A brand-new three-pointed star has joined the fleet and we are already impressed with its breadth of abilities.
Published on Jul 27, 2015 03:30:00 PM
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Where the C-class makes up is with its 3-series beating agility. Peeling off NH17 onto the Ambenali Ghat at Poladpur, the fluency and ease with which the C-class flicked from corner to corner made those 40km whisk past very quickly.
On a very twisty road and through tight hairpins, the last thing you want is loads of understeer to spoil your fun, so I was delighted to find the C-class playing ball by diving into corners with minimal understeer thanks to its nicely clamped down front end. The steering too is brilliant and again, is a lesson for BMW on how to balance steering feel, response and weight. Unlike the previous hydraulic system of the older C-class, which had a lot of feel but was heavy, the new C-class steering is light and effortless but doesn’t compromise on feedback and accuracy.
I feared that the seven-speed torque-converter auto may play party pooper, but again, toggling the gearbox into Sport+ had the transmission shifting so intuitively and quickly that there was little need for manual intervention, even on the most twisty bit of Ambenali, some 15km before Mahabaleshwar.
On the more practical side of things, the C-class failed my wife’s boot test – there just isn’t enough space to swallow weekend luggage and large food boxes. The spare tyre takes up a lot of space and more annoyingly, makes the boot floor uneven to allow you to pack the boot well.
The other issue we had was with the fuel filler; the special funnel to pop open the metal flap was misplaced and a regular diesel nozzle wouldn’t fit. This meant painfully slow fill ups at every fuel station. It was just as well then that the C220 CDI was rather frugal and despite some very hard driving, it gave an average of 11.9kpl for the 580km round trip.
The highlight, or rather revelation, of the Mahabaleshwar weekend was the C-class’ brilliantly balanced and stiff chassis, which gives this small Merc sedan a new-found agility. The weak link in the package which has such a strong chassis can only be a weak engine. And that’s what this 168bhp 2.0-litre is. Don’t get me wrong, the C 220 CDI has more than enough grunt for everyday driving and makes light work of highways as well. But the truth is that when powering up Ambenali, I couldn’t help but think that a C250 CDI with the more powerful 201bhp engine would make the C-class so much more compelling. Hope Mercedes-Benz India is listening.
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