The new Mercedes C-Class Coupé arrived on the UK market in June this year, following the introduction of the saloon and estate, and, according to its maker, "is tailored to a customer group aged 35 to 45 for whom professional success, love of life and a strong sense of responsibility are all-important".
Being the sort of person whose mind drifts to other subjects whenever marketing strategies are mentioned, I dare to suggest that even people who do not fully answer this description might consider the Coupé to be rather a handsome-looking car.
No less than 41mm (or more than an inch and a half) lower than the saloon, the Coupé nevertheless shares several of its more adventurous features, such as a positive festoonment of safety aids and advanced telematics including, for the first time, optional internet access.
Mechanically, of course, it's also a close relative, with a familiar engine line-up including a quartet of four-cylinder engines, two of them petrol and the others diesel. The C 350 reviewed here has none of those - it's the top model, with a 306bhp 3.5-litre V6 engine and, unusually but not uniquely among current C-Class Coupés, no manual transmission option.
The only gearbox is the seven-speed 7G-Tronic Plus automatic, which is rather wonderful, with changes which are both rapid and smooth. It's difficult to get emotional about transmissions, though, so your heartstrings are more likely to have arpeggios played upon them by that V6 engine. This really is lovely. At any speed it manages to disguise the fact that large pistons are thrashing around inside, starting and stopping many times per second, and at higher revs it sounds simply splendid.
On the official EU test cycle, if not necessarily in real life, it's pretty economical too. Hence the inclusion of BlueEfficiency (Mercedes-speak for being on the side of Gaia) in its title, though both this word's force and that of the evocative initials AMG are lost because the company insists on using them for every car in the range.
That little complaint aside, it's difficult to remain unimpressed by a combined economy figure of 40.4mpg for a petrol-fuelled car which can accelerate from 0-62mph in six seconds flat and has to be electronically restrained from exceeding 155mph. Similarly, the CO2 figure of 164g/km, leading to annual VED payments of a relatively modest £165, is not to be sniffed at.
Mind you, it could be double that and still represent only a small proportion of the £38,140 asking price. Or indeed, of the £48,630 which this particular car would cost you.
That rather startling discrepancy is explained by the optional extras Mercedes had chosen to fit. They included (and I'm sorry that this is going to be rather a clunky paragraph, but do bear with me) the COMAND Online system with integrated 6-CD changer, a reversing camera, hands-free phone pre-wiring, a phone aerial, Harman Kardon Logic 7 surround sound audio, heated and ventilated front seats, privacy glass, portable media device connectivity, a memory package for the seats, steering wheel and door mirrors, leather upholstery, metallic paint, Active Blind Spot Assist, Distronic Plus with Pre-Safe braking, Active Lane Keeping Assist, a lighting package and a Dynamic Handling package giving better throttle response, faster gearchanges and continuously variable suspension damping.
I left the suspension damping to the end of that list because it requires comment. Mercedes says that it gives "improved ride", and speaks proudly of the mechanical (rather than electronically-controlled) aspects of the suspension. I'm prepared to believe that it all works very well on German roads, which are generally very well surfaced, since on much rarer British roads of similar quality the C 350 drives quite beautifully.
Unfortunately, in this country it all too often - in fact most of the time - encounters tarmac which it had not been led to expect. It does its best over this stuff, but it just isn't set up for it, and it fails horribly to provide the driving experience the engineers intended for it.
In many ways I like the C 350 a great deal. It's a great looker, the perceived quality is very high, the running gear is fantastic, and the boot, though slighly difficult to access, is usefully large. But the suspension desperately needs to be rethought before the car is suitable for being driven in the UK.
