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By
EWAN KENNEDY
5 November 2007
Mercedes-Benz has been one of the few companies to offer
diesel-engined cars virtually continuously for many years. Other diesels
have come and gone according to fashion fads, but Mercedes diesels have
long been popular with the man on the land so have remained on the
upmarket-luxury scene in Australia.
Now there's something pretty special in the form of the just
introduced Mercedes C320 CDI. The 3.0-litre (no, the numbers don’t
match up, but that’s the way Merc does it these days) V6
turbo-diesel manages a very impressive 165 kilowatts, the sort of
output that required a V8 petrol engine not that many years back.
Even better is the incredible 510 Nm of torque developed by the
turbo-diesel engine. Torque that’s there virtually all the time
in normal driving because that peak is reached at a mere 1600 rpm
and continues all the way through to 2800 revs. On the road
there's simply pulling power climbing or overtaking, anytime
anywhere.
This performance is achieved from an engine that’s smooth and
quiet in its output and which answers the accelerator pedal pretty
quickly as it drives through Mercedes’ excellent seven-speed
automatic transmission.
Yet the fuel consumption of this engine, at 7.4 litres per
hundred kilometres on the official Australian standard
measurement, is probably about half of that of the aforementioned
165 kW V8 of years gone by. (Though to be fair it has to be said
that modern V8 petrol units show big improvements in efficiency
compared to their forebears’.
The just released Mercedes C320 CDI comes in at a pretty
reasonable $92,888, plus on-road costs. It joins the existing
2.0-litre four-cylinder and 2.8-litre V6 turbo-diesels in Mercedes’
ever expanding range of new C-Class models. Then there's a number
of petrol units as well.
Mercedes C320 CDI comes with the interesting new Agility
Package. This adapts the dampers (shock absorbers) rapidly to give
improved road grip, while retaining excellent comfort levels.
Sold in the class Elegance range, with a high degree of comfort
and luxury items, the new Mercedes C320 CDI gives you the best of
three worlds – performance, economy and refinement. A fine buy
for those who can afford one.
© Copyright
Marque Publishing Company
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