The Worcestershire specialist...
The Worcestershire specialist, famed for carving its chassis out of wood, has updated the nose of its flagship. And the result bears a strong resemblance to the Aeromax, a one-off, fixed-roof car made for a wealthy customer and seen at last year"s Geneva Motor Show.
A special torture track...
A special torture track, riddled with potholes and cobbles, has been reproduced at the company"s Stuttgart proving ground from the original Heide Road in Germany, which Mercedes first used for testing 50 years ago.
And it will make the C-Class the most thoroughly proven car in the firm"s history. Test drivers run day and night using special orthopaedic-sprung seats to prevent spinal injuries, and an arduous four-week session equates to 186,000 miles of everyday motoring. Stung by recent criticism of poor quality and reliability, Mercedes has also completed a global 15-million-mile programme, with 280 disguised prototypes driven in Tokyo, Namibia and Dubai.