Mercedes-Benz C-Class C200 SE

It’s the fourth-generation Mercedes-Benz C-Class, freshly updated for 2018. One in five Mercs sold is a C-Class, and if you lump in the old 190 saloon that went before it, this is a car that’s sold nearly ten million units since 1982.

Not a car you want to mess up then, yet Mercedes describes this as the biggest update the car has ever had; over 6,500 components have changed, which is nearly 50 per cent of the whole car.

If you’re thinking it looks surprisingly like the old car (for one that’s apparently so different), then nearly all of those components are in a brand new electrical architecture – transplanted in from the S-Class, to unlock loads of new safety tech and self-driving potential – and a bunch of new engines.

In the wake of Dieselgate, which Merc’s engines haven’t been untouched by, it’s perhaps the brand-new petrol option that’s most interesting. The C200 is the entry-level C-Class in the UK, and while its name alludes to a 2.0-litre engine, it actually uses a 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol. It doesn’t work alone, though, and comes allied to some clever (if lightly confusing) mild hybrid tech that contributes to a 182bhp total and 46mpg economy.

Elsewhere, if you tick the right boxes you can have all manner of tech on board, not least some satnav-linked cruise control that paves the way for self-driving Merc saloons of the future. There’s also ‘Energising Comfort’, which combines massage seat functions, climate control and ambient lighting to relax you behind the wheel. One mode sees it imitating a walk along the beach…

The C-Class also boasts some of the most customisable digital dials we’ve yet seen in a car, inherited from the E- and S-Class above it. The whole thing is absurdly customisable, in fact. Mercedes has designed four different trim levels, each with an entirely different bumper design, while the C-Class’s 2018 update has added three new colours and 20 (yes, 20) new designs of alloy wheel.

Add to that a dizzying array of engines, the availability of four-wheel drive and your choice of saloon, estate, coupe and cabriolet body styles, and you have the potential to lose weeks in the Merc dealer trying to figure out which car you want to buy.

The genius of the current C-Class is that it does entirely its own thing, leaving the likes of the Alfa Giulia and BMW 3 Series to be sporty, and focusing instead on easy going comfort.

Nowt’s changed with the car’s big mid-life update, and while the bulk of Cs are rear-wheel drive, they’re hardly cars that allow or encourage you to explore the outer limits of their grip. Instead, there’s just a neat, confidence-inspiring balance when you’re driving briskly, which could very easily be the merits of a nicely set up front-wheel-drive car if you didn’t know otherwise.

Comfort and refinement are the standout features, and you need to be particularly heavy with the throttle for any of the engines to make themselves unduly heard. There are three diesels to choose from, with the 191bhp/295lb ft C220d likely to be the default choice, especially as it claims over 60mpg and comes with the option of four-wheel drive.

Diesel’s a bit of a dirty word these days, of course, and Merc’s decision to fit the C-Class with some interesting new petrol engines is probably sage. The C200 opens up C-Class pricing, just north of £33,000, and its mild hybrid technology is something we’ll see increasingly in Merc models, performance versions included.

Electrical assistance is provided by the alternator rather than a bunch of batteries and motors, but the theory is more interesting than the practice, as it all blends in pretty surreptitiously. Switch the C200’s drive select into its more eco-minded modes, though, and you’ll sense the electrics whirring away as you pull out of junctions, while the engine will cut out as you coast towards junctions or on the motorway, to further save fuel and cut emissions. Switch to Sport and accelerate hard and the electrically-provided 14bhp is all used for performance, but doing so is probably missing the point a bit.

All but the entry-level diesel come with a nine-speed automatic gearbox as standard, and it works well in the C200, where it helps manage the car’s intriguing power source when left in auto mode. In quicker C-Classes, the C300 petrol included, it’s sometimes better to take manual control of the transmission with the steering wheel paddles. With nine gears, it’s perhaps understandable that the car’s computer trickery might not always choose the one that’s best.

The C300 is a sensitive engine as it can sound quite harsh when revved hard, but as a turbocharged four-cylinder filling the role of an old six-cylinder, it makes a decent fist of its unenviable task. If you still want a six-cylinder, then it’ll be the C43 AMG you want. It’s a proper product of the AMG division – not just a trim line – but it’s less aggressive than the full, V8-powered C63.

AMG offers a rather naughty sports exhaust, but the C43 is otherwise a sensible performance car in the vein of an Audi S4 or suchlike. It has standard four-wheel drive, and while it sends two thirds of the engine’s 385bhp to the rear wheels, it’s more about grip than slip. You can sustain some proper pace in it, but exhaust note aside, it’s not a tyre-shredding lout like the full-fat, 503bhp V8-equipped C63 AMG. That car’s about as characterful and irresistible as saloon cars get.

Mercedes is nailing car interiors these days, and the C-Class is no different. There’s lots of new stuff, most notably its steering wheel, digital dials and widescreen media display, an amalgamation of the dashboards of the latest A-Class and S-Class.

It initially looks daunting as you climb inside, with a needlessly complex array of buttons on the wheel, but once you’re on the go, it works wonderfully. The combination of the little touchpads on the wheel and the curiously thin media screen help ensure your eyes rarely stray from the road, even when you’re operating something complex within the satnav.

Avoid the base spec C-Class and you’ll get digital dials ahead of you, and they’re ludicrously customisable, with three different colour schemes and the ability to switch the right-hand dial between a big sat nav display, a G meter, detailed trip info, or a good old fashioned rev counter. In the C43 AMG, there’s a further dial setup that sticks a huge rev counter slap-bang centre and opens up lap timers (plus some other gimmicky displays).

While an Alfa Giulia or BMW 3 Series is better to drive, the C-Class fights back with more interior room and useful practical touches. Tall adults will fit neatly in the back, their only possible bugbear being not quite enough room to slot their feet under the front seats.

As mentioned in previous slides, it’s super refined in here, too. We sampled the C-Class on the autobahn – naturally – and at anything below 120mph, both wind and engine noise are spookily absent when you’re cruising. So just imagine how easy going it’ll be on a British motorway with more stringent speed limits.

The C has always looked like a downsized S-Class on the outside, and it does a decent impression of its big brother’s luxury inside, too. Praise for car interiors doesn’t get much bigger, we’d suggest.

While Mercedes says this particularly C-Class is almost 50 per cent new, the car itself has changed little. It remains the most comfy and composed small saloon on sale, with even more refinement, tech and luxury inside to galvanise its position as a cut-price, scale-model S-Class.

The downside of that is a chassis you could (perhaps cruelly) accuse of being a bit boring, but unlike an Audi A4, the C-Class is at least rear-wheel drive as standard, and there’s always the C43 AMG if you crave a bit more excitement.

It’s never anything less (or more) than unstressed and unruffled to drive, creating surely the most relaxing driving experience in its class. For many, that will be exactly what they’re looking for.