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Practicality

• Fast, ferocious and family-friendly
• Estate can carry 1,500 litres
• Coupe boot is hatchback-sized, less practical

Depending on which bodystyle you choose, practically varies from acceptable to pretty good. In all models, there’s room for four adults and the front passengers get plenty of shoulder, arm and leg room.

The Coupe can sit four adults, despite a rather cramped rear space with awkward access. It does have a good sized boot at 450 litres, though. You’re not going to opt for the Coupe if you need to carry a couple of kids and lots of luggage, but the boot is larger than both the BMW M3 and the Audi RS5.

The Saloon is more practical with more space in the rear for adults and a boot size of 475 litres.

For those looking for something with even more practicality then the estate version is best. Boot space is good with 485 litres that increases to 1500 litres with the rear seats folded flat. There are neat touches such as the push release hooks to hang your shopping bags from, elasticated net to hold small items and prevent them from rolling around the boot, and retractable boot cover and retractable cargo net.

Mercedes C 63 AMG (2011-2015) Safety

• Based on a five-star car in the first place
• Advanced safety tech for the time
• A very safe used car now

Given that the C-Class was awarded the top five stars by the safety experts at EuroNCAP, the Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG is one of the better cars to choose at this age.

An array of safety kit includes seven airbags as standard for driver and passengers, as well as ten driving assistance programmes available including Attention Assist and Active Bonnet, Adaptive Highbeam Assist, Distronic Plus adaptive cruise control with Pre-Safe, active Lane Keeping Assist, Active Blind Spot Assist, and Speed limit Assist.

Sounds like a modern car, doesn’t it? This was when premium models got the tech small cars would wait years for. It is, however, a generation or two behind modern systems so be prepared for less subtle responses.