Mercedes-Benz Malaysia today announces the availability of the much-awaited C-Class, its best-selling and most sought-after model to date. It features a sensuous and progressive design with a host of technical innovations.
“The new C-Class is pure attraction. It embodies what we understand about modern automotive luxury and has all the prerequisites to be superior in every aspect,” says Kai Schlickum, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Passenger Cars, Mercedes-Benz Malaysia.
The new C-Class has grown to take into account of the increasing height of an average person. With an 80-millimetre increase in the wheelbase (2840 millimetres) compared with the previous model, the vehicle is 95 millimetres longer (4686 millimetres) and 40 millimetres wider (1810 millimetres). The result is a more spacious interior, more leg and headroom with best-in-class 480 litres of boot space.
Sensuous clarity and purist forms
The new C-Class is designed to be wanted. Its striking, dynamic design exudes sensuous clarity and arouses emotions. Modern aesthetics were the source of inspiration for the new Saloon’s sensuous lines and surfaces, whose harmony and dynamism directly touch everyone. The designers have created minimalist, purist forms for the C-Class which emphasise its intelligent technology and engineering. The clearly defined surfaces also deliberately display a degree of tension, lending them a modern and at the same time emotional character. Precise lines and sculptural surfaces create progressive light and shadow effects.
Two different front ends are available for customers; sports grille with twin louvres and a central star in the AVANTGARDE line, or the classic saloon radiator grille with the Mercedes star on the bonnet, reserved solely for the EXCLUSIVE line.
To improve its aerodynamics, the EXCLUSIVE line will also feature an AIRPANEL active radiator shutter which opens and closes the radiator grille depending on the cooling demand to optimise the Cd value and reduce air resistance.
Like Mercedes-Benz’s flagship model, the S-Class, the new C-Class will be completely free of light bulbs. It comes with energy-saving and visually-stunning LED headlamps and tail lights, offering its very own distinctive look in the dark.
High-class interior with fine details
Mercedes-Benz designers have styled the interior to a level which is rarely encountered even in higher vehicle categories. This applies to the carefully chosen high-class materials and their pleasant touch and feel as well as to the precision of the finely crafted details. The interior also embodies a new design idiom which perfectly combines sensuousness and clarity with dynamic sportiness, and thus contributes to the high-class appeal.
The driver and front passenger enjoy a great deal of space and luxury in a discreet, modern guise on board the new C-Class. This gives rise to a feel-good atmosphere which is new to this category of vehicle. Taking a seat in the C-Class is akin to the uplifting feeling of being upgraded from economy to business class on an airliner.
The interior design also demonstrates a bold new approach by Mercedes-Benz. Here, the designers combine in accomplished style the architecture of the Mercedes-Benz sports cars with a totally new centre console featuring sporty flowing lines. A large one-piece centre console panel performs an elegant sweep from the centre air vents to the armrest. These seamless, clear-cut lines create a sense of open space and convey a thrillingly purist and modern feel.
Five round air vents lend the dashboard a sporty touch. With their metallic cool-touch effect they create a fascinating, tangible contrast to the warm look of the other materials, such as the wood in the centre console or the ARTICO man-made leather on the instrument panel. The “upgrade” feel duly continues with the controls. All switches have a high-quality, three-dimensional design befitting a luxury vehicle and benefit from a clear layout.
The innovative touchpad integrated into the hand rest above the controller on the centre tunnel marks a further evolutionary step. This provides for very simple and intuitive operation of all the head-unit functions using finger gestures like a smartphone.
The touchpad also permits letters, numbers and special characters to be entered in handwriting – in any language supported by Audio 20. The user receives clear tactile feedback when operating the touchpad’s control surface, which is highly conducive to genuine intuitive use.
The interior lighting uses primarily long-lived and energy-saving LED technology. This also applies to the ambient lighting in three colours, solar, polar, and neutral, which are selected via a menu item on the head unit and can be set to five brightness levels. In addition to the lighting elements in the dashboard console panel and on the door trim, the ambient lighting also includes illuminated outer door sill panels.
Robust yet lightweight bodyshell
The body-in-white of the new C-Class provides an innovative basis for reduced weight, outstanding rigidity, including load introduction rigidity for excellent handling, combined with optimum noise and vibration characteristics and a high level of crash safety.
Thanks to an intelligent and innovative lightweight construction, the aluminium-hybrid body is around 70 kg lighter than a conventional steel body. The vehicle’s overall weight is reduced by up to 100 kilograms. As such, the new C-Class leads the “lightweight rankings” in its segment. This spawns numerous benefits: the lightweight construction of the new C-Class cuts fuel consumption by up to 20 percent without any loss of performance, while at the same time enabling a lower centre of gravity, which in turn gives rise to the vehicle’s noticeably sporty and agile handling.
Mercedes-Benz achieves this technological leap in lightweight construction by various measures, including a completely new design and an unusually high aluminium content for a vehicle built in large-scale series production. Compared with the successful predecessor, the share of aluminium has increased from under 10 percent to almost 50 percent.
In keeping with Mercedes-Benz traditions, the body shell is designed for exemplary crash safety. The C-Class not only meets all current national and international laws, but also all rating requirements as well as the more stringent internal Mercedes-Benz safety requirements, which are based on what actually happens during accidents.
A high-strength passenger safety cell forms the core of this concept. It is surrounded by specifically computed and field-tested deformation zones, which ensure maximum safety for the occupants by virtue of optimised force paths and a combination of die-cast aluminium components and ultra-high-strength materials. An outer skin consisting almost completely of aluminium provides a protective shell for the body structure.
Leading the field in aerodynamics and quiet running
A low drag is crucial to achieving outstanding efficiency. From a speed of just under 70 km/h, aerodynamic drag exceeds the sum total of all other driving resistance factors. As such, drag constitutes a major leverage in efforts to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. With a Cd value of 0.24, the new C-Class sets a new benchmark in the mid-size Saloon. The wind noise level, which was already very low in the preceding generation of the C-Class, is further lowered.
The engineers have also devoted painstaking attention to optimising other potential sources of disturbance that may have an adverse effect on the driver and passengers’ well-being and concentration, even though they may not consciously notice their effects. NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) is the technical term for such nuisance factors. The specialists have optimised the noise characteristics of the interior blower, the power windows, the seat adjustment functions and many other actuating and operating noises, for example. As a result, the new C-Class occupies a benchmark position in its segment.
Optimised drive
Smooth automatic gear shifting is provided by the 7G-TRONIC PLUS automatic transmission, which has undergone further development at Mercedes-Benz in the interests of enhanced environment-friendliness and driving pleasure.
The driver can use a switch to choose between the various characteristics: “Comfort”, “ECO”, “Sport” and “Sport+”. The additional “Individual” setting enables drivers to configure their vehicle according to their own preferences.
Suspension – sporty yet comfortable
The suspension on the new C-Class is a totally new development. It provides for nimble and agile handling that makes driving a great pleasure on winding roads while also offering the highest standard of ride comfort in the segment.
A newly designed 4-link front axle plays a major part in the agile handling characteristics. Thanks to the 4-link principle, the wheel suspension is fully decoupled from the spring strut. The resultant favourable axle kinematics allows more grip and higher stability. As a result, the suspension responds more sensitively to steering movements and allows a sporty, agile driving style. An optimised multi-link independent rear suspension with 5‑links ensures unsurpassed wheel location qualities and supreme straight-line stability.
The new C-Class is fitted as standard with a steel comfort suspension. It also comes with an electric parking brake as standard. This brake is released automatically when the driver ends parking mode with the aim of moving off.
Steering with a sporty character
The new C-Class will feature an electromechanical Direct-Steer system as standard. This combines road-speed-dependent power assistance from the speed-sensitive power steering system with a steering ratio that varies with the given steering angle. The power steering assistance provided by the rack-and-pinion steering gear is controlled as needed, thereby contributing towards efficiency.
Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive: the intelligent car
Mercedes-Benz aims to make the highest standard of safety available to everyone. The new C-Class offers numerous innovative safety and assistance systems. It is fitted with ATTENTION ASSIST, which can warn the driver of inattentiveness and fatigue. The ATTENTION ASSIST function offers an adjustable level of sensitivity and can inform drivers in a separate view in the instrument cluster about their level of drowsiness and how long they have been driving since their last break.
In addition to Adaptive Brake Assist, which offers protection from collisions from speeds as low as 7 km/h, standard-fit COLLISION PREVENTION ASSIST PLUS also features an additional function: when the risk of collision persists and the driver fails to respond, the system is able to carry out autonomous braking at speeds of up to 200 km/h, thereby reducing the severity of collisions with slower or stopping vehicles. The system also brakes in response to stationary vehicles at a speed of up to 50 km/h, and is able to prevent rear-end collisions at up to 40 km/h.
The new C-Class will also feature Active Parking Assist, which enables automated parking with active steering and brake intervention in both parallel and end-on parking spaces.
Airbags for safety
In addition to 3-point safety belts with pyrotechnical belt tensioning and belt-force limitation for driver, front passenger and those in the outer rear seats, numerous airbags serve to protect the vehicle’s occupants in an accident. These include:
- front and passenger airbags
- combined thorax/pelvis sidebags for driver and front passenger
- a newly developed windowbag
- a kneebag for the driver
The front passenger seat is fitted with automatic child seat recognition, which dispenses with the previous transponder in favour of a weight mat. This enables any child seat to be used. The airbag is automatically deactivated when a child seat is fitted and reactivated once it has been removed.
Air conditioning: signals from space
Mercedes-Benz has substantially improved the air conditioning system in the new C-Class. This applies in particular to the control quality, performance, efficiency and air quality. The new C-Class is also the only vehicle in the segment to offer tunnel detection via satellite navigation. It uses map data from the navigation system and the GPS location data to close the air-recirculation flap automatically when the vehicle enters a tunnel, subsequently re-opening it when the vehicle emerges from the tunnel.
Another highlight contributing to a feel-good atmosphere is the AIR-BALANCE package, standard in the C 250 with active fragrancing, air ionisation and more efficient filtration than is available on the base model.
Vibrant infotainment
A completely new multimedia generation offers intuitive operation in the new C-Class, featuring elaborate animations and visual effects which present all the functions in a clear and highly attractive manner. Furthermore the new C-Class is equipped with the unique Frontbass system. This avant-garde acoustic system uses the space within the cross-member and side member in the body structure as a resonance chamber for the bass speakers to conjure up a listening experience almost on a par with a concert hall.
A Bluetooth®-capable mobile phone with data option is all it takes to make the Audio 20 system internet-capable. This enables surfing the internet without restrictions when the vehicle is stationary. Audio and video playback is possible from various sources, for example, via Bluetooth®, from an Apple iPod or iPhone®, from an SD card, USB stick or CD/DVD.
The Audio 20 CD comes with a basic telephony feature, which connects the mobile phone with the vehicle via a standardised Bluetooth® interface.
The New C-Class model data at a glance:
| Model | C 200 (CBU) | C 250 (CBU) |
| Displacement cc | 1991 | 1991 |
| kW/hp | 135/184 | 155/211 |
| Nm | 300 | 350 |
| 0-100 km/h in sec. | 7.5 | 6.6 |
| l/100km | 5.3 | 5.3 |
| CO2 g/km | 123 | 123 |
| Efficiency Class | B | B |
| Price (OTR w/o insurance) | RM 285,888 | RM 314,888 |
For more information, kindly log on to www.mercedes-benz.com.my
