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Mercedes C-class: Test Drive (continued)
Date: 18 June 2007 | Author: John Mahoney
Rear seats
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The 170PS 2.2-litre diesel, with a quick, light and easy manual gearchange, may filter through fractionally more noise than you would expect at idle, but rewards with a petrol-like willingness to rev, a wide power band and the ability to average 47.9mpg while hustling you for just 21% BIK come tax time. Performance, despite a hefty kerbweight, is good, sprinting to 60 in just 8.5secs, and it's the mid-range overtaking manoeuvres that most impresses.
Refinement is high, too, and only some wind rustling intrudes; a muted fizzing sound did emanate from the dash and door trims on a couple of the cars we drove, but it would simply be inaudible in other cars.
In our base spec model, the interior wasn't the best feature, varying from expensive to cheap in a fingertip examination. The interior was also too dark and sombre, and not opting for the excellent satnav leaves a bizarre flap covering the stereo display that looks ugly up or down.
Despite an RV boost the Mercedes trails the 3-series on pence per mile - so it still costs, but at least now it's a little easy to justify.
