It's not doing too badly, the current Mercedes-Benz C-Class, but with 1,000,000 finding owners and counting, the company felt a boost was needed. So what does it do? SL lights, that's what.
Well, it's not just that, but the SL style front lights are the most striking feature of this facelifted C-Class, which is due in spring 2011. In fact it gets loads of updates, so let's go through some of them.
It doesn't look very different, granted, but most of what you see at the front and back is changed, including LED rear lights. It also gets an aluminium bonnet for better weight distribution.
Inside, the dashboard redesign is a little more differentiating. In fact, compare the two side-by-side and the new one really does look much better. Standout features include the completely redesigned centre stack, the better integrated colour screen and instruments (now under a bigger cowl), the circular outer air vents (they were square) and the dash trim above the glove box.
Under the aluminium bonnet there are changes too, with Mercedes claiming economy improvements of up to 31 percent across the range. Start-stop is standard now and all the engines are called BlueEFFICIENCY (BE), which doesn't innately mean much apart from telling you Mercedes is proud of its parsimony work.
All the petrol engines are direct injection, for more power and less fuel use. Kicking off the range is the C 180 BE, which has 154bhp and returns 44.1mpg. The C 350 BE tops the petrol line-up, which impressively boasts almost twice the power (302bhp) but still 41.5mpg.
Diesels are the C 200, C 220 and C 250 CDI BE, with power from 134- to 201bhp and consumption close to 60mpg regardless.
Mercedes is also bragging about ten new driving assistance systems, including adaptive cruise control, automatic parking, blind spot assistance and lane keeping assistance. All by another name, of course - and most reserved for the options list.
No prices yet. The new 2011 Mercedes-Benz C-Class will be officially revealed at the
Detroit Auto Show in January.
Mark Nichol - 23 Dec 2010