New Mercedes Cle Nearing Full Reveal In 2023 Mercedes Cle Coupe Thinks The C

Like many a carmaker these days, Mercedes-Benz is largely pursuing a strategy of offering the same flavor of automobile in different sizes. The new all-electric EQE and EQS look almost identical, and you can bet their future SUV siblings will as well; the GT & GT 4-Door could be confused for one another from the front if you didn"t have them side-by-side for reference. It"s even present in their naming strategy; there"s a reason Mercedes rebranded the GLK-, ML- và GL-Class SUVs as GLC, GLE và GLS, and it ain"t because their badge supplier was offering a khuyến mãi on the letters G and L.

But there"s precedent for this move at Mercedes — & it"s the C-Class. Even more than the E-Class, which often has a bit of its own distinct design flavor (remember the quad-headlight era of the 1990s?), the compact C has long been a shrunken-down version of the range-topping S-Class in looks & vibe.

So, with an all-new C-Class hitting the streets this spring for the 2023 mã sản phẩm year, we took it for a spin in upstate thủ đô new york to see if it still manages khổng lồ serve up S-Class vibes at a Ford Mustang GT price.

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What makes the 2023 C-Class special?

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The biggest difference versus the S-Class is the back seat, however. That"s no surprise — the S is 21.2 inches longer and has a 13.4-inch-longer wheelbase — but the C"s second row winds up being tight enough as khổng lồ be almost unusable for grown humans. With the driver"s seat pushed back to lớn a comfortable, but not extreme, position for my six-foot-four frame, there wasn"t even enough room behind me to lớn slip my midsize backpack between the back of my seat and the back bench cushion; legs would be pretty much impossible.

Granted, this won"t be a problem for everyone; if you"re not of great stature, or if you use your back seat primarily for carrying groceries, luggage & / or pets, the C-Class will work quite well for you. But if your driving plans involve conveying three or more people of above-average height, you"ll probably want lớn seek another mode of transport.

The compact luxury sedan category may not be the hotbed of excitement it once was — as with many things, you can blame the rise of SUVs for that — but there are still plenty of comparable options for this kích cỡ and price. The BMW 3 Series, of course, is first and foremost; Audi would love to show potential C-Class buyers something in an A4; Cadillac offers both the CT4 and CT5, depending on whether you value space or price more; Volvo has the S60, Genesis has the G70, Infiniti has the Q50, Acura has the TLX, Lexus has the ES và the IS. And of course, there"s the Tesla mã sản phẩm 3, which offers an electric take on the same basic idea of a not-too-large luxury sedan.

Still, while each of those offers benefits distinct unto themselves, none of them has a three-pointed star on the nose. That would likely be enough to lớn move plenty of units no matter how good the new C-Class is; luckily for buyers, though, Mercedes made sure the new version remains very much worthy of that badge.