Mercedes-Benz is clearly chasing the more youthful end of the market with its new C-Class. You know, those that wouldn’t go any further than a BMW dealership in the past because they felt that a Merc was a nice car for their father, or granddad for that matter.

Just one look at the new C is enough to assert that notion. It manages to look far more athletic without being anything radical or tacky and you’d probably like it whether you were 25 or 65. Even without the sportier Avantgarde styling package, our ‘Classic’ model was regarded as handsome to all that saw it.

However, I smelled a rat when I looked at the badge on the boot lid.

You see, I distinctly remember test driving the previous C220 CDI about five years ago and complaining that it seemed like an accident waiting to happen – the launch failure was just so horrendous. It’s a problem that affects almost every turbo-diesel with an automatic transmission at Jo’burg altitudes, as one can’t easily compensate for turbo lag without a clutch.

Yet pulling off in this one was a pleasant surprise. Then I remembered Merc’s boasts that its engineers had changed more than 90 components in its four-cylinder common rail diesel engine. Power output is up from 110kW to 125kW, with torque output now a massive 400Nm, a drastic improvement from the previous 315Nm. That extra twisting force does wonders to get the engine spinning properly from pull-off. While not immune from lag, we only really noticed its launch failure tendency when pitching it against the clock for acceleration runs. In everyday traffic, its response from pull-off is just fine. I could easily live with it.

While this C220’s 0-100km acceleration sprint of 10.3 seconds hardly makes it an athletic car, we believe a manual version should shave at least a second, if not two, off that time. This engine/gearbox combo does work great in mid-range though, as it flew from 80 to 120km/h in just 6.6 seconds, though it battled in the upper range, taking a tardy 13.8 seconds from 120 to 160km/h.

Road holding is one area where the new C has been greatly improved. It’s very balanced and inspires confidence – even the variably-assisted steering system is communicative at high speeds. The days of dropping Merc from your list because it doesn’t handle as well as a 3-Series are over.

The interior of the new C is more of a mixed bag. While there’s more space, especially benefiting rear occupants, the feeling of quality is hardly up what we’d expect from the three-pointed star. Look, it all feels sturdy and well built, but those plastics would be more suited to a Japanese car. Even modern Volkswagens have better perceptive quality than this. We also found the design very plain, especially that instrument cluster that looks like it’s lifted off a 1987 230E, and the light grey upholstery on our test car was just too sober-looking for a car trying to be sporty.

On the upside, ergonomics are good, with all the functions and controls proving easy to figure out and use.

At just under R320K, this C-Class is expensive. We feel the better-performing manual model, at R305K, is a far better candidate, and possibly even the pick of the range.

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