It’s a real head-turner, but is there substance behind the C-Class Coupé’s styling?
Looking at the C-Class Coupé’s elegant hindquarters, you have to give Mercedes-Benz a good deal of credit for allowing the sheer size of theatre conveyed by many of its flagship cars to filter downwards to its more attainable wares. The key question, then, is if the hard-working mechanicals beneath this range-topping model’s S-Class Coupé-flavoured aesthetic bestowments can come anywhere close to matching the sheen of its shapely shell.
Benz’s ability to micronise the aesthetic virtues of the flagship two-door’s sporty looking, boat-tailed rump and tack it onto the back of a car that’s 60 mm longer than its forebear while still making the whole shooting match look aesthetically resolved – is something of a design triumph. Other design elements such as the high belt-line that compresses the glasshouse within the rakish arc of the roofline, satisfyingly hefty frameless doors, and a ride height 15 mm lower than that of the sedan (the car is 37 mm lower overall) further impress the cues this car takes from its bigger brother.
Forward of the A-pillar, the changes are less dramatic. There are some ever-so-slight revisions to elements within the headlamps, the application of the single-louvre, in-grille mount for the Mercedes-Benz emblem and the installation of the firm’s intricate diamond grille treatment across the range. Factor in a long-bonneted, short-tailed, classic coupé profile and the new two-door manages to be even more handsome and attention garnering than its dapper predecessor.
Although this is a non-AMG model, there’s a decidedly sporty air to the car’s innards. It’s especially evident in a driver’s post that sees you sitting low down, hemmed in by deep doors, ensconced in well-bolstered sports seats and peering at the world through narrow glazing. Given the especially striking figure that it cuts in the sedan, the C-Class dash has only been mildly massaged in its application here. Like the sedan, perceived quality is great, but traversing speed bumps and rippled stretches of road occasionally unearths a trim creak here and there. And while NVH is generally kept in check, there’s a bit more tyre roar and wind noise around the wing mirrors permeating the cabin than you’d expect.
Materially, there are some interesting touches. Wonderfully tactile open-pore wood adorning the centre stack and metallic trim running around the upper facia and doors is particularly stylish, while other items that form part of this vehicle’s Edition 1 package tread a fine line between daring and divisive, including a rather bizarre trim combination of seats upholstered with black panels and brown bolsters, with contrasting turquoise stitching.
As per most coupés in the C’s vein, rear accommodation is tight, while access and egress are tighter still. At least the rear seats have a slightly bucketed profile that makes them comfortable enough for adults on short hops. The boot, although fairly shallow, cuts a good way into the car’s body and should be able to just about swallow a week’s shopping or a brace of golf bags.
The C300 Coupé, as befits Mercedes-Benz’s ever-growing divergence between cubic capacity and nomenclatures, is powered by a 2,0-litre turbopetrol with 180 kW beneath its belt. Like most of the carmaker’s four-pot units, it majors in torque, developing 370 N.m in a broad swathe between 1 300 and 4 000 r/min. The latter lends the Coupé an impressive degree of in-gear flexibility, ensuring that there’s a good dollop of torque on hand in mixed driving scenarios. Its low-rev availability certainly showed its eagerness during our acceleration test runs, with the Coupé happily spinning its tyres before sprinting to 100 km/h in a respectable 6,67 seconds.
Despite being swaddled in a good deal of sound-deadening material, the engine still exhibits the rather gruff nature typical of Benz’s four-cylinder units, even under modest acceleration. Nudge the drivetrain-selector switch into its sport setting and a pleasing smooth-edged, almost straight-six-esque snarl filters into the cabin with every dip of the throttle. This is accompanied by a palpable sharpening of the throttle and gearshift mapping that’s often an afterthought in drivetrain selector-equipped cars of this ilk.
Mercedes’ 7G-tronic transmission has proved itself to be something of a mixed bag when coupled with some of the company’s less-powerful engines. However, our experience with this unit in the C300 Coupé proved to be largely pleasant, devoid of the trailing-throttle hunt-and-shunt in the otherwise smooth, stately progress made in most of Mercedes-Benz’s wares. Gearshifts are fluid and well measured, with the ‘box capably going about its business of wafting you around in a leisurely, effortless manner. The only quibble is a tendency to hesitate slightly under hard overtaking, but both the responsive paddle shifters and sport drivetrain setting are capable of resolving initial indecisiveness. In our mixed-use fuel-route test, the C300 returned 9,0 L/100 km, which is on par in a car of this mass and application.
Although Benz has no doubt left the outright dynamic proverbials-to-the-brickwork stuff to the AMG-badged variants, the standard Coupé is still surprisingly engaging. With a fairly feelsome power-steering setup, longer wheelbase and broader tracks than its forebear, not to mention suspension geometry that’s been subtly tuned towards more involved driving, the Coupé is no slouch in the handling department and doesn’t submit to body lean as easily as the sedan upon which it’s based. It’s only when really pressing on that it exhibits a hint of lightness about the nose, which will eventually wash wide when things get really tight and fast.
Sensibly shod, the Coupé shares much of the sedan’s traits as a consummate cruiser, bar the latter’s cushiony ride. That revised suspension setup possesses a slightly stiffer, sportier bent than it does in the sedan, while opting for the Edition 1 package nixes the car’s standard 18-inch 45-front/40-rear profile footwear for 19-inchers with 40/35-profile rubber, front to rear. These rims contribute to a ride that errs on the firm side and was largely saved from becoming overly jarring by the fitment of adaptive air suspension on our test unit. As with most air-suspended setups, the Coupé’s ride proves supple enough to iron out most road imperfections, with the bellows being caught out on occasion by larger road scars.