Mercedes-Benz C180 Kompressor BlueEFFICIENCY 1.6 (A) Facelift Review

The cars in Singapore offer many different kinds of motoring adventures that manage to capture some of our hearts and minds. Sedans, being the hottest pancakes amongst most Singaporeans, are mostly the ones that separate our city's crème de la crème from the rest of the car types. Personally, I would go for an off-roader, something along the lines of a Rangie Defender or a Wrangler, but I can't deny that the presence of delectable sedans on our roads have injected much "ooohs" and "aaahs" in an already competitive segment.

But what is delectable? I mean, is it mouth-watering? Is it luscious? Is it eye-catching? Or is it simply so attractive and spiritedly strong that it's second to none?

This brings me to the recently launched facelifted Mercedes-Benz C-Class. Selling well over one million units of the previous series worldwide since its launch in March 2007, the sedan is spiritedly strong, making it a leader in its segment since 2008. That said, muscling into a segment with strong fellow peers like the BMW 3-Series, Audi A4 and the Volkswagen Passat means that the C-Class has to make up a lot of ground to stay competitive.

Exterior

With the recent launch of the stunning CLS, Mercedes has demonstrated that it hasn't lost any flair for styling and all the questionable build quality and dynamic mediocrity is a thing of a past, and this facelifted C-Class is no exception. In one of the most competitive segments in the motoring scene, this car is surely the prettiest contender of them all. Changes to its shell are more obvious and aggressive and to a certain extent more unique, with the prominent V-shaped grill that bears the prestigious three-pointed star.

Interior

It's a bit tricky, then, after reviewing the previous generation. The grade of materials used then and the styling of the dashboard were hardly close to what you would come to expect from the luxury German automaker. But these problems have been addressed by Mercedes. While the exterior sports the necessary updates, the interior is a significant improvement.

The cabin is now drastically richer and more appealing, with a sense of organised deliberation behind every bit of detail. The accompaniment of chrome, black panelling and soft leather completes the premium picture. This should come as no surprise, given the fact that the outgoing C-Class had a bunch of criticism about its interior.

The Drive

Charged with a 1.6-litre in-line four powerplant, the C-Class outshines even the 2.0-litre BMW 3-Series in terms of its figures. Producing a maximum amount of power and torque of 156bhp and 230Nm respectively, the car takes 9.9 seconds to hit the century mark from naught, a second faster than its Bavarian peer. At higher revs, the Merc also succeeds in retaining its refined nature, although the exhaust notes are not particularly stimulating.

The lowest-range car certainly won't set the roads on fire from the word go, but it sure does exhibit a commendable blend of compliance and control on the tarmac. It doesn't sway from the corrected line but, instead, it tracks true to the driver's inputs and keeps its body roll down to bare minimum around corners. And when travelling over imperfect road conditions, the C-Class handles the dips and bumps in its stride, maintaining comfort as its top priority for the passengers on board. More importantly, noise, vibration and harshness levels are really low too.

Unlike its higher range peers, the C180 Kompressor does not have the buttery 7G-TRONIC mated to it. In its place is a five-speed automatic gearbox that makes a clunky noise whenever you move it from 'Drive' mode to 'Reverse' mode or vice versa. It's not a big deal but for the price of $169,888 (as of 8^th July 2011), you'd spend half the time wishing that the noises are better off absent.