Mercedes-benz C-class
Compact exec saloon gets new 2.0-litre diesel engine – at last
With an engine it deserves
Time for the biggest-selling version of Britain’s biggestselling compact executive saloon, in recently facelifted form, to show its mettle on British roads. Better pay attention in the office canteen.
The Mercedes C-class’s recent mid-cycle facelift resulted in a number of new engines, all mated to nine-speed automatic transmissions. We’ve already sampled the very newest – a 1.5-litre 48V turbo petrol, which powers the new C200 – but it’s the 192bhp upper-mid-range diesel C220d that Mercedes expects to continue to dominate the sales mix.
For this car, Mercedes has retired its long-serving and somewhat coarse 2.1-litre four-pot diesel engine and brought in its new-generation 2.0-litre unit, as seen in the latest E-class. What a difference it makes.
While there’s still the faintest edge of uncouthness to the engine’s combustion under load compared with the very quietest four-cylinder oil-burners from rivals, the new C220d has just as much apparent torque as its predecessor, is much freer-revving and will return an indicated 60mpg on a longish journey of mixed roads when moving with the f low of traffic. Having been something of a relative weakness for the C-class for decades, the C220d’s engine is now a real strength.
And yet this is still a C-class: a luxury compact executive option in among pseudo sport-saloons and catering best to a fairly laid-back driving style. Rush that new ninespeed gearbox and it can hesitate slightly during bursts of kickdown acceleration. Hurry the car along less than perfectly smooth roads and the standard ‘agility control comfort’ steel suspension, which does deliver an absorbent ride at mooching speeds, allows the body to jounce and porpoise a little too freely for it to be the last word in onboard tranquillity. The rear axle can also seem to stumble a bit over sharper edges, too.
Perhaps Mercedes is guilty of confusing a soft, under-damped ride for a comfortable one. But at least we needn’t criticise this version of the car for not being more athletic – although it’s by no means sloppyhandling – given that you can choose Sport or AMG Line trims with increasingly shorter and firmer setups if you want better body control. If it was mine, I would – and if it suited my tastes, there’s little else about the car I would want to change.