What's the news?

Mercedes-Benz has officially revealed its new C-Class Estate. It's a little bit bigger, lighter, more efficient and claimed to be full of safety tech. Comfort was one of the highest priorities for the new wagon.

Interior

There's an extra 80mm in the wheelbase compared to the old car, which is all to the benefit of cabin space, and the new C-Class Estate is 40mm wider than before too. However, in spite of having 45mm more legroom, the space in the boot has only gone up by five litres to 490 litres (or up by ten litres to 1,510 litres if you fold the seats).

Still, practicality was at least on Merc's mind when it laid out the boot. The rear seats split 40:20:40 and can be folded electrically, while the tailgate can be optionally powered too, and opened by waggling your foot under the back bumper.

Up front, the driver gets a clever S-Class-style touch-pad to play with when controlling the 'Comand' infotainment system and there's a head-up display too.

The front-passenger's seat can furthermore be equipped with an automatic child seat recognition system. This automatic front-passenger's airbag deactivation, introduced first by Mercedes-Benz, uses a pressure sensor in the seat cushion to detect whether an infant or child seat is placed on the front-passenger's seat and automatically deactivates the airbag. Contrary to other systems that require the airbag to be deactivated with a key, this system prevents incorrect operation. As no special transponder is required, the system works with all rear-facing child restraint systems.

Other clever touches include a climate control system that talks to the car's navigation and can adjust itself according to location (such as switching on the recirculation valve when going into a tunnel) and a specially designed space in the chassis to allow the fitting of a sub-woofer for the stereo system. There are also myriad options for in-car entertainment, connectivity and there's standard-fit Bluetooth phone hook-up.

Mechanicals

The body uses a lot more aluminium than before, so it's around 65kg lighter than the old one, and Mercedes claims that its 20 per cent more economical and efficient too. There'll be the usual range of 1.6- and 2.1-litre diesel engines to choose from, with power outputs raining from 115- to 204hp, but there'll also be a C 300 hybrid diesel model with emissions of less than 100g/km and a potential 74mpg.

There's also the option of Airmatic air suspension, which Mercedes claims is a first in this class of sports saloon or estate. Drivers of all models can choose between Comfort, Eco, Sport or Sport + modes according to their mood.

As ever with Mercedes, safety is right up at the top of the agenda, and the C-Class estate includes Collision Prevention Assist Plus. In addition to the adaptive Brake Assist System, which helps to protect against collisions at speeds above 4mph, this system now features an additional function: when a danger of collision persists and the driver fails to respond, the system is able to carry out autonomous braking at speeds of up to 65mph (125mph when in conjunction with Distronic Plus), thereby reducing the severity of collisions with slower or stopping vehicles. The system also brakes in response to stationary vehicles at a speed of up to 30mph, and is able to prevent rear-end collisions at up to 28mph.

New assistance systems with enhanced functions are optionally available, combining data from various sensor technologies as part of the Intelligent Drive concept to enhance comfort and safety, including Distronic Plus, which relieves the burden on the driver by keeping a safe following distance, while Distronic Plus with Steering Assist and Stop&Go Pilot does the same even in stop-start traffic. Steering Assist is new and helps the driver with lateral control of the vehicle, even in gentle bends, and offers a tailback vehicle following function; BAS PLUS with Cross-Traffic Assist boosts driver braking depending on the situation, if necessary up to full brake application and, for the first time, can also react to crossing traffic and pedestrians; Active Lane Keeping Assist warns of unintentional lane changes by means of pulsed vibrations of the steering wheel and in the presence of solid lane markings corrects the vehicle's track with one-sided brake application. It now also intervenes with one-sided brake applications in the presence of broken lane markings if the adjacent lane is occupied by, for example, oncoming traffic, fast overtaking or overtaken vehicles.

The multitude of optionally available assistance systems also include, among others, Active Parking Assist, which enables automated parking with active steering and brake intervention in both parallel and end-on parking spaces; Traffic Sign Assist with wrong-way warning function, which warns of speed limits and also alerts the driver to no-overtaking zones and no entry signs; Adaptive Highbeam Assist Plus, which allows the high-beam headlamps to be kept on permanently by masking out other vehicles in the light cone of the high-beam headlamps.

Anything else?

The C-Class's air conditioning system is the only one of its kind to be so good at filtering out nasty stuff from the air coming in that it bears the quality seal of the European Centre for Allergy Research Foundation for a scientifically tested high level of allergy-friendliness. Mercedes-Benz is the only vehicle manufacturer to earn this ECARF seal.

Pricing and specifications for the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class have yet to be confirmed.