Rear-wheel drive cars have a reputation for being poor in the snow. So when the C-Class’s arrival on our fleet coincided with the first heavy snowfall of the year I was a little apprehensive.

That was until a colleague informed me that the C-Class was actually the best-equipped of our current crop of test cars to cope with the conditions. That’s because it has been specified with cold weather tyres. A braking test in the snow-covered office car park convinced me of their benefits.

It’s worth pointing out that cold weather tyres are not just effective in the snow – they are said to be better than standard tyres in cold, wet conditions below 7ºC. With temperatures rarely in double figures in recent weeks the tyres have been ideal but it will be interesting to see how they wear when the weather warms up.

My first impressions of the C-Class are good. It’s the Executive SE model which, in manual form like ours, offers CO2 emissions of 109g/km – equal to the highly acclaimed BMW 320d EfficientDynamics. It also looks stylish.

My only grumble about the interior so far is a level of noise intrusion – wind and noise from the four-cylinder diesel engine – that is a little higher than other premium car rivals.

Fuel economy is good – easily exceeding 60mpg on longer journeys with the ECO option selected.

However, the overall mpg is just below 50.

The C-Class is proving to be frugal and safe cold weather transport.