2022 Mercedes-Benz C-Class review (inc. 0-100): Has Benz dethroned the 3 Series?

CarExpert

Whenever a new Mercedes-Benz C-Class is launched, it almost always debuts new technology that has filtered down from more premium Mercedes-Benz models. So, is the all-new Mercedes-Benz C-Class the same? Paul Maric test drives the 2022 Mercedes-Benz C300 to find out!  Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  More Mercedes-Benz content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mercedes-benz More Mercedes-Benz C-Class content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mercedes-benz/c-class  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior 0:52 Interior 4:26 Infotainment 6:00 Safety 8:55 Practicality 10:35 On the road 13:54 0-100 19:31 Verdict 21:20  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #mercedes #cclass #review

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. It's exciting when a new 3 Series or a C-Class launches because

00:05 these were always kind of the accessible cars that filtered down technology from S-Class,

00:10 7 Series, that kind of thing. And this is no exception to that rule. It's the all-new

00:14 Mercedes-Benz C-Class and it debuts a bunch of tech that we first saw on the expensive S-Class.

00:20 This has crept up in price though. This is the C300, which is the top specification here in

00:25 Australia. It's priced at just over $90,000, but if that's too expensive, the entire C-Class range

00:31 starts at just under $80,000. This competes with things like the Audi A4, the BMW 3 Series,

00:38 and the Lexus IS, but that's no longer on sale in Australia. Today, we're going to do a detailed

00:42 review of this car, so if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review, you can use

00:46 the time codes on the screen, or if you're on YouTube, you can scroll down and use the chapters

00:50 below. Let's talk exterior. So you've got 10 external colours to pick from. All but a solid

00:57 white is going to cost you an extra $1,600, so they're expensive colours. You can spend more on

01:03 fancier colours as well, so there is no limit almost to how much you can spend. What about the

01:08 design? It kind of just looks like an E-Class or an S-Class, and that's the Mercedes-Benz way,

01:13 right? They've tried to have this common face, whereas BMW has very much gone away from a common

01:19 face. Everything looks completely different. Look, I think it actually looks pretty good. The fact

01:24 that you can confuse this for an S-Class or an E-Class, I guess, is good. Probably not so good

01:28 if you drive an S-Class and people confuse it for a C-Class, but if you are spending less money than

01:33 you are on the S-Class, probably is a good thing to make it look more expensive. So you've got two

01:37 Mercedes-Benz logos up the front, this one here and this one. This one actually doubles as a radar,

01:42 so it is a big old thing there, and that gives you all of your advanced driving functions. You've got

01:48 a camera there as well for the 360 camera that I'll run you through a little later on. Chrome

01:52 garnish down the bottom there. Now, the interesting thing over here with the headlights, so this has

01:57 matrix LED headlights as standard and LED daytime running lights, but the cool thing is you can

02:04 option this car with digital headlights. What are digital headlights? That's a great question. So

02:09 they debuted on the S-Class, and within this frame here, you have 1.3 million micro mirrors,

02:16 and they allow you to do projections out onto the road. So pretty advanced and very cool stuff.

02:21 Now, if you do want more detail on this headlight technology, click up here. We actually shot a

02:24 video a little while back when S-Class came out that kind of explains it in a bit more detail. So

02:29 very cool stuff. Now, around the side here, you've got a set of 19-inch alloy wheels. I quite like

02:35 the wheel design as well. So you've got that sort of chrome element on the outside and then the

02:40 piano black on the inside there. This wheel is interesting because the car comes standard with

02:46 an AMG line package. So you can see in there it says AMG. That gives it a sporty body kit and

02:52 kind of gives it a bit more of a sporty presence out on the road. So I think it actually suits the

02:57 car nicely. But the downside to the AMG pack is generally they're quite firm. So I'll be keen to

03:02 see how this actually rides when we go for a drive in our circuit. It looks like a pretty low-profile

03:07 tyre there. So interesting to see how that treks on our surface. Now, up the top here, you've got

03:13 an indicator built into that wing mirror. Another camera there as well for the 360 camera. A little

03:18 garnish down the bottom there. Again, part of that AMG line gives it that sort of sporty appearance.

03:23 Privacy glass. This one has a moonroof up the top. Come around to the back. Welcome to the rear of

03:29 the C-Class. Love this taillight technology. So full LED. This looks fantastic at night time.

03:36 You really just get 3D layers and depths to that that just make this really stand out nicely.

03:42 Mercedes-Benz logo there and then C300. Now, the confusing thing about this car, or just the car

03:49 industry in general at the moment, is the huge parts shortage. As a result of that, this car may

03:54 have some stuff that isn't available to order at the moment. So just if you do go ahead and buy this

04:00 after watching our review, just make sure you triple check what is actually available at the

04:03 moment and what you're getting with your car because some of the stuff that I talk about

04:07 may not be available. As confusing as that is, you've got your exhaust outlets down here.

04:11 They're fake. But outside of that, let me know in the comments section below, what do you think of

04:18 the new C-Class? Do you think it looks good? Do you think it's too expensive? Let me know your

04:22 thoughts in the comments section below. So we're inside the C-Class. We'll start off with the key.

04:28 Here it is. So you have Mercedes logo for locking, unlock, then you have boot, then on the back it's

04:35 blank. I like this. It's very heavy and it's got this metallic stuff on it as well that actually

04:40 feels very nice and premium, which is good news. This is a proximity sensing key, so you can leave

04:46 that in your pocket. Once you're inside, you have the push button start up the top here. Now, you

04:51 can kind of see why $90,000 perhaps isn't so expensive when you see this interior. It looks

04:57 light years ahead of the previous generation of C-Class and I don't know, this just screams premium.

05:01 You've got a big screen there ahead of the driver, big display here that looks like it's been taken

05:05 straight from the S-Class. And look, aside from all this piano black stuff down here, you do have

05:10 this wood material here and leather along the dashboard. I don't know if it's real wood or real

05:15 leather, but it actually does look really, really nice. Now, inside all of these elements, you've

05:20 got LED lights that you can configure, so the cabin actually feels homely and you can customise it

05:26 all, which is great news. Now, what about your touch points? Well, that is pretty soft, soft on

05:33 the door there. How soft are they? Well, we've got our durometer, we've tested the main surfaces

05:38 in this cabin. If you want to see how this car compares to other cars we've tested before,

05:43 have a look at the link in the description below. What about your build quality? So,

05:49 yeah, this all feels very, very solid. And our door test,

05:53 oh yeah, it feels fantastic. Let's talk about infotainment. So, the central infotainment screen

06:02 is just under 12 inches in size, but it is so good. Like, look at that resolution. It is such

06:08 a high resolution screen and it's nice and fast and snappy as well. Really impressed with this,

06:13 and it's a big step forward from even MBUX that we first saw debuted in the A-Class. This is like

06:19 the next iteration of that, and it really just showcases what Mercedes-Benz can do in terms of

06:24 technology. So, down here you've got some shortcut buttons, including a fingerprint scanner, so when

06:29 you rest your finger on that, basically able to recall settings and that kind of thing. So,

06:33 if you do have multiple drivers, it's able to easily bring that back to the forefront as you go,

06:37 and then you have shortcut buttons for other bits and pieces. But it is interesting to note that

06:41 there is no knob or really easy way to do volume that isn't touch control. So, down here you slide

06:48 your finger on that and then the volume goes up and down. Likewise, on the steering wheel, there's

06:53 no knob or any easier way to do it. Same with climate controls, it is just these push, I guess,

06:58 the push button on the screen there. You push that and then it comes on. Look, I think it works okay.

07:04 It just would be nice to have some redundancy there, just in case this all stops working one

07:08 day. So, satellite navigation built into the centre there. This is what your, I guess, home

07:13 screen looks like. If you swipe down from the top, you can access some of the other functions of the

07:18 car and immediately switch on and off, things like safety features. You've got a favourites menu as

07:22 well, and then you also have a notification section. In addition to that, you have FM,

07:29 AM and DAB digital radio. Now, that's all plumbed through a nine-speaker sound system. Because of

07:34 the parts and semiconductor shortages, we don't get the 15-speaker Burmester sound system that's

07:40 available in other markets, which is a little bit disappointing, but stereo that comes standard with

07:44 the car is still actually pretty good. And then in terms of your other functions in here, you have

07:49 apps that you can install into the car. This has an inbuilt browser and also Mercedes me,

07:53 that is the technology that allows you to communicate with the car using your phone.

07:57 That generally works pretty well, allows you to check things like range, remotely start the car

08:01 and all those fun things. You also have an info display here. If we put that ignition on, it gives

08:07 you an idea of fuel consumption and then other bits and pieces around the car. But this is the

08:13 thing I'm most excited about, wireless Apple CarPlay and then also Android Auto as well. Have

08:18 a look at this. It is a full screen integration there and very nice and snappy and easy to use.

08:24 So really love that setup. I'll show you what Android Auto looks like. So yet again,

08:28 full screen integration. Love that. Looks fantastic. So very impressive setup there.

08:34 There is also a screen ahead of the driver. This is just over 12 inches in size and that's all

08:38 driven here by your steering wheel controls. You can basically change what this appearance looks

08:43 like and also customise the display on your head up display as well. So yeah, love this setup. And

08:49 from a tech standpoint, this really is quite futuristic. Let's talk about safety tech. So

08:55 you have autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection. You've got

09:00 an auto dimming rear vision mirror, radar cruise control with a semi-autonomous steering function.

09:05 The steering function is interesting. So it kind of wanders within the lane and it's not designed

09:10 to be used hands-free. So if you do use it with your hands and you help guide the car,

09:15 it kind of works much better. But if you just let the car steer, it doesn't really work that well.

09:19 So I guess it kind of defeats the purpose of it, if I'm honest. Blind spot monitoring built

09:24 into the wing mirror, you have rear cross traffic alert, a lane departure warning and a lane keeping

09:29 assistant as well. Literally jam-packed with safety tech. In terms of the camera though,

09:34 I really like this. So you have semi-autonomous parking, but you get a 360 camera with front and

09:39 rear parking sensors and I'll show you what that looks like. The camera quality is sensational.

09:43 Have a look at this. It is so high resolution. So this top down view, I don't know, it's okay,

09:48 but you can see it's very fish-eyed there and it's not really entirely useful. But if you then click

09:53 on the screen, you can select different angles. So this is your reverse view. You can then go

09:58 super wide angle on that reverse view. Same story with the front view, you can go wide angle or

10:03 tight. Then you have different sections you can see on the car, like the two sides. You can then

10:09 take over control and move this around on your own. So you can see exactly what's going on around

10:14 the car. And then you can also save GPS locations where you want the camera to come on automatically,

10:20 like if you're parking or something like that going in forwards. And then you have your parking

10:24 assistance menu as well when it comes to reverse parking, getting the car to do it on its own. So

10:29 really impressive parking suite there. And those cameras are fantastic.

10:33 Moving on to practicality, and we'll start off with your connectivity. So you have a USB-C port

10:38 down here. You also have a wireless charging pad for your phone there, plus an additional two USB-C

10:44 ports in here. In terms of storing your phone, well, it can live down there on that wireless

10:48 charging pad. It can live virtually anywhere else. There's stacks of storage inside this car,

10:52 which is excellent. What about your coffee cups? So that can live in there without any dramas at

10:58 all. The good news about this little slot down here is you can deploy these little arms that

11:03 hold your bottle in position. So if you do have something like this in there, it's not going to

11:07 move around too much, which is really good news. How does this fit inside the doors? So it fits in

11:12 there without any dramas. I'll try a big bottle. That fits in there as well. Awesome news. Other

11:19 storage. So you've got more storage there inside the doors. You have a centre console here that is

11:24 not too bad there in terms of storage. And finally, you have a glove box that's actually

11:29 pretty reasonable as well. So storage, tick, tick, tick. Now, what about your comfort? Well,

11:33 you have dual-zone automatic climate control. You have heated seats for the front row. That's

11:38 operated up here on the door. You have electric seat adjustment for the front row, including memory

11:43 for driver and front passenger. I like this. This is a little different. So these controls used to

11:47 move when you push them. Now they're just sort of like electronic. It's a cool setup, and that

11:52 actually works quite nicely. So I'm very impressed with that. Seats themselves are very comfortable.

11:57 They are real leather here in the C300, which is good news, and they wrap around you nicely.

12:03 And then on your steering front, the steering is electrically adjustable for both tilt and reach.

12:09 And on our reach test, all of this stuff is easy to reach while you're driving.

12:12 So second row of the C-Class. What's our room like? So I've got my seat in my standard driving

12:17 position. Neiroom is pretty good. Towroom isn't very good at all. My toes are kind of wedged

12:22 under that. Headroom is not too bad, despite having the sort of glass roof above us there.

12:28 What about the rest of your creature comfort? So you've got air vents here that you can

12:32 move around. You've got a little storage nook there. Two map pockets. Can't see any USB charging

12:38 back here, which is a little bit disappointing. You do get ISOFIX points on the outboard seats,

12:42 and then three top tether points as well. Centre armrest here. Now this has two cup holders inside

12:48 it, but this thing here is broken. It won't come out. So we've tried that a million times, but

12:53 seems to be faulty. Inside the door, you do have a little bit of storage there for a bottle and

12:58 then other odds and ends. Now, what about our window test? So it's an auto up and down. Boom,

13:04 goes all the way down. Very impressive stuff, Mercedes-Benz. So cargo space, you have a

13:10 power boot. Look at that. A little over 450 litres of cargo space available here. Nice deep boot as

13:17 well, and accessible there with a wide load area. Beneath the cargo floor, you've got plenty of

13:23 storage space there, which is good news to hide valuables and other bits and pieces. Hooks off

13:27 to the side and down the front as well. See what it looks like with our bags in there.

13:32 Look at that, fits in beautifully. It's one of the best things about sedans.

13:39 It's just so much space to load your stuff in, which is good news. Now you can also expand the

13:43 space if you want to. You've got these little switches down here. They drop that second row,

13:48 and they give you a decent load opening there if you do need to load anything longer through the

13:52 cabin. So I've just hit the road in the C300. First thing I'm going to mention is just how

14:03 quiet it is in here, just from a standing start, and especially with the stop/start system. Watch

14:08 this as we come to a stop here and the vehicle switches off. It uses what they call an integrated

14:14 starter generator, so as I roll out of the brake and it switches back on, it's literally seamless.

14:18 You don't feel anything happening. It is such a nice system, and it's cool to see they've mastered

14:24 this finally and given it, I guess, the quietness and the comfortableness that it deserves.

14:29 Powering the C300 is a 2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine. It produces 190

14:36 kilowatts of power and 400 newton-metres of torque, and that's all mated to a 48-volt

14:41 mild hybrid system. So the mild hybrid system is what drives that integrated starter generator.

14:46 It also gives us an ability to have a power boost, so when you do go for full throttle,

14:51 you're able to get an extra 20 kilowatts of power thanks to that mild hybrid system.

14:55 So it is there for helping you reduce your fuel consumption, but also to help you with the

15:00 additional kick in the back. Now, how does it reduce fuel consumption? So what it's able to do

15:05 is store some of the energy that you generate when the car's slowing down or you roll out of the

15:10 throttle. You'll see our little EQ charge bar light up there. That means we're plumbing energy

15:14 back into a storage device, and then that storage device, which is a small battery, is then used to

15:19 push the car off the line as you start moving, and that is a lot of energy that you don't otherwise

15:24 have to burn fuel for. So, yeah, it's a pretty impressive setup, and I think the way they've

15:28 integrated all of this works really well. Now, it's all mated to a nine-speed automatic

15:36 transmission. The transmission is good, but one of the things I noticed yesterday as I was just

15:41 driving in and around the city, as you slow down, if you just have a progressive sort of push onto

15:46 the brake pedal, you can sometimes feel it going back through the gears as it goes down. So it

15:51 could be just a little bit smoother there in terms of the way that it slows down, but for the most

15:55 part, it's fine. It's nice and quick too. We're in comfort mode at the moment. If I give it a little

15:58 punch, that sort of just gives you the push in the back that you need, and away it goes. Now,

16:03 what about your fuel economy? So Mercedes-Benz reckons 7.3 litres per 100 k's. We are currently

16:09 sitting on 9.1, so we are higher than what they claim, but look, I think if you're doing a little

16:18 bit more gentle driving as opposed to our sort of spirited driving, you're probably going to

16:22 hit that figure, and even 9 litres per 100 k's is pretty good for a car this size.

16:26 Now, what's the ride like? I'm going to dial this up to 130 for our sine waves.

16:34 130 is the fastest speed you can travel in Australia, and these sine waves are typical of

16:40 a terrible country road, and you don't want to hit these at 130 because they'll unsettle your car.

16:46 So let's see how it goes here. Yeah, okay.

16:53 Um, look, there's not really a great deal of body control as it gets to that top end,

17:04 and that is because they've softened up the ride a lot here. So to compensate for those

17:08 larger alloy wheels, they soften up the ride to give you that sort of luxury feel,

17:12 but it comes at the cost of body control when you hit sine waves like that speed.

17:17 They do offer an adaptive damping package. Unfortunately, that's one of the things you

17:23 can't get at the moment due to the semiconductor shortage, but if you do value your ride and you

17:27 want to have the ability to split it between comfort and sport, you're probably going to

17:31 want to wait for that to come out. So you can tick that box. It'll give you adaptive damping and also

17:35 rear wheel steering as well as part of that engineering package.

17:38 Let's talk about drive mode. So you have economy, comfort, sport, sport plus, and individual. So

17:43 you've got a litany of them there to choose from. You switch between them using this switch down

17:47 here, the dynamic button. With the individual mode, you can set everything to, you know,

17:52 your custom variables to however you like. So it is a pretty straightforward system there and

17:57 very easy to use while you're driving. Okay, let's pop this into sport mode. In fact, we'll go to

18:02 sport plus. We'll go for a little fang around our circuit here and see what it feels like.

18:07 All right. It actually sits pretty flat through here. It's quite wet outside, so

18:14 probably not the best conditions in the world for a rear wheel drive sedan, but

18:18 actually feels really nice and punchy as I roll onto the throttle here at the back

18:24 and picks up speed beautifully. Holds those revs as well, which is good. Can't really hear a great

18:29 deal in the cabin. Looks like the end of the world. I don't expect to hear a sonorous note.

18:34 I would have liked maybe just a little bit more rasp from that two litre.

18:38 Actually pretty impressed with how quickly this thing is getting along, especially in these damp

18:43 conditions. Great feeling through the steering wheel as well. Brake pedal feels great too.

18:48 Yeah, it's actually not too bad. I wasn't expecting this to be as engaging as it is,

18:58 especially with that soft suspension. Okay, we've got our back straight here. We can dial on a little

19:04 bit more speed. Got a kick. Look, it's actually getting along really nicely. That's good.

19:13 I quite like that. Yeah, righto. Okay, that's pretty impressive. So the thing hoofs along when

19:18 you really get stuck into it and it's engaging enough once you do have it in the sport mode,

19:23 especially when you consider we don't have adaptive dampers here. So transmission works

19:26 really well here with the rest of the car to deliver a fun driving experience.

19:30 Mercedes-Benz claims a 0-100 time of 6 seconds. This is how it went up against our stopwatch.

19:39 [engine revving]

19:53 Now I mentioned at the start that it's quite quiet. Even here as we're driving on a course

19:57 chip country road, 80, 90 k's an hour, it's actually quite a pleasant place to be seated.

20:02 There isn't a great deal of noise coming into the cabin. Sorry, from Sean's winter jacket for our

20:06 very cold day. So it is actually a nice place to be seated. And I think if you are doing a longer

20:10 distance drive, it's going to be a fun car to be in. Let's talk visibility. So I can clearly see

20:15 down the front there. I love that head-up display. Big display there and you can configure exactly

20:20 what appears on there here as well. So you've got a number of different modes, including this

20:24 eco display. It gives you like a little ball. So when you punch it, the ball comes back towards

20:29 you and it goes red. And then your goal is to try and keep the ball in the middle there and you get

20:33 a star rating. Probably a little distracting, but it is cool to see you can completely change all of

20:39 those displays and customise them to your liking. But yes, in terms of the rest of the visibility,

20:44 easy down the front there. The wing mirrors are well and truly big enough. You've got a blind spot

20:48 monitor built into those. Visibility out the back isn't great. It's quite a narrow envelope, but

20:52 it's fine for the most part. It's backed up by the litany of parking sensors and cameras and all

20:56 that sort of stuff when you are driving in and around the city. It is worth calling out that

21:00 you need 98 RON premium unleaded as a minimum. So that's going to cost you a little bit extra.

21:06 And then on the towing front, you can tow 1800 kilos with a braked trailer

21:10 and turning circle of just over 11 metres.

21:12 So the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class. Look, I am a fan of this. I especially love the technology.

21:24 It is jam-packed full of technology. And I love the fact that a lot of that filters down from the

21:29 S-Class, especially stuff like digital headlights. I mean, this stuff is space age equipment that was

21:35 only available if you owned an S-Class. So it's cool to see that you can actually option that

21:39 on a C-Class today. The engine's punchy enough. And look, I think it is a smile maker when it

21:44 comes to sort of throwing it around a few corners. It's engaging enough without sort of going too far

21:49 and being too sporty like some P of Ws are. It is let down a little bit by that body control,

21:54 though. It is very softly sprung. And as a result of that, if you do hit some of those continuous

21:58 undulations on a country road, it will sort of boat about a little bit. But you can solve that

22:03 once adaptive dampers come around. Now, let me know in the comments, is this too expensive or

22:07 do you think it is about right for what it is? If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you hit

22:11 the like button, share it with your mates. And if you haven't done so, subscribe to our channel and

22:16 press the bell icon. I'm going to get out of here. It is absolutely freezing. Until next time, take it easy.

22:22 (upbeat music)

22:24 (upbeat music)

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