Ever meet an acquaintance from a long time
ago, only to become close friends later? In the case of Torque, the magazine
first got to know SJJ2347R more than a year ago. "He" is a C200 CDI
estate and we ran a review only because, well, it was different from the
hotshot C-Class sedan that was launched earlier.

About three months ago, SJJ2347R appeared
at our office again. This time with its luggage, standing by the door.
Officially, it was to be on a long-term test driver for The Straits Times with
Christopher Tan, who's also the Consulting Editor for Torque. Along the way,
yours truly will get to use it, whether for moving photographic gear or just
general mucking around. I took over merely days after Chris collected it (lucky
me!).

Getting reacquainted with the C-Class was
easy. There were no surprises with its ergonomics. But the car didn't impress
on our re-acquaintance. It reached me dirty – no, make that filthy. And
the air-con gave out an awful pong when it starts up. Of course, receiving the
car with a near-empty fuel tank doesn't warm my heart either.

The fuel gauge needle finally hit the floor
after four days and I just had to brim it with some high-tech, low-sulphur
diesel. I'm not well-versed enough with my chemistry to know if it is possible
that diesels can lose its "freshness" but the new tank of Caltex
really transformed the car. There's still no denying the C200 CDI's diesel
engine characteristics, it has a rattly idle and the engine runs out of puff
beyond 3500rpm (redline is a thousand turns later). But with the new full tank,
the car was noticeably quieter and pulled that little bit stronger. I handed
the key to Torque's designer (who used the car two days before) for an errand
and he returned asking me what I did to it.

Still, the 2.2-litre turbodiesel engine
never really won me over. Power delivery is still too flat and it isn't
particularly frugal. In Singapore, it never betters 11.5km/L. Shift on the
5-speed autobox was never particularly smooth or quick.

But everything else about the car, I grew
to really like. I eventually got to sending it in for a wash – it was too
dirty and I was going to a pretty posh BMW party and didn't want to embarrass
the three-point star. When it's gleaming, the car arguably more handsome than
the saloon that contends with a slightly bulky looking behind.

And what treasures the squared out estate
holds. Under the boot floor is a suite of organising solutions, from mounting
pegs for tie down nets to a collapsible basket. So even when you have only a
few bags of chips and a stack of magazines to haul, they can be reasonably well
secured instead of being thrown all around the odyssey of space behind the rear
bench.

As a last hurrah, Christopher and I went on a long drive to Malaysia in SJJ2347;
more for the lobster at the end of Desaru than anything else really. The car
did well, being cosseting enough for passengers while holding its own on both
the highways and the narrower, more challenging country roads. The car
definitely can handle more oomph and I bet a better than 800km range will be
welcomed too. But otherwise, it was faultless. Apart from the stinky aircon on
start-up, which Mercedes never fixed for us, that is.

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