Estates Ho!; And small wagon makes 12.(Brief Article)

A three-door Mercedes-Benz coupe feels a bit odd to Americans, but Mercedes wagons are another story.

The E-Class wagon (Estate everywhere else in the world) has been a fixture for years. Mercedes will bring its small C-Class wagon to North America for the first time because it expects wagon sales to increase 15 percent in the next two years. The C320 wagon is one more opportunity for the company to spread its customer base in the United States.

The wagon is what we'd expect: a C-Class sedan with a glass-and-steel box built up over the trunk. Wheelbases are identical at 106.9 inches (at 178.9 inches, the C-Class wagon is .55 inch longer), and the underpinnings are the same. Yet Mercedes stylists say the management board wouldn't sign off on the sedan's design until it was satisfied that the sedan provided the foundation for an elegant wagon. The stylists say they sacrificed a bit of interior volume, compared to the previous C-Class wagon, in favor of aesthetics.

They chose well. The wagon's roof sweeps almost teardrop

style into the rear gate. Its profile is elegant, and dynamic enough to disguise the stodginess inherent in a station wagon's utilitarian purpose.

Inside, the C320 wagon has typical wagon stuff. With the split rear seat folded forward, there's a flat load floor 66 inches deep and 35 inches wide. Cargo volume swells from 16.6 to 48.9 cubic feet, compared with 12.2 cubic feet in the trunk of a C-Class sedan. There's a 12-volt power point in the rear ...