Ride and Handling
In the city or on the highway, the Audi A4 offers the best comfort with its plush ride quality and soft sprung suspension. It fends off most road undulations and keeps the occupants shielded over the worst of Indian roads. Said that, the soft ride quality does hamper the handling and when driven hard some unwanted body movement does creep in. The focus is clearly on comfort and luxury, rather than sporty dynamics. The overall feel of the car is light and easy, for effortless driving for hours at a stretch. Even the steering is substantially light compared to the other two cars, though it is pretty accurate and offers a fair amount of feedback. This easy to use and tireless to drive trait has become a key factor for the rising sale of this German marque.
The BMW has completely contrasting characteristics, with a more involving drive which most enthusiasts enjoy. The steering is much heavier than its competitors’ and despite going softer than before, the ride quality still feels firm. In the city the suspension and the run-flat tyre combo might seem on the stiffer side for some occupants, but as it goes faster the body control and composure it offers is stunning and the steering feels amazingly accurate. The car seems eager to take on fast corners and really infuses confidence into the driver. It’s clearly the best handling car here and is extremely stable with the suspension tuned to perfection for enthusiastic driving. How I wish it came with regular tubeless tyres, so that it could also be enjoyed to the hilt within the city.
The C-Class is mostly well behaved on the road and does not get nervous easily. In an attempt to imitate AMG cars, Mercedes-Benz have used low-profile tyres, which make the ride quality quite firm and on some patches of bad city roads it rattles the suspension and becomes uncomfortable. On the other hand, the addition of race car-like side-skirts make the car impractically low and one needs to be extra cautious and needs to diagonally drive over regular speed-breakers. Open roads with good surface bring out the best in the C220, the steering is precise and the car has good body control. It’s good fun but cannot match the BMW 320d in dynamics, or the Audi A4 in comfort.
Verdict
The Mercedes-Benz C220 CDI is a proven product and needs no further endorsement. However, in the ‘Edition C’ version with lower profile tyres and low-slung body it is not very practical and does not justify the couple of lakh of rupees you pay as premium for the special edition. We suggest you wait for the all-new C-Class which has handsome design traits of the new S-Class.
The BMW 320d is tailor-made for those who would be spending more time behind the steering wheel. It’s the most fun to drive and offers good bang for your buck. What we don’t like about the car is the fact the run-flat tyres and firm suspension do not match our road conditions. Moreover, not having a spare wheel limits the car’s usability as you’ll always have that fearing lingering at the back of your mind on long-distance travel.
Our pick in this shootout is the extremely refined Audi A4 2.0 TDI, keeping the need of the segment in mind. Since you won’t always be driving the car to the limit and would spend the maximum time within the city, we selected the most comfortable car of the lot. It is a spectacular package with strong performance, supple ride, good efficiency, easy and light for daily use. With the smoothest engine delivering power in the most spike-free manner and also with the best interior in the class the A4 is the luxury car to go with.
Story: Sarmad Kadiri
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
