You might not have realized Mercedes has a new C-Class. It shouldn't be overlooked.
You know we live in a strange world when Mercedes releases a new C-Class and it barely makes a blip. Some of this is a problem of Mercedes’ own making — the company sells too many different models — though it’s equally a reflection on our current reality. The world is going electric, and cars like the Mercedes EQE and EQS are taking the spotlight. Plus, I don’t need to remind you that sedans are out of fashion. So even though the C-Class has long been one of the most important cars made by Mercedes-Benz, it seems no one noticed there’s a new one.
It’s possible the looks aren’t doing the new C-Class any favors. Especially in pictures, it both looks like the old C and also every other new Mercedes, that longtime exponent of same-sausage-different-length design. In person, it’s a different story. There’s a lot more visual drama than the old C-Class, and the steeply angled sharknose front is especially striking. Equipped here with the AMG Line package — which brings a number of visual tweaks in addition to a 15mm drop in ride height, upgraded brakes, and retuned steering — and gorgeous 19-inch multispoke wheels, this C300 is a very handsome car.
Starting with the C-Class predecessor 190E, the idea behind this car has been, essentially, S-Class luxury in a compact package, executed to varying degrees of success. It was a revolutionary idea in the Eighties and today, it’s what sets the C-Class apart from its competitors. Like the new S-Class, the C-Class gets an upscale interior with the focal point being an 11.9-inch horizontally oriented touchscreen infotainment system. Despite the size, the screen doesn’t feel like tech overload, with a default “Zero Layer” menu system that permanently displays the navigation map with large shortcut controls for media, phone, and other car settings. All the climate controls are at the bottom of the screen, and while getting rid of physical controls and putting functions on the screen is cost-cutting masquerading as being tech-forward, they work well.
Less successful is the C-Class’ many touchpad controls. There are four touchpads on the steering wheel, a touchpad for all the controls below the infotainment system, a touchpad for both seat memory and heating/cooling, and even a touchpad for the sunroof. You get used to them, but all feel cheap and are just more finicky than individual buttons. It’s not hard to find other cheap interior materials, if you go poking around, not that this impacts the functionality of the C-Class. Still, the interior generally looks and feels fabulous, and it won’t take long to get used to all the haptic controls.
None of this is necessarily surprising. The interior is an evolution of what’s come before, and a reflection of Mercedes today. What is surprising is the way that the C300 drives. This is something of a driver’s car. Mercedes invited us to sample the C-Class on an excellent route that included a lot of our favorite roads north of New York City. Winding up through Harriman State Park and up to the eastern Catskills, this C300 4Matic tester was engaging. The ride is pleasingly firm, not harsh, and there’s a sophistication to the way the C300 goes down the road. Some buyers won’t like that the ride isn’t totally plush across broken surfaces, and around 25-35 mph, there are plenty of bad roads that just feel unpleasant here. Still, the car feels solid, and even the worst bumps don’t send a judder through the structure. The smaller 18-inch wheels might help improve ride too, as would all-season tires in place of our tester’s surprisingly sporty staggered Goodyear summers. Unfortunately, adaptive dampers will only be available on the AMG C43. So definitely test drive C-Classes of various specs to see whether the ride is to your liking. It might not please Mercedes traditionalists, but if you think the BMW 3 Series has gone soft, you’ll like what you find.
Mercedes has been on a roll with steering as of late, and it continues with the C-Class. There’s not a ton of detailed feel, but the weighting is very precise, especially as you wind back to center, and the rack is very accurate. No need to turn in twice after misjudging things. In “Sport” the steering is a bit too artificially heavy — which is true of virtually every car that has adjustable-weight steering — though there’s an “Individual” mode that can be configured to pair light steering with sharper engine/transmission response.
The new C300 is the first U.S.-market Mercedes to offer a four-cylinder engine paired with a 48-volt mild-hybrid system. This 48-volt system, which consists of an integrated starter-generator mounted at the back of the engine, does away with belt-driven accessories and can actually provide an additional 20 horsepower and 148 lb-ft of torque to help mitigate turbo lag. It’s been offered with six-cylinder cars from Mercedes for a few years now, and here, it works just as brilliantly. The engine fires up instantly, and when you put the car in Eco mode, it can actually shut down entirely when the driver is off throttle. Of course, it takes a while for the gearbox to re-engage and select the correct of its nine ratios when you suddenly need power, but for low-traffic highways, it’s a brilliant system.
Everything is tuned for low- and mid-range torque, and the C300 feels very strong up to around 5500 rpm. On some nice roads, I found myself using the wheel-mounted paddle shifters to keep the engine in its ideal range, though the gearbox does a fine job left to its own devices. Shifts are quick and smooth, and for once it’s nice to drive a car that doesn’t have the popular ZF 8-Speed, if for no other reason than it saves me having to come up with yet another synonym for “ubiquitous.” It’s a sweet little engine … for the most part. At idle, it can occasionally be quite rough, revs dropping and sending a vibration through the cabin. On the move, though, it largely stays out of the way.
The drive back from our overnight stay in Kingston, NY gave us our most aspirational view at how a C-Class will be used — as transport back to a city after your country getaway. You just turn on the (optional) adaptive cruise control and lane-keep assist and let the miles fly by. Even if you don’t have those optional assists, the C-Class is so easy to guide down the road. This car had optional double-pane glass, which helps keep tire and wind noise down — all the better for enjoying this top-of-the-line model’s Burmester surround sound system. At just $150 extra, it’s essential.
At some point during every review of a German car, we must complain about a la carte option pricing. But with the new C300, Mercedes is taking a different tactic, offering three different basic trim levels, and relatively few individual options. The base Premium model comes with pretty much everything you need at its $44,600 base price, while stepping up to the $46,850 Exclusive and $48,550 Pinnacle bring more S-Class-esque luxuries that are nice to have, but far from essential. Opting for 4Matic all-wheel drive increases the cost by $2000, while the AMG Line package is a little steep at $3050. Our tester came equipped with virtually everything, including $2590 worth of Napa leather, and stickered for $63,440. That’s quite a lot, but I have to imagine a C300 costing between $50,000 and $55,000 would not leave anyone feeling shortchanged.
The new C-Class should not be overlooked. A gas-powered sport sedan might not be in vogue, but that doesn’t change the fact that the C300 is an excellent luxury sport sedan. What else would you expect from Mercedes?
Keyword: The 2022 Mercedes C300 Is Surprisingly Sporty