MERCEDES-BENZ C220D AMG LINE

As this champion cruiser nears the end of its stay with us, an element of urgency sets in. Time for one more long trip before the farewell, surely?

The planned Northern Cape sortie last month didn’t happen, exploding geysers and ailing partners nixed that. Finding time is, of course, everybody’s existential crisis, but add to this the question of where. South Africa’s road system is an amalgam of fantastic and hell-no, which means you have to choose your routes carefully, especially in the low-slung 220d AMG Line with its ultra-low-profile tyres. This highlights the key conundrum with our Merc; there are few better cruisers in the world, certainly few

as cost-effective over distance, but how limiting is its design in a country such as ours? The pragmatist in me knows the new Mercedes-benz GLC, here early next year, will be the solution. Dirt or patchy tar, no problem. But there is something marvellously finished, beautifully specific about the C-class … it was engineered to do one thing and one thing only, and do it superbly well: glide. It eats distances on billiard table blacktop. Unlike the current vogue, where all cars need to fulfil all roles, the C-class is a specialist, a dying breed.

So the farewell tour is definitely happening, come hell or high (hot) water. Loeriesfontein’s Windmill Museum – for the epic R355 approach road from Calvinia – and Vanrhyns Pass. Heaven.

Less ideal is the Merc’s ongoing electronics headache. The latest quirk suggests someone is sitting next to the driver and an irritating bleep-bleep demands a fastened seatbelt. There is no arguing with the sensor either, so fastened it must stay, passenger or not.