Added Features for the Mercedes-Benz C Class
Petaling Jaya, 12 July 2011 – Mercedes-Benz fans will have much to rejoice with the new C Class – after the engine upgrade from a supercharger to a turbocharger, the C Class now has a new front face and LED rear lights. On top of that, the C class now comes with many additional features that make it an even more attractive value-for-money package well worth considering.
Previewed today by the media at the Cycle & Carriage sales outlet in Mutiara Damansara after an extremely happy announcement by Mercedes-Benz Malaysia about a 22 percent jump in sales for the first half of this year versus the same period last year, the C Class was introduced to the media before embarking on a media drive to Ipoh.
The cosmetic changes are a new front aluminium bonnet, new Bi-Xenon headlights, and LED indicator lights. On the bumper, there are LED daytime running lights. The rear lights have been replaced by LED type lights, making the car more visible to others at night. A closer look at the front under-bumper section will tell one that they have expanded the air intake, and the reason for this is the intercooler sitting just inside the mesh material – this obviously allows more cooling for the intercooler.
Internally, there is a newly-designed dashboard, which seems to take its design cues from the E Class. The centre console buttons and outlook leans towards the E Class, much improved over the current C Class. The instrument cluster is new, and the leather steering wheel has thumb grips built into it. The elegance version comes with a new four-spoke steering wheel while the Avantgarde version has a three spoke steering adapted from the CLS.
The transmission is now a 7-speed automatic, made possible by a new bell housing to fit the 7G-Tronic casing – this is a significant upgrade, as the turbo-charged engine can now be optimised for better acceleration and fuel consumption. Quoted figures for zero to 100 kilometres per hour acceleration are 7.8 seconds for the C200 versus 8.2 seconds in the current model, and fuel consumption of 6.4 to 6.0 litres per 100 kilometres versus 7.2 to 7.9 litre per 100 kilometres in the current model. For the C250, the fuel consumption improvement mirrors the C200 (both models have the same rated fuel consumption, but the acceleration has improved from 7.4 seconds to 7.2 seconds.
New features include ATTENTION ASSIST and DISTRONIC PLUS proximity control. Attention Assist monitors the driving pattern, senses if the driver is drowsy, and emits a visual and audio warning. Distronic Plus helps to maintain a gap between the car and the vehicle in front.
Other new features include Adaptive High beam assist, Attention Assist, Parktronic, including parking guidance, and PRE-SAFE. Adaptive High beam Assist automatically dips the headlights and adjusts the range of the headlights appropriate to the distance. Parktronic uses ultrasonic sensors to measure the length of parking spaces as the car drives past, and the cockpit display provides a schematic representation of the recommended parking manoeuvre. Pre-Safe features an anticipatory occupant protection system that works by detecting a potential accident situation and initiates preventive measures such as tightening up the belts, and priming the brakes.
The new C Class also debuts a new telematics generation that will gradually be introduced in other models too. It starts with a larger display unit on the dash, phone connectivity including phone book transfers, display of SMS messages, wireless music reproduction via Bluetooth and a USB interface.
We did not go for the media drive, so I suppose that in time to come, we would be getting one for a test drive. Until then, stay tuned. The C200 retails at RM258,888, while the C250 retails at RM290.888.
