![]() It’s packed with all the right features, although several testers remarked that it wasn’t as intuitive to use as they had expected and didn’t like the way its raked screen angle made smudgy finger marks more obvious during daylight hours. Mercedes’ 11.9in MBUX touchscreen infotainment system for the C-Class is a version of the multimedia set-up first seen on the new Mercedes S-Class. A minimum loading height of just 310mm (at the through-loading threshold) might not admit some bulkier everyday loads (although there’s always the estate bodystyle if day-to-day carrying is expected). In the boot, you find a cargo space that’s usefully wide and it can be extended for length via folding rear seatbacks – but because of that battery placement, it still isn’t very deep. The car’s rear passenger quarters are only averagely spacious for the segment: roomy enough for most adults and growing kids, and fairly comfortable, but not so for the tallest. Dominating the centre console is a steeply raked 11.9in, portrait-oriented infotainment touchscreen whose bottom section permanently conveys the heating and ventilation controls. A 12.3in digital instrument screen immediately ahead of you is quite complex and busy with information at first but usefully versatile in the way it can be configured with practice. Evidence of the odd cut cost, perhaps, that a Mercedes shouldn’t really betray. Most of the cabin’s fittings have a higher-quality solidity of feel, but there are dull and plain mouldings and sharper edges elsewhere too. The sports seats aren’t especially comfortable or supportive, though (despite offering extendable cushions), while the margins of the driver’s footwell feel strangely restrictive around your toes and are marked by disappointingly flimsy plastics. You settle into a driver’s seat with plenty of room around it, in front of controls that are adjustable and well placed. The C-Class doesn’t stand up to close scrutiny of its on-board comfort and quality levels with quite as much distinction, though it certainly passes muster. ![]() Our test car couldn’t be weighed on the day of our performance figures, but Mercedes’ own unladen running-order weight is 2005kg, making it 235kg heavier than a BMW 330e and 166kg heavier than an equivalent DS 9 PHEV (neither of which offers even half as much battery capacity). That battery pack is now slim enough to leave the C300e with a flat, rather than stepped, boot floor. It draws charge from a lithium ion drive battery that is smaller than the equivalent component in the outgoing C300e but also has nearly twice as much energy capacity: 25.4kWh in total. ![]() The 197bhp C220d and 261bhp C300d diesels, meanwhile, are powered by a revised version of Mercedes’ OM654 engine with a new crankshaft and integrated starter-generator motor.Īll C-Classes use a nine-speed automatic transmission, and the C300e PHEV adds a 127bhp permanently excited electric motor into its mechanical mix that can power the car all by itself at speeds of up to 87mph. A 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol powers both the entry-level 168bhp C180 (which isn’t part of the UK model range) and the 201bhp C200, while primary power for both the 255bhp C300 and the 308bhp (petrol-electric combined) C300e comes from a 2.0-litre turbocharged four.
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