The cabin possesses enough Merc trademarks – vast front seat travel, a foot-operated parking brake and superb all-round visibility – to keep the traditionalists happy. And the youngsters Mercedes is praying will buy this generation like none before will be impressed by the sporting steering wheel, acres of brushed aluminium, smart but funky instruments and the superb graphics of the optional Comand sat-nav.
What both groups are likely to appreciate more than anything is the leap forward in perceived quality. The dash plastics feel soft and look luxurious, while the controls you actually touch, such as the rotary Comand and ventilation dials, operate with a manufactured but nevertheless convincing chunky weight. Quality is as good as the class best.
The cabin is also unusually spacious for the class, offering over a centimetre more rear legroom and a further 40mm extra elbow room in the back than before. This is no limousine and even four average-sized adults will be cosier than they’d like, but for the small families for which it was designed, it’ll do just fine. It also has a bigger boot than its most immediate rivals.
It is let down only by the details. The pedals, at least in this three-pedal right-hand-drive model, are offset. The foot-operated parking brake makes hill starts a nightmare, too. Yes, there’s a hill-holder which is meant to remove the need for the footbrake, but it lets go after about a second.
Any new C-class, especially one with a small, frugal diesel motor, is likely to be one of the slower-depreciating cars in an already slow-depreciating class of car. It’s expensive to buy, especially when you start adding gadgets such as sat-nav, but your investment will dwindle at a fairly slow rate.
And while you do own it, your fuel bills will stay low thanks to impressive fuel consumption figures of 35.1mpg combined and 48.2 touring. With a 66-litre tank, that gives a motorway-run range of around 600 miles.
