CARS.COM — Cars.com’s 2015 Mercedes-Benz C300 has been in our long-term test fleet for only two months and it’s already accumulated a healthy 3,137 miles. The 2015 C-Class won Cars.com’s Best of 2015 award for a multitude of reasons, one being its new turbocharged four-cylinder engine.
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In the C300, Mercedes-Benz’s new power plant is more powerful and more efficient than the outgoing C250’s turbo four-cylinder. Fuel-economy ratings of our C300 4Matic all-wheel-drive model with the automatic transmission are 24/31/27 mpg city/highway/combined, up from 22/31/25 mpg for the rear-wheel-drive C250, while the engine’s 241-horsepower four-cylinder is 40 ponies stronger than the outgoing one.
Two road trips under the sedan’s belt so far have proved the Mercedes can hit its 31-mpg highway rating. Combined with the daily commuting, however, overall fuel economy is on the weak side, with our 23.84-mpg average coming up short of the car’s estimated 27-mpg combined rating and the 24-mpg city rating. Testing in the Chicago area brings its fair share of cold weather, and five of the vehicle’s eight premium fuel fill-ups from early January to mid-March measured below 24 mpg. Warmer weather typically brings better fuel economy, so stay tuned for more fuel-economy updates; we’ve only just begun our C-Class testing.
Here’s a quick rundown of the mpg findings for this Mercedes-Benz after 3,000 miles:
