Car :

The premium diesel car market is a highly lucrative one, thanks to the fact that it is not only the frugality of oil burners that set them apart from their spirited (read petrol) brethren but the fact that they have prodigious amounts of torque available at low rpms, making them a pleasure to drive. Diesel, is not boring, diesel is no sluggard, diesel no longer smells bad and most importantly, no more pre-heating in the morning! Diesel, it seems, is the alternative to petrol, as being proved by Audi which now has plans to participate in the Le Mans 24-hour race with its diesel contender. Coming back to the stars of this show, let us first take on the Mercedes-Benz E280 CD!. An evolution of its earlier 270CDI cousin, the executive class Merc has a fine pedigree and a desirability fa tor going for it. With 195bhp at 456Nm of torque available, performan is no big deal for this member of i W211 series, which has seen other die~ motors like the superb 220 CDi and t potent 270 CD!. This time round, t engine gains an extra pot and is Merc's first V6 diesel for India. There ~ many endearing facts about the car.

one of the best, showy items is its aluminium finish alloy wheels, which give a rich look to the car. The outer rear view mirrors continue the tradition of having built-in indicators, and the rest of the car is the same standard carried over from its earlier versions. The E-Class is the' good boy' of the class here, with no styling outages, but a safe and conservative design which traditionalists admire. The one thing that I did not like about the car? No bi-xenon headlamps, which dramatically improve vision' and safety - come on Mere, at least this could be on the options list, if not standard??