Compact Luxury Taken to a Higher Level

The new C-350, with its 3.5-liter, 268-horsepower V-6, should please people who want more power and who are willing and able to spend the extra money to get it. That engine takes the seven-speed automatic transmission, which helps control fuel consumption.

Mercedes-Benz, like Cadillac, views its entry-level luxury cars as "gateways" to more expensive models sold under the Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac brands. I think both companies are wrong.

Times have changed. The entry-level-to-full-luxury strategy might have made sense back in the days, mostly in America, when gasoline was dirt-cheap. It might have made sense when countries such as China, India, Russia and Kazakhstan weren't sucking up petroleum with the wantonness of their Western counterparts. But those days are long gone.

Nowadays, many people are quite content to settle into something as luxurious, safe and performance-worthy as the new C-Class without looking forward to upgrading to a more expensive, more consumptive Mercedes-Benz E-Class or S-Class car.

And CAFE a la America has nothing -- zilch, nada -- to do with that. It has everything to do with the rising price of gasoline.

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