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Mercedes-Benz C-Class 230 Avantgarde road test : Six appeal

    The sound a car makes can make a fan out of the unbeliever. There have been times when I’ve heard a loud car while walking the streets of Mumbai and have stopped, trying to make out what car it was, only to see a taxi going past, its driver in a hurry to ferry his passenger to the destination. In a country full of cars powered by four cylinders, the offbeat burble of a crossplane V8 is like manna from heaven. Even the strange there-are-aliens-under-the-hood sounds that emanate from diesel V6s are preferable to the frankly ordinary sounds from other engines.
    Does the C230 Avantgarde pass the aural test? We put it in neutral, floored the throttle to find out, and did it again, because we didn’t believe our ears. It was like prodding a sleeping tiger in it’s eye – the tachometer needle gathered momentum as it raced around the dial, stopped only by the rev limiter. Accompanying the snarl from under the hood was a shimmy from the body on its springs, much like a muscle car. This was going to be a fun test!

Ride/handling compromise, steering feel

All-black dashboard

Comments on this road test (Latest 10 are shown)

Centaur
on 09 Jul, 2009 at 10:22 AM

great review and excellent pics there!

Charles
on 09 Jul, 2009 at 10:09 AM

You wouldn't believe the amount of effort I've had to put into beige dashboards for some of the test cars - what you see certainly isn't always what we get!

Pankaj Prasad
on 09 Jul, 2009 at 09:59 AM

I myself clean my car (daily) but that's not the reason for my liking Laughing

Anyway!

Charles
on 09 Jul, 2009 at 09:48 AM

@Ami: both were taken in equally hurried conditions - it's just that the C had the rain gods on its side, so it was cloudy but with no rain :P

@Pankaj: I'd take the black dash if I was cleaning the car myself - else it's beige.

Pankaj Prasad
on 08 Jul, 2009 at 10:18 PM

Nice review.  The photos are really good.  Thanks.

I like all-black dashboard (personal choice).

Ami
on 08 Jul, 2009 at 05:36 PM

That was nice. Much better photos here in comparison to that of Ritz's. I guess you were being quite partial Wink

Charles
on 08 Jul, 2009 at 10:56 AM
We drive Mercdes-Benz's reply to Audi and BMW's six-cylinder saloons: Mercedes-Benz C-Class 230 Avantgarde