Hello Petrolheads! Today I bring you a short test of the latest Mercedes-Benz C  180 d, aka Diesel or BlueTec or CDI. I decided that, despite only having driven the car for 3 days and around 500km, it was worth to write about it; plenty has been said and written about the fact that Mercedes-Benz now uses Renault engines – mostly regarding A-Class’ 1.5 – but regularly the reviews tend to show a very personal perspective, which I believe doesn’t help many real customers, who don’t care from which manufacturer the engine comes from. This review is focused on the engine dynamics, as most of the drive was done on the motorway. The tested car comes with Renault’s 1.6 diesel, downgraded to a modest 116PS/ 85kW and 280Nm. On a cold start, it rattles as loudly as Merc’s own 2.1L, albeit the note being slightly higher pitched. Once warm it improves and becomes reasonably refined, but a hum is always in the background. The tested car was equipped with plenty of opti...

Cheers, petrolheads! This year’s first post regards, once again, the Smart Roadster. It has became some sort of tradition to start the year with such a post but, as last year this time, there are relevant news regarding my garage. I’m now the very proud owner of three Smart Roadsters, after just having added a Roadster-Coupé 60 to the collection! I must confess that I bought it because of the attractive combination of price/ use/ configuration (and because I need a toy to drive on the Alps before I roll the Panda over…). I’m far from being the biggest admirer of the fastback rear, which many (most, from what I noticed until now) people argue make the car’s profile look svelter, while adding some practicality to the mix. But beauty is on the beholder’s eye, and to me, this version only works out if everything is black. The mix of many colours isn’t to my taste, and the fastback also makes the car look taller than the standard Roadster, so a bit less purposeful. ...