I’m told that we Irish are no longer big buyers of estate cars. Maybe part of the reason is that many small independent newsagents have been taken over in recent years by supermarket groups and they don’t need to go to Cash and Carry outlets anymore.
Or maybe it’s because everybody is switching to SUVs or people carriers. SUVs are great and they seem to be the dream car for most people. But there is something ‘old world’ about an Estate or Station Wagon as we used to call them.
If you want a bit of comfort and have a few euro to spend I think you should look at the impressive Mercedes C Class Estate.
I drove the C220 D Estate last week and it sure was comfortable. It’s a really long motor and you can fill up that huge boot with various items like groceries, bags of sand or gravel, dogs, golf clubs, rugby equipment, Gaelic football or hurling gear, but obviously not all at the same time!
All new Mercedes are now equipped with AMG line specifications. My test car was a 2.0-litre G-Tronic mild-hybrid diesel, with 220 brake horse power. If you are in a hurry you can go from zero to 100km/h in just over seven seconds and the top speed is 242km/h. But who wants penalty points?
The exterior colour was Graphite Grey. Inside the interior was dominated by the Sienna Brown Arterior leather seats which really looked the part.
The dash is dominated by a massive 12.3-inch screen which contains all the information you need when driving. It looked like a huge tablet, maybe as large of the two tablets Moses famously received all those years ago.
But I think this tablet is certainly a bit more modern than the one Moses received. It really is a huge tablet, but as it’s sloped it didn’t look ugly on the dash.
The radio controls have been changed. In older versions of the C-Class the radio was controlled from a panel located between the driver and front-seat passenger; now everything is contained in the tablet.
Another change in this new version is the stalk for the cruise control which used to be located near the steering wheel. The cruise control is now activated via a ‘slave’ on the steering wheel.
They are some of the changes on the dash, which may take just take a little getting used to. Now you have two cup-holders located between the driver and front-seat passenger and the usual deep box to hold various other items. Under the tablet there is a wireless charging area for your mobile phone.
As mentioned earlier, the boot is massive, but no spare wheel, just a repair kit. No doubt about it the C-Class Estate is a really classy car to drive and travel in. Roll on the summer days of picnics and forget about the cash and carry.
When you look at the car side-on it’s really long. Two silver roof-rails add to that elongated look. So you will definitely appreciate the reversing camera.
The mild-hybrid is a very frugal engine and you should be able to get close to 1,100 kilometres on a full tank of diesel.
All that luxury doesn’t come cheap, and the Estate will cost you €63,965. My test car had a few extras, which brought the price of the car as tested up to €70,776. Road tax is only €200.
