The C-Class is simply the boldest design of any of the small European cars, and the slickest in the entire Mercedes family with a drag-coefficient of only 0.27 for the sedan. While the sedan and wagon versions have a traditional Mercedes horizontal bar grille flanked by huge headlamp assemblies that are part of the new look at Mercedes, the C230 Coupe uses the star-grille front end instead of the bar-grille, with wild twin-oval headlamps, a swooping roofline, and a functional rear spoiler at the short rear end that adds downforce on the rear tires at high speeds. The coupe was shortened seven inches overall com-pared to the sedan.
Although the coupe is not as aerodynamic as the C-Class sedan, 0.29 to the sedan's 0.27 coefficient of drag, it's still one of the slickest cars in the industry, and it looks twice as mean and twice as slick as the sedan, with nothing there that doesn't need to be there. The long coupe doors make for easy ingress/egress, especially to the rear seats. Nice touches include the turn signal repeaters built into the outside mirrors, and the extra pane of glass underneath the spoiler that adds more rearward vision. The standard ten-spoke alloy wheels are especially sporty.

Options for the line include automatic transmission ($1300), leather interior trim ($1400), power seats ($1225), Bose audio system ($610), the COMAND dashboard system with navigation and telephone ($2080), headlamp washer and heated seats ($820), a CD player/telephone package ($1800), and on the Coupe, a panorama roof with rain-sensing wipers ($995).

The indoor parts of the C-Class family are at least as appealing as the outdoor parts. The instrument panel design, with its new graphics and deep hood, is shared among the coupe, sedan and wagon, with minor changes, and it's extremely easy to use and understand. The stalk controls all have a nice, beefy feel with positive detents. We like what they've done with the layout and the décor of the center stack, where the vents, secondary controls, climate control system, and audio system are mounted, with its wood or aluminum trim and largish, easy-to-grab controls. The glovebox is quite a good size, too, unless you order the CD player, in which case you lose most of the glovebox storage (you'll have to use the center console and the big door pockets).
While the Coupe has standard cloth manual seats with individual adjusters for fore/aft, height, and seatback rake, the more expensive sedans use leather interior trim, and the C32 AMG has its own special sports seats and seat upholstery design, with special AMG gauges. The coupe seats feature a release system that automatically slides the seat forward when the seatback is pulled forward, opening up the rear compartment for entry. The sedan and wagon versions have conventional reclining seats that don't need to fold forward.

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Rear seats in the C-Class are far more generous in space and comfort than the previous C-Class seats (we know; we owned two of them), and the interior in general has larger dimensions in almost every area. The seats in the hatchback coupe should be perfectly fine and comfortable for most of the population, but the rear roof slopes down quite a bit, restricting headroom 2.2 inches less than the front seats. That said, the 60/40 rear seat folds down effortlessly, either with the bottom sections folded forward or left in place, depending on how much cargo room you need, opening up from a 10 cubic-foot trunk to a 38 cubic-foot cargo bay that can hold some ridiculously large cargoes. The trunk/cargo bay is as nicely detailed as the rest of the interior.
The station wagon version has exactly the same interior and exterior dimensions save for that wonderful extra space behind the second seat, which opens out from 16.6 cubic feet of flat-floor load space to nearly 49 cubic feet, with tie-downs, cupholders and lights to ease cargo-carrying duty.