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I finally met Eleanor – my automotive unicorn. No, she isn’t a grey Mustang but, much like in the modern Gone in Sixty Seconds movie, this car has given me a proper runaround. With three cancelled bookings and a premature departure from my house, I now know that my Eleanor is a Mercedes-Benz CLS400.
What you need to know: The new C-Class was introduced earlier this year so this car commands a lot of attention. It’s available with turbo-petrol and turbo-diesel engines, of which this is the smaller one. What you concede in performance, you’ll make up in fuel savings. Mercedes claims 4.3L/100km.
It just happened again. Motoring journalists are not infallible and for the third time in my career I made a slightly huge mistake. The first one involved a hidden Honda CD player, my second blunder was mistaking a Jeep’s engine and this newest one follows that tradition with the Mercedes-Benz ML400 4Matic.
Purpose. It’s a subject I can’t shake every time I test a new car and the most fascinating topic when discussing people’s choice of vehicle. There’s no rule or law which dictates the proper use of a vehicle which is why you’ll find 4×4’s on the school run and small Asian rentals knee-deep in Sossusvlei sand.
Met die onlangse bekendstelling deur Mercedes-Benz Suid-Afrika (MBSA) van sy nuwe C-klas modelle, wat plaaslik gebou word, het Mercedes se ingenieurs weereens bewys dat hulle nie skroom om bestaande grense te toets en die doelpale te verskuif nie.
The most successful Mercedes-Benz model has long been the C-Class so it was obvious that the Stuttgart brigade would capitalise on its fame. After estate versions, they’ve produced two coupés over the years but, in my humble opinion, this third generation is the first winner.
Seasoned readers will know what’s coming – yup, another confession. The first car I ever owned and the car I owned the longest, was a C-Class. When I despondently handed over the keys last year it had covered 233,000km and was still as tight as a drum.