Mercedes aims for younger buyers with new C-Class Estate

Mercedes-Benz UK said this week at the UK media launch of their new C-Class Estates that the average age of their estate customers was 57 years and 84 per cent were male.

By introducing models more sporting in style terms they aim to drive down the average age of users to their late 40s and to attract more female customers. Mercedes said, in addition to sporty styling the new C-Class Estate models have higher equipment levels, more load space, more power, more performance but emit less CO2 emissions.

Nick Williams, product group manager for Mercedes-Benz said that although they were looking to appeal to younger customers with the aggressive styling of the Sport versions of the new estate, they also aimed for the new range to retain its appeal to traditional C-Class Estate buyers with SE and Elegance variants.

All new models he said offer high versatility, high levels of driver and passenger comfort, class leading load capacity, a Euro NCAP five-star safety rating and their certified environmental credentials.

Mercedes is the only automotive manufacturer to be accredited with the Environmental Certificate recognising the achievement of meeting ISO standards in ‘Design for the environment’.

What this means in practise is, throughout the life cycle of their vehicles (dust to dust), emissions of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide are reduced by 12 tonnes per vehicle, equivalent of a 19 per cent reduction since 2001.

The new Mercedes-Benz C-Class Estate models have been available for customers to order for some time but deliveries will start in early March, C63 AMG versions follow in May. On- the- road prices begin at £24,630 for the C180 Kompressor with SE specification and rise to £52,570 for the C63 AMG variant. C-Class Estate models carry a £1,200 price premium over the comparative Saloon versions.

The likely best selling model, the C220 CDI diesel with SE specification costs £26,760, or with the expected high selling Sport upgrade, this model will be priced at £29,655. Prices show an average 3.8 per cent increase over the outgoing Estate versions but Mercedes say this is offset by the better equipment levels, more space and improved performance.

Traditionally the C-Class Estate sales are split 50-50 between fleet and retail customers, 54 per cent of sales are for diesel models and 93 per cent of customers choose an automatic transmission option.

However Mercedes UK think the take-up of manual gearbox models will increase for two reasons. Firstly the on-the-road price of a car with an automatic gearbox is higher so fleet and business users are becoming more a cautious of incurring high levels of benefit-in-kind taxation.

Secondly the traditional Mercedes foot operated parking brake has not been easy to use on manual transmission models. Once the parking brake had been released with a car on an incline, the driver had to hold the vehicle on the footbrake whilst attempting to quickly move their right foot to the accelerator.

Now all models have Hill Start Assist which gives the driver enough time to move their foot to the accelerator pedal without the car rolling backwards.

C-Class Estate engines

On average Mercedes sell in the region of 4,000 C-Class Estates in the UK annually, as opposed to 17,000 C-Class Saloons. But demand for estate cars is growing, particularly in the medium sized C-segment because some customers are now moving away from five-door hatchbacks and more new customers are down-sizing from larger D-segment vehicles.

By far the main selling engine for C-Class Estate is the C220 CDI turbodiesel which takes 48 per cent of sales, mainly fleet and business users. The second highest selling engine is the C180 Kompressor petrol unit which appeals to 33 per cent of customers, mainly retail buyers.

All four-cylinder engines for the new C-Class Estates have more power and torque and all engines on average have a 7 per cent reduction in fuel consumption and less CO2 emissions. Ninety-eight per cent of C-Class Estate models are under the future 225/gkm, £25 per day, London Congestion Charge.

The main selling C220 CDI diesel engine sees a 13 per cent increase in power from 150hp to 170hp and CO2 reducing by 12 per cent to 159g/m putting it in VED Band D with a £140 road tax cost.

The best selling petrol engine is the C180 Kompressor unit which sees power go up by 9 per cent from 143hp to 156hp whilst CO2 is down by 12 per cent to 168g/km giving it a VED rating of £165.

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