Benz plans C-Class hatch

Mercedes-Benz will introduce at least one surprise body derivative of its all-new C-Class range, which will make its world debut in sedan form at the Geneva motor show next March.

With four body styles in both left- and right-hand drive confirmed for all variants right from the start, the new C-Class -- codenamed W205 -- is already being touted internally as the company’s BMW 3 Series buster.

Based on Daimler’s new Modular Rear Drive (MRA) architecture, the new C-Class will arrive in showrooms globally from the middle of next year in sedan, wagon, coupe and, surprisingly, five-door hatchback variants.

Benz plans to aim its all-new C-Class hatch directly at the 3 Series GranTurismo and insiders admit the five-door will be the sportiest and most athletic of the mainstream C-Class models until the coupe arrives in 2015.

“It is aimed at those markets, like the United Kingdom and Australia, that enjoy taut-feeling athletic cars,” one insider admitted during the Frankfurt motor show last week.

The W205 will have a wheelbase of around 2850mm, or around 100mm longer than the current W204 C-Class sedan, and its overall length should stretch out beyond 4700mm.

Benz has seen the need to restamp the authority of the C-Class with the W205 because the supposedly junior CLA sedan, based on the A-Class’s front/all-wheel drive MFA architecture, is actually longer overall than the W204. At 4630mm, the CLA sedan is around 40mm longer from bumper to bumper, even if it sits on a shorter wheelbase.

Most of the extra wheelbase in the W205 will be given over to rear-seat occupants, who will also have longer, wider-opening doors to make it easier to climb in and out.

Front-seat occupants haven’t been forgotten either, with spy shots confirming the W205 will have a wide stance for its speedo and tacho, with a large TFT screen separating the two gauges. There will also be a stand-out multi-media screen with next-generation computer hardware and graphics, all controlled by a large, console-mounted multi-function rotary knob.

“This interior will be something special,” one Mercedes-Benz insider insisted. “It has better materials and technology in the interior than the outgoing S-Class and the connectivity is light years ahead,” the source claimed.

The MRA architecture won’t just house four new C-Classes, either, because it will be at the core of all of Daimler’s most profitable, most important Mercedes-Benz models. The next E-Class and CLS will both use the MRA layout, while the S-Class will sit on top of three different MRA chassis lengths, too.

The new architecture, designed for modular use from the beginning, is lighter, stiffer and far more adjustable than the W204 chassis. It means the C-Class will also be in line for many of the S-Class’s ground-breaking electronics and ride technology and Benz could decide to take advantage of economies of scale to smash the segment norms in ride and handling.

Sources have confirmed the new C-Class will come with air suspension, at least as an option, which could also allow it to feature the S-Class’s ‘magic’ active ride control, which uses stereo cameras to read road bumps then adjust the damping precisely in time to eliminate jarring from the cabin.

The W205 will also sport some of the most advanced lighting in the car industry, with full LED headlights available as an option, matched to Benz’s dazzling array of camera and sensing technology to actively seek out and warn of errant pedestrians.

The MRA engineering edicts will also, finally, put an end to Daimler’s much-hated bias to left-hand drive, with Daimler’s Research and Development boss, Dr Thomas Weber, vowing to deliver every Benz model in right-hand drive.

Driven by predicted growth in India, the move to engineer right-hookers will affect the W205 first and also means the end of anomalies like the GLK and the all-wheel drive E-Class, both of which are currently produced only in left-hand drive form.

“In the past, sometimes based on complexity reasons, always there was a question of why you do all these technologies and not make them available for right-hand drive,” Dr Weber said at Frankfurt.

“Based on this new architecture, it’s now easier and part of our strategy. We see a growing importance there. It’s definite we will do as fast as possible technologies for the right-hand drive versions.

“Now our strategy is as fast as possible all markets in a shorter time period, including right-hand drive markets. Not to focus on Germany or Europe and then to go in the different markets with the huge bandwidth of displacements.”

One model that is an unlikely starter for an MRA suit fitting, even as Benz plans to introduce 13 new models to the line-up by the end of 2016, is a convertible. Internal Mercedes sources insist that a C-Class coupe would need to be a four-seater and that would be too close in size and price to the existing E-Class Cabriolet (which sits on the same underpinnings as the W204 C-Class).

Oddly, too, for a supposedly all-new model, the W205 will run the outlawed R134A air-conditioning refrigerant. Though Mercedes has been brawling with the French government over the right to use the R1234yf gas and had sales of its A-, B- and SL-Class models banned in France, sources say it refuses to use the gas in the W205 on safety grounds.

EU laws allow cars like the Volkswagen Golf and even the new S-Class to use the old refrigerant on ‘sunset’ clauses, and it’s believed Mercedes-Benz has insisted in its homologation papers that the W205 is merely a “face lifted” model, not an all-new car.

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