump in and simply drive away with no learning required. That was good design; what is in this C200 is not.
For me, infotainment systems moved very quickly from “that’s pretty cool” to “that’s annoying as all hell”. It doesn’t have to be that way, but it’s what tends to happen when systems are designed by geeks instead of drivers.
About five years ago I got a Ford Focus as a rental. At that time the fancy “infotainment” systems hadn’t yet worked their way down to lowly cars like the Focus, but the radio had the most non-intuitive interface I’d ever encountered. I had to navigate through several layers of menus to find the seek/scan functions. On the last day of the trip the radio somehow got changed to a Spanish language station. I couldn’t remember how I had initially changed the station, and I didn’t want to have to figure out those menus again while driving, so I just stuck with the Spanish station for the rest of the day.
The car did come with that voice activated “Sync” system Ford was pushing at the time, so I can only assume they expected everyone to use that and didn’t bother with making the normal interface easy to use. Maybe I’m prematurely becoming a crusty old fart myself, but it just feels strange to me to have to talk to a car, or smartphone, or computer, and as such I refuse to use Siri or Alexa or that Sync System. I got a free Google Home Mini a while back with the purchase of something else, and I haven’t even opened the box because I have no desire to use it.
The lack of standardization among shifters is worrying, especially after the death of Anton Yelchin.
Good article. Here’s the bottom line on a C300 in Portland. Local dealer advertises the C300 for $298 down $298/mo for a three year, 10,000 mile/yr lease with a good credit score. That’s Camry money. Seriously- new XSE will lease out for about the identical amount, if it’s a 4 cyl. You can get a 6 cyl Camry, but it’ll add about $100/mo to the damage. But you will get real leather under your backside for the trouble.
Otherwise, the Mercedes is competitive with the Camry. Slightly smaller, less roomy, comparable build quality. I think Toyota’s got the interior/dash controls down pat, but I hate the Mercedes Electronic shifter. After all’s said and done, it’ll probably boil down to how you feel about the three-pointed star on the grill.
That’s crazy. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s also been eating away at mid- and especially full-size sedans all these years. It certainly happened that way in Europe and the UK: when you can get a BMW 3-Series for the same price as an Opel Insignia, what are most people going to pick?
Many M-B dealers (including my local dealer) use C 300 4Matic sedans as loaners. Every six months or so they are sold as current-year used cars. Most of them are black. This has resulted in such a glut of black C-Class sedans that they almost seem like the Olds Cutlasses of yore. People who ten years ago wouldn’t even think of walking into a Mercedes-Benz dealer are suddenly driving around as if they were in a new S550 sedan. The fact that it’s so difficult to tell a C from an E from an S-Class, particularly in black, has in my opinion greatly diminished the prestige of the 3-pointed star. The C-Class is presently the prime cash cow for Mercedes-Benz, but I wonder over time if it will contribute to a drop in sale of more expensive models, due to the loss of exclusivity. No matter how well the C-Class models are made, without the “snob appeal” that used to come as standard equipment before the advent of entry-level M-B models, they might wind up doing what the junior Packard did to the senior series cars during the Depression. While Mercedes-Benz will not go under, it will certainly lose some of its former luster. Even a Rolls-Royce Phantom, once you see enough of them on a regular basis, becomes ordinary, albeit unaffordable for most of us mortals.
An interesting point, but if Mercedes is to lose the “status crown”, something else has to be there for those buyers to flock to.
Packard is faulted for losing its luxury lustre by building too many lower priced cars. Cadillac and then Lincoln had brief turns in that spot before buyers moved en masse to Mercedes.
But what is next? It is Tesla? Maybe.
I am starting to see multiple Model 3’s every day now, a huge increase over just a few months ago. And that’s in my “little” college/surf town 40 miles from Silicon Valley, where the Model S has been a regular sight for quite a few years now, but not so much here. I think the C Class and 3 Series days are numbered in the US, except perhaps as a loss leader for the lease market.
To be unveiled in a few weeks: Mercedes-Benz EQ-C
https://uk.motor1.com/news/260738/mercedes-eqc-spied-charging/
One thing that seems to be happening in America is more regional variation than ever in status cars. Without a doubt, California has become Tesla country. We certainly have our share of Teslas here in Chicagoland, but nowhere near the levels as on the West Coast.
“Hot” sellers here at the high-end of the market are Land Rover/Range Rover products and Porsche Macans, which far outnumber Teslas from Lincoln Park to Lake Forest. Plus, Benz, BMW and Audi seem to be doing just fine, especially the SUVs.
I do agree that the days of abundance for the 3-Series and C-Class are over, but they are still far from loss leaders. And the Tesla phenomenon isn’t evenly distributed across the country, so I don’t see the Germans being displaced anytime soon, particularly since they can happily sell buyers premium-branded SUVs right in the same showroom where sedans gather dust….
I can’t say I’ve noticed a Model 3 around here and Model S are everywhere. Just today I saw a transporter full of used Model S going to the auction yard and it isn’t unusual to see more than 1 in a given parking lot.
Here’s a chart put out recently by Tesla that claims the Model 3 is outselling all the other cars in its category combined:
I still have a hard time putting the Model 3 in the same “luxury” category, given their build quality and spartan interiors. Performance and price is there though.
+ 1 on the quality. Teslas are everywhere in SoCal and about every other one I see on the road has at least one non-functioning brake or tail light. WTF?
Nearly ever single Model X I see here in Portugal has terribly misaligned doors.
I agree that the 3 isn’t a “luxury car” in any way other than price.
@ CA Guy, non functioning lights are a Mercedes and BMW trait so maybe they are in the same class as those cars after all.
Of course, there are other data points using the same methodology that Tesla PR won’t be highlighting anytime soon:
I agree with you on the current Mercedes sedan styling–the cars look remarkably similar, like a small, medium and large version of the exact same thing, sort of like stacking Tupperware containers. In my opinion, MB used to do a significantly better job serving up sedans that all looked like they siblings from the same family, each with a different personality coming from the same genetic framework.
Another fantastic review Will. You always cover literally every detail on these rental car reviews, so your posts truly become virtual test drives. While I have never driven one of these, I now have a very good idea of what the experience would be like.
It is not surprising to me that this car is so popular–premium badge, upmarket feel, pricey but in-line with what you get, and not crazy expensive, so owners can show off even if their bank accounts wouldn’t necessarily warrant a Mercedes-Benz product. As others have noted in the comments, this “Mass Class” approach can yield huge profits, until these buyers move on to the next shiny-new lust object. At least Mercedes seems to be carefully maintaining their prestige at the high-end of the market with excellent products and shockingly high prices, so perhaps the abundance of cheaper Cs won’t erode the brand image too much….
This is not a car I have any interest in … I thought … but I certainly found this write-up interesting, both as a car review and as an opinion of Mercedes’ current situation. And, it made me realize how out of touch I am with this brand, despite its ubiquity. I’ve only briefly driven four MB’s: a Fintail 190 and a W114, both in the early ‘70’s; a diesel W126 in the ‘80’s, and a rental A Class in the UK about 15 years ago. The A Class perhaps presaged the direction MB would take, even with their larger RWD cars.
I just looked on goodcarbadcar.net for giggles. The Tesla S and 3 are the top selling luxury cars in their respective segments.
Excellent review!
A couple of thoughts: this C Class is almost the exact same size as the Legendary W124 E Class. Yet its turbocharged engine has only about the same power and performance, but undoubtedly a coarser engine sound then the turbine-smooth inline six in the W124. Frankly, that 0-60 time is pretty weak.
Of course the C Class is much more fuel efficient. And most importantly, it’s significantly cheaper. A mass-market Benz.
Excellent review: thorough in its detail and entertaining to read. A year or so ago, I toyed with buying either an Audi A4 or BMW 3-Series. The C300 never even made the list, in part because I could not get past the illuminated three-point star. That feature seemed to me to indicate who the true target customer was – someone who was solely interested in status. After my rather dismissive glance, I thank you, William, for providing a deeper analysis of the hidden virtues of this car.
I recently read that each of the German luxury car makers manufactures one model that is consistently the best expression of core brand values. For BMW, it is the 3-series, which popularized the concept of a sports sedan. For Porsche, it is obviously the 911, the visual and tactile representation of the ultimate high performance car. Audi has acquired a reputation for design leadership, especially in the interior, with the A4 likely the best example. For Mercedes-Benz, it is the S-class which embodies the marque’s reputation for supreme comfort, stability, and overwhelming competence no matter the driving conditions. It now seems that the current C-Class models come much closer to the standards set by the company’s flagship than previously.
These brand images may be scrambled somewhat by the rising popularity of SUVs and CUVs, but the essential elements of each brand’s DNA still seem to be there.
A wonderful review! In fact, you’ve inspired me to look a C-Class up on the MB-USA website. They mention a C300 turbo does 0-60 in 5.8 seconds.
While I never see myself owning a car such as this one (I’m a tightwad), these are very nice. Mercedes cars aren’t exactly prevalent around here, but the ones I’ve been in have always been very good and the one you drove sounds like an overall good one. Perhaps the best (sorry, Jim Klein) was the S-Class with around 2,500 miles I rode in a few years ago. Quite the formidable chariot.
We had one of these as a rental in Spain a couple of years ago, and I could not find the shifter. It is hidden behind the steering wheel spoke. I eventually got used to it, but it was unnecessarily confusing. Side Point: I currently drive a 2017 Pacifica with the knob shifter. It’s fine, better than the Mercedes shifter, but not really an improvement over the column shifter. I suppose other than looking futuristic, it does take up less dashboard space.
Ours was a diesel and got phenomenal mileage. Other than that, it didn’t strike me as at all remarkable or lustworthy. Ours also had the grim coal black interior, and lots of buttons I didn’t even try to figure out. I did use the Air and turned off the stop/start and beepy warning things. The European model flashed a lot of warning signs in the central display like speed limit, which I consistently exceeded, and curvy road, and some of those weird European warnings like a Percent in a pentagon or something. Perhaps it handled particularly well but I don’t drive all THAT fast on curves on unfamiliar roads to find out. It didn’t strike me as much better than the Elantra that we had last year in Hungary and Budapest and Prague; the elantra was very roomy, rode and handled fine, and had easier controls than the Mercedes. The interior materials were a little chintzy, but it was a decent car.
It’s good to see M-B has learned from their missteps in the 90s and early oughts when the C was the “Cheap Class”. Your complaints about controls and instrumens show they are still cutting corners on RHD models, somewhat surprising considering how big the UK market is.
What a nicely written and amazingly comprehensive, objective review. I also have little interest in this particular car, but a general interest in what the luxury marks like Mercedes-Benz and BMW are up to, as their features and design aesthetic tend to trickle down to what the rest of us drive over time. Too often, the writers of reviews in the glossy magazines or self-important blogs either try to impress us with their knowledge of big and infrequently used words, current esoteric or insider slang, or forced and goofy metaphors, and the reviews themselves say more about the writers’ feelings about the mark in question (and themselves!) than about the cars. Simplify, simplify,simplify, as Professor Strunk would say. This is a good review about an actual car, fancy that!
What a timely article, as I just rented a C200 when I was in Adelaide this past weekend, as well as had some experience with a couple of other Mercs this year.
First off, I’d headed out to buy a dash cam on my lunch break. You can’t make this up—literally as I was entering the slip lane to turn right into JB HiFi, a truck realised it needed to do the same thing and merged across a couple of lanes of traffic and straight into the side of my Škoda Octavia RS, then claimed it was my fault as I was driving my ‘sports car’ too quickly and was the one that merged left into him. Fortunately, the insurance company sided with me, and for a couple of weeks I was the proud owner of a 2014 Mercedes-Benz C180 coupé.
This was the first Merc I’d ever driven, and it took a bit of getting used to. Being the coupé, it had extremely long doors—these weren’t ideal for the narrow streets of Kew where I work, or Fairfield where I live. I went to take it for a spin, and found it to be incredibly gutless—I had to thrash it to make any sort of progress or keep up with traffic. However, once I had been driving it for a few days, it started to grow on me—I found the seats extremely comfortable, and the entertainment system was pretty straightforward to use. Being of the previous generation, it had a traditional gear lever, so I did not need to get used to the column shifter. I was surprised that visibility was fine, and I actually started to enjoy it. The only other downside I found was that entry and egress into the rear seat wasn’t ideal, and that the front seat wouldn’t stay tipped forward to aid access. I did 1,957 km of mixed city and country driving, and averaged 7.9 ℓ/100km (or 10.7 ¢/km in fuel costs) which I was impressed with, considering how hard I was on it.
Then, a few weeks ago, I was in Sydney for the weekend. Thrifty had a good deal on a 2018 GLE250d ($165.50 for two days)—I thought, ‘why not?’ and booked a more expensive car than I normally would. What a revelation compared to the C180! It was so practical and easy to get in and out of, and I was very pleasantly surprised at the acceleration and handling—it had no dramas hanging on on the windy roads in Ku-ring-gai National Park, but at the same time was easy to squeeze around traffic and park in small parallel spaces. I was expecting something with a small diesel engine to have pathetic acceleration, but it really had no issues getting away from traffic lights in front of other cars. It was also quite well-optioned for an Aussie rental car, with large AMG wheels, a panoramic glass roof, Harmon Kardon stereo and all the safety tech you could want. The dash was a mixture of old and new; for example, like the C200, it had the column shifter and ‘track pad’ to control the computer system, but it also had a large number of physical buttons for those (like me) that prefer them. The fuel economy wasn’t great—it averaged 9.4 ℓ/100km over 243 km (or 13.1 ¢/km in fuel) although again, I was driving it very hard in the inner city or pushing it on windy back roads. Judging by how quickly the gauge dropped, I also wonder whether it wasn’t entirely full when I got the keys. Overall, I was very happy I spent the money on this, and the only sour experience is that someone apparently reversed into its rear bumper and left a tiny mark, for which I’m still waiting for my travel insurance to reimburse me for the $1,566.27 repair bill.
Finally, the C200. This was $103.51 for the weekend from Thrifty, which is roughly the cost of a Camry, so again, I thought, ‘why not?’ First impression when jumping in after the C180 and GLE250d—’where’s all the buttons?!’ It did take me a little while to get used to the menu system, but after I got the hang of it, it was pretty good. The screen was much lower-resolution than that in the GLE250d and it didn’t have the full suite of cameras for ‘top-down’ vision or the like. Rather oddly, it also didn’t have heated seats or keyless entry, unlike even the rather poverty-spec 2014 C180—I found it quite difficult to get into the habit of using the remote and not just being able to touch the door handle to lock/unlock, like on my Škoda and Lexus LX570. Like William, I also found the engine to sound rather agricultural, and it definitely isn’t what I’d call lively, even though I left it in Sport+ mode the entire time. The handling was actually alright on the back roads to McLaren Vale—nothing too special, but at the same time, I didn’t ever feel like it was out of its comfort zone. I did 188 km, which equalled 9.8 ℓ/100km (or 14.2 ¢/km in fuel) so I didn’t find its real-world fuel economy to be very good, to be honest. Overall, like you, I wasn’t overly impressed—it was a perfectly competent car, but I definitely wouldn’t go out of my way to purchase one.
With regard to the digital speedo being in imperial units, you can change this using the buttons on the left-hand side of the steering wheel and going into the settings menu. Very strange that someone would have changed it; however, the C200 had nearly everything turned off (folding mirrors, lock/unlock lights, etc.) so someone had obviously been having a play at some point.
I didn’t mind a lot about the Mercs; the main thing that I found frustrating about all three is that there isn’t a steeting wheel button to change audio tracks up/down—you need to move your hands and use the button on the dash and/or COMAND dial. I was glad I had the opportunity to try a few out, and while I really liked the GLE250d, I don’t have a use for an SUV (with my Lexus for off-roading and the Škoda for everything else) so I don’t think I’d ever purchase one.
They are nice for an interstate weekend, though.
I forgot to say that Thrifty did see fit to include this rather fetching Dymo label on the C200, for those that don’t understand why repeatedly stabbing the screen does nothing….
Thanks for sharing your experiences!
I forgot about the lack of a skip track function on the steering wheel and I remember now how annoying htat was.
As for the digital speedo, I did go into the menu but it wouldn’t let me change to km/h. I definitely went to the right option but unless there was some different button I had to press within there, I was presented with only the option for mph or ‘off’/
I mourn the loss of the proper floor shifter. That, and these ubiquitous touch screens irritate me to no end.
Just say no!
Great review! I think the most compelling reason to buy a Mercedes-Benz is safety. Their safety cage design is second to none and the accident survival stories and pictures are amazing. Otherwise, no. My 2010 Infiniti G37 has real leather, illuminated door sills, a beautifully designed floor shift, great engine and transmission, and a quality and reliability track record over eight years of ownership that no C-Class could come close to matching despite costing thousands and thousands of dollars more.
Thank you everybody for the kind words! This was probably the most challenging review I’ve written so I’m glad it turned out well. As many of you noticed, I like to get into the details because if I was new car shopping, I’d want a review to do the same.
I had a CLA rental last summer, and it was a disappointment. Obviously smaller than a C class, but passengers described getting in the back seat as harder than getting into their own Seat Leon 3 door. Very stylish interior, but only superficially – the touchscreen looks like it was fitted at the after market shop; cheap, flimsy plastics masquerading as stainless steel; air con buttons the size of pinheads buried out of sight; and a gearbox with so many speeds it could never find the right one. It didn’t make my purchse shortlist this year, and let’s just say that the colleague with a 2017 C class coupe is jealous of my Golf GTD, even before I told him the price..