2014 Mercedes-Benz C-Class

The C43 is Mercedes-AMG’s answer to a more performance oriented C-Class. While this model finds its place below the C63 AMG S in the current C-Class influenced AMG line-up in India, it slots above the CLA45 AMG. Sure, the latter comes close to the C43 AMG in terms of price and power output, but the C43 AMG makes a case for itself since it’s a part of the C-Class family, which is a cut above.

Well, when Mercedes-Benz actually announced the car, we didn’t really know where the C 43 would slot in considering the C 63 AMG S already exists and below it sits the CLA 45 AMG. While the rear wheel drive C 63 sits at the top with 500 plus bhp and a pricing upwards of one crore, the CLA 45 AMG was many a rungs lower and in its current ‘yet to be updated’ trim makes 355bhp with the power being transferred to all four wheels. Now, we have the C 43 that makes 362bhp and gets 4MATIC as well. Mercedes-Benz already has the most performance-oriented models in their Indian line-up and the C 43 just adds to it. While that’s one of the reasons we saw for its introduction, the other could be customer demanding a more powerful C-Class but not wanting to spend upwards of a crore for it.

The new Mercedes C250d is a more powerful and better-equipped version of the C-Class, which hitherto, was only available in the 220d guise for diesel aficionados. According to Mercedes, the C250d was always part of the India plan, and is the German carmaker’s way of offering a wider choice to C-Class buyers.