Change Of Guard

It’s an age-old battle, the Mercedes-Benz C-Class and the BMW 3 Series. However, things aren’t particularly straight-forward this time round

- Aatish Mishra

IT’S A CONFUSING ONE, THIS. IN THE PAST, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have had clearly defined identities and characteristics in their entry-luxury sedans. The C-Class has always been the comfortable, sophisticated car and the 3 Series has been the one that dials you in and indulges in a bit of mischief. Then you walk up to these two, and you’re stumped. You’ve got a C-Class that draws heavily from AMG’s styling department and comes packing a fair few extra horses under the hood, and you have got a new-gen 3 Series that has shaken off its diminutive dimensions and is now bigger and more focussed on comfort. What happened to the good ol’ days where road-tests ended before they began?

Time to make sense of this. We’ve picked the top-of-the-line diesels that both BMW and Mercedes-Benz have on offer, and are putting them head-to-head. Or grille-to-grille. Can’t avoid talking about grilles when we’ve got a new BMW, can we?

On the surface