Mercedes-Benz C-Class Estate review

It’s in here where the new C-Class most resembles Merc’s luxury flagship, the almighty S-Class. All C-Classes get the 11.9-inch portrait touchscreen, running the company’s latest ‘MBUX’ infotainment system, and another 12.3-inch display for the driver. The centre screen is canted slightly towards the driver.

Prodding, pinching and swiping your way through menus while driving is still far from ideal, but you can customise it to make accessing your most frequently used menus – the massaging seats, for example – front and centre. The climate controls too are permanently displayed at the bottom of the screen, and switching off the irritating speed limit assist is as simple as pressing the top right corner of the screen.

Besides touch, you can operate it via swipey touchpads on the steering wheel or the ‘Hey Mercedes’ voice assistant. The touchpads are just plain irritating, as indeed they are in every car (not just Mercs) that have them. But the voice control is getting steadily better. Hardly Siri or Alexa, but not that far off.

Does it feel expensive?

For the most part, yes. Not only does the latest C-Class look like an S-Class inside, but it feels like one too. The top of the dashboard and fascia both feel plush, as do the aerospace-inspired air vents. With few physical buttons this will prove to be a divisive cabin, but there’s no denying it looks pretty remarkable.

Where it falls down is the scratchy black plastic that covers the glovebox and door bins – feels more A-Class than C-Class. And specced with all black leather it feels pretty dark in here – we'd recommend the grey/tan upholstery because it really lifts the cabin. The ambient lighting helps at night, mind.

Passengers might also find it’s not as big inside as they were expecting – it’s better than the C-Class saloon by nature of its shape, but head- and legroom are still only OK if you’re approaching six feet tall. No such problems in the front – the seats are comfy and supportive and the driving position is spot on.

How big is the boot versus rivals?

The C-Class Estate’s boot is now 490 litres (1,510 litres seats folded), meaning it’s now on par with the BMW 3 Series Touring and actually a little bigger than the Audi A5 Avant. Still can’t compete with the Volvo V60, VW Passat or cavernous Skoda Superb mind you, but then again very little can. Not even the mighty E-Class can hold a candle to the mammoth Skoda. 

The plug-in hybrid C-Class Estate, however, only manages 360 litres seats up/1,375 litres seats down, but worse than that is the sizable hump in the boot floor for the high-voltage battery. It looks as ridiculous as it sounds.

Mercedes tells us the boot lip is lower than its predecessor for easier loading and unloading, and that the cargo bay itself is longer. The rear seats can be folded flat with little toggle switches in the boot, so you can start hauling things in without having to go around and flip the seats down first. Handy.