Mercedes C-Class Saloon interior
The Mercedes C-Class’ interior is luxurious and beautifully designed, with loads of hi-tech kit.
Style
The Mercedes C-Class’ interior is one of its best aspects – we reckon it’s way classier than the cabins in the BMW 3 Series or the Audi A4. It’s a lot like the high-end S-Class but more youthful and sporty. It’s a really modern, snazzy looking place to spend time.
There are loads of neat touches all over the place, including ambient lighting and plenty of leather upholstery. There are even lights in the air vents that go from blue to red as you increase or decrease the temperature. We liked the trim in our German-spec test car, and we hope the UK models are as well-appointed.
The C-Class has two main screens in the cabin, one large central unit that rises up out of the centre console and another behind the steering wheel in place of traditional dials. It’s a step away from the previous model’s set-up with twin screens mounted on the dashtop, and gives the cabin a more visually interesting edge.
Leather seats are standard and the material quality inside is generally very good. There are some stretches of hard, scratchy plastics lower down on the doors and on the underside of the dash, however, and these aren’t as nice to touch. A BMW 3 Series feels like it has a slightly more solidly-built interior too, but not by much.
There’s a new steering wheel that looks smart, but we don’t like the touch-sensitive buttons as they’re fiddly to use. Regular push buttons would be much easier to deal with.
- 1. Tell us what you want from a car
- 2. We’ll tell you if it matches
- 3. Only takes 1 minute
Infotainment
The main 11.9-inch portrait-style screen in the centre of the dash houses the air-conditioning controls, which is a bit frustrating. They’re not easy to use when you’re driving as you can’t tell if you’ve pressed the right button without having to check twice.
Otherwise, the MBUX operating system looks really slick. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are available, as is built-in navigation. There’s even a ‘Hey Mercedes’ voice command service, but as with most of these sorts of set-ups we found it trickier to use than just pressing a button.
The driver’s display is very clear and has loads of customisation options for the dials and speed readouts. If you’d rather not see information such as fuel consumption or journey time, you can use the buttons on the steering wheel to bring up sat nav directions, or multimedia playback information.
The infotainment system in the C-Class can also receive over-the-air updates via the internet, so you don’t have to visit a dealer to gain access to new features. It can even connect to smart devices including home security systems.
- 1. Tell us what you want from a car
- 2. We’ll tell you if it matches
- 3. Only takes 1 minute