SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
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*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


When Mercedes-Benz announced its 2011 C-class coupe range recently, we sampled a pair

This is a launch report. In other words, it's simply a new model announcement. The driving experience was limited to a short drive over a prepared course chosen to make the product look good. We can therefore not tell you what it will be like to live with over an extended period, how economical it is, or how reliable it will be. A very brief first impression is all we can give you until such time as we get an actual test unit for trial. Thank you for your patience.


Pics supplied by importer

Youthful, stylish and dynamic

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday September 7, 2011

Mercedes-Benz seems unsure whether to promote its new C-class coupés as completely new models, part of the recently revised C-class sedan range, or admit that the old CLC has passed its sell-by date and the new car will replace it. The official stance is: “With the new C-Class Coupé we are extending the C-Class portfolio and are consciously targeting new customers. This new model is youthful, stylish and dynamic and what we are offering is an exceptionally sporty way to enter the world of the Mercedes-Benz coupé,” says Eckart Mayer, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Mercedes-Benz South Africa. So there you have it for now.

While there are a couple of styling differences to accommodate the coupé shape, namely reduced front overhang, a longer, lower roofline and a shortened rear end, the beltline sweeps upward into the C pillar to add an additional sporty flourish. Also in keeping with its athletic image are individual rear seats that fold, in all but the entry-level C180, to increase luggage space.

Four models were announced at launch, namely a 1796 cc petrol powered C180, the same engine with more turbo thrust badged as C250, a 2143 cc turbodiesel C250 CDI and a naturally-aspirated petrol C350 with an engine of the same size as indicated on the badge. All engines are BlueEFFICIENCY versions. The three four-cylinder models are fitted with modified exhaust systems providing more sporty sonics to go with the fun image of the coupé configuration.  (No, they aren't unsociably noisy; you can safely buy one for your favourite person.) Dedicated motorheads have until the fourth quarter of 2011 to save up for the AMG version.

All but the C180, fitted as standard with a six-ratio manual transmission, are equipped with the latest version of M-B's 7-Gtronic Plus seven-speed automatic. Optimised shifting times, lower rpm at cruising speeds while in Eco mode, improved bearings and reduced slip all work together to reduce fuel consumption. Its new generation torque converter boasts new circuitry, improved dampers and better lock-up clutch to reduce noise and vibration. A new transmission fluid with lower viscosity and improved additive package not only helps reduce fuel usage, but lasts longer too, requiring changes only at 125 000 km intervals. This transmission is available optionally on the C180.

All models are fitted with Agility Control suspension that changes its damping characteristics as you drive and the usual safety features including nine air bags, ESP, ABS with BAS, ASR and Pre-safe, the system that prepares your brakes for trouble when the car detects that you have entered a panic situation. Other standard kit includes Bluetooth telephony, hill start assist, rain sensing wipers, Mercedes-Benz's Audio 20 radio and six-CD music centre, automatic climate control and eco stop-start on the diesel model.

Options include reversing camera, Parktronic parking assistance, cell phone hands-free kit, climatised front seats, a sunroof, intelligent lighting system, Attention Assist, lane keeping and blind spot assistance, Distronic Plus radar-based adaptive cruise control, Harman Kardon sound upgrade and the Comand navigation system. This gives you hard drive satnav with three years' worth of updates, ten GB of music storage, an SD card slot, speed limit assistance, DVD-based video and voice control.

Also on offer are styling and dynamic handling packs and an AMG sports package. Apart from certain styling items, this gives buyers a lowered suspension setup with harder and shorter springs, tauter shock absorbers, stronger torsion bars and speed-sensitive sports steering. Priced at R28 200 on lower-specification models, it is included free on the C350.

For the familiarisation drives,we drew a C180 for the boring freeway section to PMB and a fully loaded C350 for the winding country roads through the midlands and back to the coast. The C180 is very responsive and altogether a much nicer car than the CLC 200 we drove a couple of years ago, while the C350 is possibly best summed up as: "We like this."

The Numbers:

Prices:

C180 manual - R394 000

C250 - R494 000

C250 CDI - R495 000

C350 - R590 000

Engines:

C180 - 1796 cc four cylinder, 115 kW at 5000 rpm/250 Nm at 1600 - 4200 rpm

C250 - 1796 cc four cylinder, 150 kW at 5500 rpm/310 Nm at 2300 - 4300 rpm

C250 CDI - 2143 cc four cylinder, 150 kW at 4200 rpm/500 Nm at 1600 - 1800 rpm

C350 - 3498 cc six cylinder, 225 kW at 6500 rpm/370 Nm at 3500 - 5250 rpm

Zero to 100 km/h and maximum speeds in brackets:

C180 - 8.9 seconds (225 km/h)

C250 - 7.2 seconds (240 km/h)

C250 CDI - 7.1 seconds (240 km/h)

C350 - 6.0 seconds (250 km/h)

Fuel consumption: Between 5.3 l/100 km (C250 CDI) and 7.0 l/100 km (C350)

Boot: 450 litres

Tank: 59 litres

Warranty: 2 years/Unlimited km

Maintenance plan: MobiloDrive 6 years/120 000 km



What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.

What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

My articles appear every Wednesday in the motoring pages of The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles most months of the year (press cars are withdrawn over the festive season - wonder why?) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police. Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so I do actually exist.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!

Comments?
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