Impractical as they may be as family transport, two-door coupés lend themselves to dramatic styling, with long, uninterrupted horizontals and low, swooping rooflines.
And that's exactly what Mercedes-Benz has gone for with the new C-Class Coupé - its first in this segment - with a long bonnet, steeply raked windscreen and stretched-out roof over a very short rear deck. It shares its front treatment with the C-Class sedan, but with a couple of sporty tweaks.
MBSA marketing head Eckart Meyer put it thusly: “We are extending the C-Class portfolio with the coupé, consciously targeting new customers with a youthful, stylish and dynamic new model - a sporty way to enter the world of the Mercedes coupé.”
The two-door C-Class is definitively a four-seater, featuring sports front seats with integral head restraints and individual chairs at the rear. Three tube rings with a galvanised finish frame the major instruments and a luxurious swathe of trim runs across the dashboard from the centre air vents to the outer vent on the passenger side.
The trim sections are available in a striking new porcelain piano-lacquer finish, as well as the usual piano black.
C-Class Coupé customers have a choice of three petrol and one diesel engine, each with direct fuel-injection and the diesel with auto stop/start as standard.
The C180 is rated for 115kW at 5000rpm and 250Nm just off idle, pulls to 100km/h in nine seconds and tops out at 225, burning 6.8 litres/100km and coughing 157g/km of CO2.
The C250 has the same 1796cc four, but tweaked up to 150kW at 5500 revs, 310Nm at 2300rpm, 0-100 in 7.2sec and a terminal velocity of 240km/h for the expenditure of seven litres/100km and 163g/km of CO2.
The hard-revving C350 V6 peels off 225kW at 6500rpm and 370Nm at 3500, hits 100km/h from a standing start in six seconds flat and will reach 250km/h, all for the same fuel consumption and emissions as the C250.
The C250 CDI has a 2143cc four for which Stuttgart quotes 150kW at 4200 revs, 500Nm at 1600rpm, 0-100 in seven seconds and 240km/h top speed, for a conservative 5.3 litres/100km and 139g/km of CO2.
The C180 and the diesel can be had with either a six-speed manual or 7G-Tronic auto transmission, the C250 and C350 in seven-speed auto format only.
The C-Class Coupé comes standard with “agility control” suspension, an amplitude-sensitive damping system than softens the ride when the wheel movements are small (i.e. cruising on a smooth road) but stiffens the shock absorber settings when suspension travel increase, for example in fast cornering or evasive manoeuvres, to reduce body roll and pitching.
An optional, 15mm lower, sports suspension package includes stiffer springs, dampers ands anti-roll bars as well as speed-sensitive sports steering.
Nine airbags are standard, as is Attention Assist wake-up call for tired drivers. Options include a host of driver aids including adaptive cruise control, all based on the latest radar, camera and sensor technology.
PRICES
C180 Coupé - R394 000
C250 Coupé - R494 000
C250 CDI Coupé - R495 000
C350 Coupé - R590 000