Mercedes-Benz C-Class

If you don’t want a BMW but want rear-wheel drive and a premium marque, the Mercedes C-class is it. In a different league in terms of looks, driving dynamics and quality to the old one, Looks sensational too.

• Comfort

  Well damped, well controlled, well sorted. The C-class is one of the best medium-sized executive chariots you can buy. The larger 320 V6 diesels are proper continent crushers. Not all are so easy to live with however; the C63 will smash your spine to splinters.

  

• Performance

  The runty bottom of the range consists of a supercharged 1.8-litre petrol or a 2.1-litre diesel. Both perfectly satisfactory, but better with more power as the C200K and C220CDI. The V6s start with a 2.5-litre petrol, plop through a 3.0-litre C280 and on to an even more powerful 3.5-litre V6. The engine to go for if you have a functioning brain is the 165kW, 3.0-litre diesel. It mixes grunt with civility and range. There's also the mental C63 with a 6.3-litre V8.

  

• Cool

  The right specification can make the C-class one of the only cars in the mid-size sedan sector that could even be close to being described as ‘cool'. Spec it wrong and it's just another Munich taxi.

  

• Quality

  Leaps and bounds. Two words that describe Merc's rise from ‘oncewas' into ‘now is'. Fantastic build, great design, solid engine and transmission set-ups; the C-class is an all-round star. What you were used to feeling in an S-class, you now get in the ‘lower' orders. Awesome stuff.

  

• Handling

  The engineers spent ages making the C-class feel right, and it does. Body control is good across the range, the damping feels great and there's decent (if not telepathic) feel from the wheel. It's not quite as energetic as a BMW but who wants to copy everything they do in Bavaria anyway?

  

• Practicality

  This is wider and longer than the car it replaced and is subsequently nicely spacious. Back seat passengers also don't suffer unduly. The boot is 475 litres. About average.

  

• Running costs

  If you're worried about the pennies then you have to go for the smaller engines simply because they're so much more efficient