Actually, with supercharged-six under the hood, the next C(whatever # is after) will be one hell of a car. The question is not if MB is able to take on BMW, but are they intended to??

The old-fashion way of making cars(with best quality of course) is not the way for MB now because of tougher competitions(Did I mentioned that older MBs, Last gen S, E, 190E and before, has some manual labour done to the window/door frames to make them fit better.).

The trend of making a car is how to make it fast, make more of it, with less badget, and keep the quality in line(though drop a bit, but reasonable).

If MB's willing(or AMG) to spend some more money and develop a decent 6-speed manual(or even sequential), I believe MB has no problem making M3/M5/540i-sport eat dust. But again, it's related to "trend of making car" issue mentioned above.....