Oh look…the Baby Benz is all grown up now….

As with the SLK online owner’s manual we’ve shown you before, Mercedes-Benz has now launched the interactive manuals for the Mercedes-Benz C-Class (w204) compact executive car and the C-Class Estate station wagon (s204). -BenzInsider.com

Mercedes Benzwill equip their executive compact sedan, the Mercedes Benz C-Class 2012, with Nokia Terminal Mode technology. -Ninga Media

The ‘C’ comes in three flavors, only two of which are imported here to the States: the Sport and Luxury versions.   So I note that Daimler is pushing the ‘C’ class Luxury now as its “Executive Compact Sedan”, and the first thought that crosses my mind is that little word “Executive” is good for an additional five or six grand on the sticker price.

But this is good. When the W204 first came out people were displeased at the reduced level of wood trim and other small refinements compared to the ‘E’.   Initially there were no memory seats and other little things that raise the level of elegance and in their defense people said that the ‘C’ was never meant to be that anyway.   But others like myself were thinking Daimler also didn’t want to take customers away from the ‘E’ which is their bread and butter “Executive” sedan.   The smaller ‘C’ sold for less and if people could get ‘E’ class elegance in a less expensive car (and…seriously… we’re talking a Mercedes-Benz here…none of them are cheap!) they’d go get a ‘C’ instead.

But you would also want a ‘C’ if you’re like me, single, childless, and not needing a larger car.   I’ve looked at the new ‘E’…it is just magnificent.   I could afford one (barely).   But it’s too much car for me.   I just don’t need something that big.   And the fuel economy hit is more then I can morally justify in a car that is 99 percent rolling down the road with just me in it.     That gasoline is just being wasted and I am still, deep down inside, a waste not want not little Baptist boy.   Okay…who drives a Mercedes-Benz.   But still.

Small car = cheap basic transportation car is not such a simple calculation anymore.   Rising gasoline costs and fleet fuel efficiency mandates require that car companies sell smaller, more fuel efficient cars.   And German companies to their credit, are way more interested in being “green” then either American or Japanese car companies.   So Daimler needs to aim for at least ‘E’ class elegance in the Mercedes ‘C’.   There is no reason why a compact sedan cannot also be a sumptuous one, other then the stereotype of the compact car as inevitably being the basic transportation bare bones economy model.   In an age of rising fuel costs, that has to change.   The small car can be sumptuous too.

Now then…er…about that “Executive” thing…

Eddie Izzard…darn him.   I watched Dressed To Kill and now I just can’t read anything with the word “Executive” in it nowadays without thinking of this bit…

“I’m much more in the executive transvestite area.”

Fucking weirdo transvestite…Executive transvestite.   Fucking weirdo transvestite…Executive transvestite.   Economy compact sedan…Executive compact sedan.   Fucking weirdo transvestite…Executive transvestite…     I am really not in the market for trading in the car I have now…I am still thoroughly happy with Traveler…I think it will eventually become one of those quarter to half million mile Mercedes you see every now and then in the pages of enthusiast magazines.   Really, that’s how I feel about it.   My instinct is to hold on to a car until it simply can’t be driven anymore and that’s one reason why I was attracted to the Mercedes brand back when I was a little teenage geek.   Right now I feel like I can just spend the money on servicing and pampering my car and it will last forever.   And Daimler will give you a special over quarter million kilometer grill badge when your Mercedes odometer clicks over that much.   How many other car companies Want you to be proud you held on to the car that long?   But I go to my dealer for routine service and I still wander around the showroom floor while Traveler is back in the shop…and I just know I will have to work at keeping a straight face when the sales agents pitch this executive compact sedan stuff at me.   Yes yes, I’m much more in the executive compact sedan area…