The new Mercedes C-class station wagon, with its low-slung design, comes with an off-road drive mode, which will offer a number of gears in a somewhat chaotic manner, so the driver needs to keep his or her eyes on the road. This unusual feature is likely intended to help the car to blend into an off-road setting, making it more likely that people will use it in such situations.
For this year, Mercedes is debuting the C-class station wagon in a new version called “Offroad Mode”. This will let the vehicle be driven with a combination of traditional off-road settings (gear changes and brakes) and normal driving (traffic). Mercedes engineers apparently considered the small differences in performance between the C-class station wagon and other versions of the car and changed the settings in order to maintain a comfortable ride.
For now, it’s only a teaser, but it doesn’t appear to have altered the production process. There are also off-road packages in the company’s full line-up.