Mercedes-Benz now makes two cars called the C-Class. One is electric. The other is sometimes gasoline, sometimes diesel, sometimes hybrid. Both are full of screens, and both now have enormous front grilles.
Why? Because Merc has announced with much pomp and fanfare that you are witnessing the single biggest update ever applied to a C-Class. This is bigger than Windows XP. Bigger than GTA 6. It’s, well, a facelift of a German executive car.
Besides many, many three-pointed star motifs in the grille and lights to ensure your neighbors are well aware you didn’t buy a Chinese upstart, what’s the new C got going for it? Well, there’s, um, er, huh. Let’s see.
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The plug-in hybrid offers up to 100km of all-electric driving range. That’s deeply impressive and…the same as the pre-update C-Class. You can spec rear-wheel steering, though probably only in select markets. There’s new MBUX connectivity, which we fear will mean Merc will find a way to block the sun visors behind a subscription-only paywall.
The carmaker also says the new C-Class can listen to your conversations and suggest podcasts that fit the context—which isn’t dystopian at all. “In three hundred yards, turn left into the manosphere.”
One palpable improvement is to be found on the steering wheel. Merc has begun to admit defeat on its awful touch-sensitive steering wheel buttons, and has brought back a physical volume knob. But as you can see, the rest of the interior is still dominated by a screen that doubles as a handy ski jump for any small pets who might be lounging on the back seat.
No word yet on what AMG is going to do with this new C-Class. Put a V8 in it, perhaps? In the meantime, the most powerful regular C-Class is the four-wheel-drive C400e plug-in hybrid, which generates a combined 390hp.
Mercedes-Benz says all new Cs are ‘noticeably more agile’ thanks to retuned suspension. Just in time to fight the new BMW 3-Series, which is also splitting itself into combustion and purely electric twins to try to please all the people, all of the time…
More photos of the 2027 Mercedes-Benz C-Class:
NOTE: This story first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
