A new grille, star-shaped DRLs and improved infotainment should feature in a mid-life refresh for the load-lugging, ICE-powered luxury compact
January 30, 2025 at 08:37
- Fresh spy photos give us our first look at the facelifted 2026 C-Class wagon.
- Expect a more distinctive, E-Class-style grille to freshen the front-end design.
- Combustion C-Class also adopts star-shaped DRLs at both ends, like new CLA.
Mercedes hasn’t offered a C-Class wagon in the US for years, but even in a 2020s car market dominated by EVs, the shooting brake body style is still a big draw in Europe. It’s no surprise then that one will continue to be offered as part of the facelifted C-Class lineup, which should arrive for 2026.
Our spy photographers snapped the revised C-Class sedan at the tail end of last year but this is our first look at the estate version. Though the disguise covers the nose, we’re expecting to see a grille like the one on the current E-class, which has a highly visible surround to accentuate the three-pointed star at its center. Current C-Class grilles don’t really have an obvious frame and are just set into the bumper, a design Mercedes used for years but is clearly moving away from.
Related: Did Mercedes Just Give The 2027 C-Class EV A Pre-Debut Facelift To Make It Less Boring?
One change we can see on the C-Class even with the disguise in place is the adoption of star-shaped DRLs at the front. Again, this is going to be a brand-wide motif. It featured on the CLA concept and it’s been present on the prototypes of numerous different models we’ve spied over the past year.
We would have put money on Mercedes also applying the same trick at the back of the C-Class (the E-Class already has star DRLs at the back, but not the front), but neither this wagon prototype nor the sedan we scooped in December had them. It’s still possible they might be swapped out by the time the C debuts, probably this summer, though whether Mercedes will be able to shoehorn in a version of its Hyperscreen dashboard at the same time remains to be seen.
The pillar-to-pillar digital dashboard setup hasn’t been present on the two test cars our photo team has snapped, but the tech is already on the E-Class. True, that was a brand new car, and there’s only so much engineers can do at facelift time, but we also know the S-Class will gain Hyperscreen when it is facelifted in a few months, just before the C-Class debut.
The new C-Class will need hi-tech tricks like Hyperscreen, plus the electric version Mercedes has planned (built on a different platform) to keep it looking fresh for the rest of the decade because it faces some stiff competition. Audi’s all-new A5 debuted last year, but more worryingly for Mercedes, BMW’s Neue Klasse 3-Series is scheduled for launch in 2026 and the wagon should be ready by 2027. With brave new styling, an all-new multi-powertrain platform, and a radically reimagined interior, the NK i330 threatens to really change the sports sedan – and wagon – game.
Images: Baldauf