By John Simister
Mercedes-Benz C320 CDI.
From £31 500 (about R444 500; SA prices likely to differ).
Due for SA release in August, 2007.
2987cc, six cylinders, 24 valves, turbodiesel, 167kW at 3800rpm, 510Nm at 1600-2800rpm.
Seven-speed, semi-auto gearbox, rear-wheel drive.
250km/h, 0-100km/h in 7.7sec, 7.2 litres/100km general average.
We British can be perverse in our place-name pronunciations. Take Bicester - or Belvoir Castle. So I set the Linguatronic function in the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class a stern test.
Its maker claims great things for this most show-off part of the so-called Comand APS "multimedia" system. Normally with a satnav, you have to type in the name of your intended destination.
Previous Linguatronics have accepted voice instructions but you still had to spell the place name.
Now you can say the name and the system will recognise it - or gives a numbered list of possibilities, from which you select the right answer by saying the number.
So I ask it to take me to Wymondham in Norfolk, near which Lotuses are made. "Windum," I say. And there was Wymondham, albeit at No.2, below Windermere.
This is very impressive. The system doesn't even need to learn your voice. You can also ask for radio stations and CD tracks, or to call a number on your cellphone, via Bluetooth.
If someone calls you, your own ring tone plays on the speakers.
My instinct is to be a bit Luddite with this sort of thing, as I hate menus and interfaces and second-guessing what a BMW iDrive might do next.
But I was mightily impressed by this high-IQ Linguatronic. It's how in-car electronics should work.
So that's one interesting thing about the new C-Class, the car that Mercedes intends to come closer to the driving delights of its BMW 3 Series arch-rival than any C-Class before it. Another is the nose.
Think back, if you can, two or three decades. Then, Mercedes saloons had an upright front grille with a central spine, horizontal segments and a three-pointed star on top.
The sports cars, by contrast, had a low, wide grille with a horizontal slat and a big star in the centre. The two outlines were entirely different.
Over the years, though, the "formal" sedan grille has become more squashed and its edges more curved, until now, in the 2007 C-Class, its outline is that of the sports-car grille.
And that means the same car can now have two different faces according to its degree of sportification: badge on top or within.
I try an Avantgarde version first, the sportier model which will be called Sport in the UK. It has the most powerful petrol engine, a 3.5-litre V6 with 204kW plus the optional "Advanced Agility" version of the "Agility Control" suspension fitted to all new C-Classes. All this agility sounds very promising and very BMW-chasing.
The idea is to make this car, which is larger but barely heavier than its predecessor, feel smaller when you're
driving it, to the benefit of wieldiness.
The key to Agility Control is a damper that allows supple suspension movements when the car is driven gently and firmer ones to damp the bigger movements that come with keener driving.
It's not a new idea - damper-maker Monroe had something similar for the aftermarket a few years ago - but it's a novelty for a production car and uses no electronics.
This Avantgarde/Sport version sits lower on its firmer springs and dampers, has more responsive steering and has both a more keenly shifting Sport mode for its automatic transmission and steering-wheel paddles with which to select the seven gears manually.
Clear? Good. So what about looks? The front wheels of this rear-wheel drive car are pushed well forward, a joy to see in a world full of front-wheel drive cars with ungainly front overhangs and that split-personality nose is unexpectedly bluff.
Is that uprightness to comply with pedestrian-protection legislation? It is, but it's also to give the nose authority. Thus is a virtue made of necessity.
The rising, convex waistline is typical new-age Mercedes but the interior might court more controversy. There are plenty of padded surfaces, more than in the previous C-Class, which sat too heavily on the Mercedes laurels, but the texture of the fascia looks cheap.
Other quality solecisms include untidiness around the satnav screen when it has emerged from its burrow, the boot hinges with cheap metal pressings and the handle for the boot mat whose hinge is plastic moulding.
Will that still work in 30 years, as Mercedes-Benzes are supposed to do?
I like the streamlined door trim and the instruments are ultra-clear. So we set off, the V6 spinning more smoothly than a V6 ever did in the old C-Class, the suspension absorbing bumps quietly and smoothly in spite of the Sport appellation. It feels great, like a handier E-Class.
It's easy to lose interest in manual mode with so many ratios but the automatic mode works so well you can leave it to its own devices, even when pressing on.
And when doing so, you can feel a quick, tidy steering response even before engaging Sport mode, which then renders the ride less serene, but still acceptable.
This is a sophisticated, satisfying car to drive, if a little more aloof than its Bavarian rival.
Now I try the C320 CDI Elegance and it all falls into place. This is more the proper Mercedes-Benz and less the BMW tribute, not least because you can aim it via the star gun sight on the bonnet.
The softer suspension gives a more pillowy ride - it's extremely comfortable - but this Benz still stays composed through corners and its thee-litre, 168kW, turbodiesel V6 is as muscularly magnificent as ever. Here's the new C-Class in its optimum form.
There are other forms but we haven't been able to try them yet. The range will begin with the launch with two four-cylinder cars, a supercharged, 1.8-litre, C200 Kompressor (now with 138kW) and a C220 CDI, and there's a three-litre, V6 C280 as well as the two cars here tested.
Some models will be available as manuals but hardly anyone will buy them, given the C-Class's perverse, foot-operated parking brake.
They will be joined even later by a C180 Kompressor, a C230 V6 and a C200 CDI, and a V8-engined C63 AMG, plus estate cars and coupés.
Oh, and the entry-level models are no longer called Classic. They are now SE, which may be a dig at BMW, which applies those initials to posh versions. Yes, it's the clash of the Teutons again.
from £27 800 (R392 000), SA R366 000. All-wheel drive and the most power, if not torque, in the class make for an undemanding drive. It's the best-finished of the lot but getting dated now.
from £29 720 (R420 000), SA R385 000. The Benz's deadliest rival has a smooth, ultra-punchy, straight-six engine and a shade more dynamic pizazz. Styling is challenging, quality is excellent, satisfaction considerable.
from £23 255 (R330 220), SA R310 000)). The only other conceivable rival to big-diesel Germans is the five-cylinder, 138kW S60. Sounds sweet, goes well, good to be in, but a bit dull to drive. New model isn't far away.