Mercedes execs freely admit they didn’t promote the previous generation C-class estate very heavily – which is why sales were heavily tipped in the four-door’s favour by a ratio of four to one.
This time round Mercedes thinks it will do much better, particularly with the corporate market, which is buying more and more upper-medium estates, a trend Mercedes puts down to user-choosers downsizing from larger products.
From the front to behind the driver pretty much everything is shared with the saloon. Engines are duplicated, trim levels are a mirror of the four-door, the looks are the same, and the driving experience is just about identical, which is no bad thing at all.
But it is behind the driver and front seat passenger where Merc engineers have concentrated their efforts.
The boot is now up to 485 litres with the rear seats in place, rising to 1500 litres with the seats folded, and Mercedes claims the boot is still the biggest in its sector, even against the recently revealed Audi A4 Avant. A powered boot lid is also standard across the range. The rear seats fold easily and flat with one release lever for each side to split 60/40. Best of all you don’t need to move the front seats forward to fold them – even for 6ft 2in driver.
However, the front passenger seat doesn’t fold (like in some rivals cars) so you can’t put exceedingly long items in.
Finally, the pick of the engine range is the 220CDI as it combines decent performance with great economy and CO2 figures.
