If there's one thing that German carmakers are good at when testing future cars is camouflaging them, and the 2018 Mercedes-Benz C-Class W205 facelift makes no exception to that rule.
Caught by our spy photographers while undergoing hot weather testing in Southern Europe, this pre-production prototype has less camo that other models have accustomed us, though, because the car is just a few months away from being officially unveiled.
As you can see, the grille-hugging headlights have shrunk a bit compared to to the current C-Class, and they also seem to be somewhat more angular. In other words, the 2018 C-Class will follow in the same tire marks as its much larger and more expensive brethren, the 2018 S-Class W222 facelift.
That said, going forward you will have less of a hard time differentiating the front of a C-Class from that of the E-Class and the S-Class thanks to a simple visual trick. Going from small to large, all you will need to do is count how many LED DRL strips their headlights have and thus guess the name of the car. The C-Class will continue to have one “eyebrow” LED strip, the E-Class has two of them, while the redesigned S-Class has three.
Getting back to the smallest RWD sedan from Mercedes-Benz, the biggest differences compared to its predecessor will be found underneath the sheet metal. A range of new gasoline and diesel engines, based on a modular design, will make their way into the car, some of them using a 48-volt electrical setup that allows a mild-hybrid operation.
The old 2.1-liter four-cylinder diesel and all its versions are going the way of the dodo, being replaced by the 2.0-liter diesel that made its debut on the E-Class W213. A 270+horsepower, 2.0-liter gasoline engine with mild hybrid capabilities is also coming, and so are the brand new inline six cylinders, marking a return to this setup in the C-Class after almost 20 years.
The C43 could be replaced by the C55 moniker, with the twin-turbo V6 being superseded by an inline six with around 400 horsepower, a turbocharger and an electric supercharger, but that is yet to be officially confirmed.
Expect more details about the model in a couple of months, once the facelifted C-Class W205 is getting nearer its launch date.
Alex handled his first real steering wheel at the age of five (on a field) and started practicing "Scandinavian Flicks" at 14 (on non-public gravel roads). Following his time at the University of Journalism, he landed his first real job at the local franchise of Top Gear magazine a few years before Mircea (Panait). Not long after, Alex entered the New Media realm with the autoevolution.com project. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News