Overall, its innovations and refined equipment and appointments feel like an upgrade to a higher class. The interior design of the upcoming C-Class meets high design expectations synonymous with technology of high-end smartphones. The most prominent new styling features include a completely reinterpreted centre console, whose progressive lines create an inviting, open sense of space, as well as a free standing central display.

On vehicles with automatic transmissions, its large, singular piece dashboard console sweeps elegantly from the centre air outlets to the touchpad in the handrest over the controller on the central tunnel. The large unique component is available in numerous material finishes - such as fine wood, precisely bordered by a chrome surround, or in an exclusive piano-lacquer look.

A centrally positioned free-standing central display is present with a screen diagonal of 7 or 8.4-inches - if COMAND Online is specified. The larger version is made of bonded glass and galvanised with a frame in silver shadow. The innovative touchpad developed by Mercedes-Benz marks an important evolutionary step. As on a smartphone, all the head-unit functions can easily be operated using finger gestures supported by clear haptic feedback.

The front occupants can utilise the touchpad to control all the functions using multitouch gestures familiar from smartphones and tablet PCs. The touchpad also supports handwriting recognition function, in the respective language supported by the head unit. Characters entered using the handwriting function can also be read aloud by the system, thus supporting blind operation. The acoustic output also ensures that the driver does not need to take their eyes off the road, keeping distraction to an absolute minimum.

A head-up display projects important information like speed, speed limits, navigation instructions and messages from DISTRONIC PLUS as a virtual image directly into the driver's field of vision. It appears to float over the bonnet, around two metres in front of the driver, thus ensuring the driver is less distracted less from the road ahead.

Thanks to innovative lightweight construction and extensive usage of aluminium, hot-formed steel parts and ultra-high-strength steels, the body and bodyshell are around 70kg lighter than conventional production using steel. Due to this the entire vehicle is around 100kg lighter compared with the predecessor which results in lesser fuel consumption. Despite the lighter weight, safety is not compromised as the body and bodyshell have been designed to deliver exemplary crash safety.

The new C-Class is the only vehicle in the segment to offer an air condition system including automatic air recirculation with tunnel detection using satellite navigation. The AIR-BALANCE package with active fragrance and ionisation, which celebrated its world premiere in the S-Class, also adds to the feel-good atmosphere.