Like in the classic Led Zeppelin song, we are over the hills and far away – literally at the foothills of the Himalayas. And we’re here to talk about the equally high-end car in the Mercedes-Benz portfolio.
No, we are not talking about the S-Class. Actually we are talking about baby S-Class. Or as most people call it – the C-class. Since 1982, the C-Class has become a huge force in the great Mercedes-Benz wheel. It serves as the gateway to premium brands for many. And over 5 generations, the C-Class has become one of its icons. As Siddhartha also put it in his review, things have become sportier and faster. But that’s why it’s not called Baby Benz. It doesn’t share the powertrain of the S-Class, it doesn’t look like an S-Class and of course, it’s not as big as the S-Class. So why is it called the Baby S-Class, because the technology it is based on is derived from the S-Class?
The new-gen C-Class gets an 11.9-inch touchscreen infotainment system
Perhaps the biggest sign that things have been borrowed from the S-Class is the presence of a spectacular 11.9-inch central infotainment screen that’s angled at it. The screen is largely similar to the S-Class and is a major upgrade from the horizontal screens that Mercedes has provided in the past which are still a part of many other vehicles in its portfolio. This screen is stunning either way – brilliant colors, super responsive and just one big wide canvas.
It has wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
Probably, the only issue will be that it is a giant fingerprint magnet. This screen is home to the MBUX 7 – or in other words the state-of-the-art version of the Mercedes user experience that has already been seen in the S-Class and Maybach. This is typified by a number of technical features like V2X connectivity, where the car is embedded with the cloud and shares traffic data and relevant surrounding information in real time. It gets wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and Maps by Here. These maps are good and provide relevant information too, but they are not as reliable when compared to Google Maps. This is something that we experienced for the first time in Mussoorie as sometimes it gives wrong direction. Mercedes has also developed its own app platform and while speech recognition is a big deal in this car using voice commands, almost anything can be done.
C-Class MBUX NTG7 . Has become the third car to get
But as good as MBUX is, it comes with its own set of flaws. For example, because it is so feature-rich that the design of these signs is not modern at all. These icons remind you of Windows Media Player in Windows Vista. That was in 2006 and here’s the Mercedes talking about the metaverse. But I have to admit it works great because these are big touchpoints since there aren’t many buttons here, it’s about the best you can do. Again, everything involves several steps. Basically, several taps are involved. Heck if you want to open the sunroof, you have to swipe up like this yet it’s not a smooth experience. Even the volume rocker.. Well there is no rocker, it is a slider. I believe it is not intuitive, but still, it is there.
The Mercedes Me App is the gateway to connected car technology on the new C-Class
Thanks to the Mercedes Me app, the C-Class gets the connected car chops. The Mercedes Me app is quite slick – it supports multiple profiles which offer a lot of personalization features. For example, while it will adjust seats according to your height, it will remember those settings in addition to helping you tune the sound of the Burmester sound system, ambient lighting and what not. Of course, it’s also a connected car which means it supports driver telematics and geofencing and also supports remote car unlock – basically standard staples of the connected car stack. The impressive thing was that despite the poor connectivity, we faced very low latency and all these features worked largely in hills. The Mercedes Me also has functionality tied in with speech recognition that parses some data from the cloud as well – and it was working fairly well if it understood your pronunciation.
Virtual infotainment display can be customized with themes
As mentioned earlier, Mercedes talks a big game about voice commands—which is a hit or miss matter. What bothers me the most is that voice is also used as a form of biometrics. You can unlock the car using just your voice and if it doesn’t recognize it, you have to fall back on the fingerprint scanner which works really well like any smartphone. But it should have more buttons, it should feel more like you get on an iPhone with Siri or with Google Assistant on an Android phone. But it is clearly not there, but hopefully in time it will get there and it will understand the pronunciation more accurately. Then all the ruckus around V2X technology – doesn’t make sense for the Indian consumer because a) we are not a 5G market yet. Hyperfast latency-free connectivity of 5G is needed for this technology to work optimally. This can happen soon if India gets 5G next year. From that aspect it is future ready but still, only S-Class or Maybach gets similar functions and clearly, there are not many such cars on the road and even this car sells for lakhs in India. Is not. So it may not have that much relevance but it is actually a cool feature; The car will be further integrated with the infrastructure – roads, companion Mercedes cars, cloud, other gadgets and all the information will be presented contextually and updated in the car in real time.
There’s a wireless charger that’s quite inconveniently placed in the front row with three Type C ports
Mercedes has also increased the ADAS capability for the C-Class. It comes with a variety of cameras and sensors that provide spatial awareness while driving. Considering that we were on the narrow and winding winding roads of Mussoorie, and the car is still quite big by Indian standards, we managed to drive it without any hitch as the indicator on the infotainment display shows with clear graphics If anything is around the car – be it a two wheeler, a pedestrian, a car or even a cow. However, this system is quite sensitive, which is quite common. There are also automatic emergency brakes which are very handy when driving on the highway. There are also helpful indicators for overspeeding and the car gets a sophisticated ESC system. It also has a sophisticated parking camera with dynamic gridlines and helps with voice-guided directions as well. There’s also a wireless charger that’s quite inconveniently placed with three USB Type C ports—one near the cigarette lighter, two inside storage space in the front row armrests. Mind you, this is a baby S-Class, there’s nothing in the back row – not even the armrests. This is a big mistake in my opinion.
The Burmester Sound System Is Impressive, But I’ve Heard of Better Systems
More stuff here. The C300D variant that we are driving gets a Burmester sound system which is inspired by the S-Class. It has 15 speakers and over 700 watts of power. This is shocking. Apart from this, 3D audio is also available in it. Now the sound signature is fairly neutral but you can easily dial in your sound to your heart’s content and the sound system will really sing. Also, it is not the absolute best. The 3D audio is a bit gimmicky, adding a bit more flavor to the surround setup, but mostly opening up songs that have a very bassy vibe and little detail in the mid-range and treble. It’s a good thing to have. Overall it is a very good system and it is better than the C200 and C200D. The C200 notably only gets a 4 speaker setup which is shocking for a car of its price point.
0 notes
There is little doubt that the new C-Class follows the lineage of the iconic W201 from 1982. It also lives up to the billing of being a baby S-Class because most of the technology it gets is basically the S-Class – be it ADAS, connected car suite, sound system, infotainment display – it’s all about the world’s best. Taken from people who say good car and that’s never a bad thing! That being said, one thing is clear, this is a driver’s car, so there’s a lot of technology borrowed from the S-Class, all in the front row but slim pickings in the back row – before you buy it. Just keep this in mind. The new C-Class starts at Rs 55 lakh ex-showroom for the C200 and goes up to Rs 61 lakh for the C300D, which is the car I tested for this technical review.
for the latest auto news And AnalysisFollow carandbike.com Twitter, Facebookand subscribe us youtube Channel.