It’s surprising to see how many events of the car industry can be explained with simple popular culture. That one concerned with the grass being greener elsewhere manages to apply not only between direct competitors but for both low-cost and luxury automakers, too. The first ones start to dream about how awesome would it be to make more money out of a single car, while the others think they could really use an increased number of customers. This reason alone motivated a lot of cars over the decades, some of them being Fiat Croma, VW Touareg, BMW 1-Series and Mercedes-Benz 190. Yeah, this was the German’s very first attempt of reaching the masses, which arrived in 1982 and lasted more than a decade.
The German “C-Klasse” badge only appeared in 1993 because the company decided to invert letter and numbers on its cars’s names, using the first to identify to which family it belongs and the others to give the trim level by associating it to its engine. But the company’s new entry-level lineup took the opportunity and received a whole new generation, completely focused in the 1990s. The styling was never expected to give surprises and it didn’t, but it still was a much more modern car, also for the design but specially for the mechanics: it became the first Mercedes to use only multi-valve engines, then its first supercharged and also the first official AMG, after both companies started to work together.
Having this as an initial context is what helped C-Class to be such a success ever since. It became the company’s best-seller and a perfect competitor to Audi A4 and, specially, BMW 3-Series. It also held Mercedes’s biggest expectations when it began to invest more aggressively on new markets, such as Latin America. The intention of offering all its values on a smaller car was improved through the car’s successive generations, but it was noticed that some changes could be made in the past few years. There were some clients willing to leave models such as Ford Fusion or Honda Accord paying a little more, but turning C-Class “poorer” would drive away its traditional public. This is why the best option was to invest on another car, CLA.
Therefore, after leaving the lower level to the younger brother, C-Class was allowed to honor itself taking a step up. While CLA respects A-Class’s design cues, the sedan took inspiration from the equally-new S-Class. This is how C-Class manages to stay away from the cheaper sibling despite using the same basic elements. It’s easier to spot their differences by looking at the proportions: long hood, strong, horizontal side creases and rear-wheel-drive remind of high performance, while using well-divided volumes creates a more classic silhouette, far from the four-door-coupé trend. Since it became free to cost a little more, Mercedes had the chance to deliver what S-Class presents, but in a more compact package.
That step-up was repeated at the cabin, which features expressive external dimension increases. But even better news are knowing that the overall quality had similar growth. The trims will have several options of high-quality materials, including multiple leather colors and aluminum or wooden accents. The Comand infotainment system added a touchpad as another way to be used, along with voice commands or the knob over which its placed. The 7” screen floats above the dashboard and can be upgraded for an 8,4” unit, and the driver can read its information through a HUD display. But speaking of equipments means mentioning that this car brought almost everything debuted few months ago in S-Class.
In other words, C-Class repeats all the electronic safety systems, head and tail lights in LEDs, Burmester sound system, Air-Balance active fragancing and the GPS-linked climate control, to give only a few examples. The new structure also brings more aluminum and high-strength steels, which were capable to make it 100-kg lighter than the outgoing vehicle. These improvements will be paired to three cutting-edge suspensions, including Airmatic for the first time here, and to multiple turbocharged engines: with gasoline, the 1.6L reaches 156 hp (C180), the 1.9L 184 hp (C220 BlueTec), the 2.0L 235 hp (C300) and the bi-turbo 3.0L V6 329 hp (C400). With diesel, the 2.1 is good for 170 hp and 295 lb-ft - there will be more later. It’s possible to choose between six-speed manual or seven-speed automatic gearboxes, and Mercedes claims the car consumes up to 20% less fuel.
