First view: all-new Mercedes C-Class - What Car? Extra - behind the scenes

Merc's high-tech evolution
These days, all new cars are designed and engineered on computers, but for the C-Class, Mercedes went to extremes, with thousands of hours of work on 'virtual reality' cars.

Long before a single body panel had been stamped out, the company knew exactly how the C-Class would ride and handle, how well it would crash, the kind of stresses it could take and how it would perform in the most hostile conditions on earth - all from the safety of a desk.

The aim is not to skimp on development miles, but to ensure even the first prototypes are close to showroom standards.

The next stage was to mount whole cars or sections of cars on test rigs to try to shake them to pieces. One replicates a real road Mercedes used in the 1950s, before the local authority resurfaced it. It's so bad that Mercedes calculates every kilometre inflicts the same torture on a car as 150 kilometres on ordinary roads.

The punishment didn't stop there - a record number of test miles were conducted to double-check the findings. In total, the C-Class has covered 15 million test miles - 600 times around the earth - to prove its durability and quality.

Follow the star to a more sporting C
What's in a three-pointed star - or to be more precise, the positioning of one?

Quite a lot, actually. In the past, Mercedes saloons have always had the company's globally recognised symbol on the bonnet, while coupes and sports cars got a bigger version in the grille.

Now, the new C-Class offers both. SE and Elegance models have the traditional bonnet-top star, while the Sport has it grille-mounted. The message is clear: Mercedes reckons the C-Class Sport is now a genuinely sporting saloon, and wants to make sure no one misses the point.