The addition of a 16-month old Mercedes-Benz C-Class to AM’s long-term test fleet was the perfect opportunity to assess the experience used car buyers get from premium brands.

The one-owner estate, first registered in June 2016, has covered 11,000 miles and is backed by Mercedes’ Approved Used scheme. Mercedes is running TV, radio and online marketing campaigns – with the strapline ‘Used, but not what you’re used to’ – to drive prospective buyers to its dealer network. The scheme offers a quality-checked car, a 30-day exchange policy, free key insurance and a year’s warranty and roadside assistance, plus a promise to cover the cost of a service if it falls due within three months or 3,000 miles of purchase.

Mercedes-Benz of Peterborough arranged to give us the same vehicle handover any buyer would experience. After meeting me with a coffee in the showroom’s customer lounge, star expert Amy Bines conducted the grand unveiling from one of its two handover bays. 

She spent about 45 minutes showing me around the C-Class’s systems, from how to store my electric seat settings and connect a phone, to giving verbal commands to the satnav and engaging its Parktronic self-steer parking system. Bines finished with a presentation pack and said all customers can phone or drop in if they are unsure of anything and Robinsons, which owns Mercedes-Benz of Peterborough, contacts them at three and six months into ownership to ensure all is well.