Mercedes C 250 CDI long term final report

Time’s up for the C-class. It’s leaving our long term fleet and needless to say, we’re loathe to let it go. There’s an old-school charm about this car that has really endeared it to all of us over the past few months. True, the all-new W205 C-class is on its way here, and we’re looking forward to it, but we doubt it will have the mechanical purity of this outgoing model. One thing about our car that marks it as the last of its kind is the hydraulic steering. The C’s competition has already moved on to electrically assisted steering (as has its upcoming replacement) and driving our car just highlights how its steering feels more ‘BMW’ than any modern Bimmer. It filters out all artificiality and has such a wonderfully fluid feel to it.

The other bit that we really love about it is the build quality. With ever-tightening emissions norms and the need to improve fuel economy, there’s a lot of pressure on manufacturers to cut down on weight. This is no bad thing, except that these new cars simply don’t have the heft you used to associate with German cars. Our W204, on the other hand, has it in spades. The way the doors shut, how the door handles feel, the way the stalks work; the whole car feels like it’s carved out of one big block of metal.