"Rico" (ricorich)
05/09/2014 at 13:54 • Filed to: None
6
18|
"Rico" (ricorich)
05/09/2014 at 13:54 • Filed to: None | 6
| 18 |
I've been long term renting [read Leasing] my C300 Sport for about 3 weeks now and figured it would be nice to share my thoughts.
Some background: This is my first car after using my family's car since I've had my license. My current family car is a 2002 Honda CRV so every single thing about this car is 100x better. I won't be using a number grade since it won't even be fair.
Exterior:
Love it. Every line flows beautifully, a great combination of subtle and aggressive with a slight lean on aggressive with the Sport body style. The Palladium Silver paint job shines brilliantly in the sun and the seemingly glows in the night with reflections from cars and street lamps. My car blends in when I want it to and still manages to turn heads.
Interior:
This thing is a vault. A comfortable vault filled with great materials from the seats to the dash. The seats are made of a leather-like vinyl called MB Tex. It's supposed to be as nice as leather with 10x better wear, I like it! The seats are pretty comfortable as I had to drive it about 2 hours home across 2 States from the dealership. The dashboard materials are a matte soft touch plastic with aluminum trim, everything from the stalks to the buttons feel top notch. The steering wheels is perfectly sized, flat bottomed and has a great weight to it.
Controls are laid out nicely, the infotainment system takes a little getting used to but I can maneuver through it rather quickly using either the steering wheel controls and the control knob by the arm rest.
POWAHH:
Perhaps this car is a dog to most but for me it is great, it puts out 248 hp and 251 pound feet torque. It defaults to ECO mode on Start up which includes Start/Stop engine tech and starts you off in second gear. For all the traffic I've dealt with in the city this function has saved me a lot of gas. At first I thought it was a gimmick and it would be annoying (Start/Stop) but it's seamless. Switch over to Sport mode and that's when the C300 comes alive, it puts down it's power quickly when I need it and I can easily get up to speeds that are beyond what's posted. The C300 is a 4Matic with a rear bias and it handles exceptionally well especially around tight bends. Many people complain that AWD isn't fun but I've been having a blast!
Handling:
Comparing this to a 12 year old Honda I can't honestly say that this is in any way a fair fight. The C300 slithers through the street with ease. It feels nimble and goes exactly where I direct it without putting up a fight. People complain about the C300 feeling numb but coming from the CRV, the steering has never felt this alive! I feel in tune with the street for once. When I drive the CRV now it feels like driving a barge when I turn corners or even change lanes.
The tires that came with the car Continental ContiProContact LRR were absolute garbage, had 2 bubble after 4 days of ownership. I had originally planned to get some Michelin A/S 3's but instead decided to get 4 new Kumho Ecsta 4X tires for $380 mounted and balanced, gave the guy a $20 tip and I'm getting a $60 rebate in the mail, too good of a deal to pass up. The the grip on the new tires was immediately noticeable, the car seemed to put its power down better with the newer tires, road noise was slightly decreased and the grip when braking was a significant difference!
Brakes:
I press down lightly and this thing stops immediately, after the tire change it stops on a dime. I already had a full test of the brakes the 3rd day of ownership when someone decided to go when it wasn't their light and nearly hit me in a frontal collision. Funny thing was it was an older gentleman in a 2013 C300 who was very embarrassed.
Ride:
Amazingly comfortable even with these 3rd world country roads that NYC Dept of Transportation haven't maintained in a decade. It absorbs bumps with ease and never feels harsh.
My First Car Thoughts:
When you get a Mercedes Benz, people's whole perception of you changes. Friends expect you to blow money fast when you are reluctant to spend money on crap, no I don't want to spend $18 to see the Amazing Spiderman 2 "But you gotta Benz yo!" they retort. To me this is just a car, a car that hit all of the things that I wanted for a price that fit perfectly in my budget.
People want to race, all the time. I'll be at a red light minding my own business and a guy will pull up in his Acura TSX, stare at me, chirp his wheels and speed up to the next stop light. I then casually drive to the next light taking full advantage of the ECO Start/Stop. This also takes place on highways with various BMW/Audi drivers attempting to prove to me that their German car is best German car. I never entertain it for a second.
Men grill me. I can be at a red light and look around and see a guy with this angry look on his face staring right at me whether they are in another car, standing on the corner or crossing the street with their girlfriends. It's this look that says "I don't know who you are but I hate your stupid face and your stupid car" .
I casually look away because that's lame and jealousy is a female trait.
Girls grill me. I can be at a red light and look around and see a girl with this sultry look on her face staring right at me whether they are in another car, standing on the corner or crossing the street with their boyfriends. It's this look that says "I don't know who you are but I love your sexy face and your sexy car" .
I casually look away because my girlfriend would slap me with the force of 100 airbags, and I don't mean those soft-ass curtain side airbags either.
All in all I'm happy and I thank Automatch Tom for making all of this possible!
Here she is in the morning after getting 50% tint all around and changing those ugly ass orange side markers to some smoked out ones:
And I got my Oppo sticker this week!
Party-vi
> Rico
05/09/2014 at 14:04 |
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Congratulations! She's a beauty.
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Rico
> Party-vi
05/09/2014 at 14:08 |
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Thanks a lot!
gabbo241
> Rico
05/09/2014 at 14:25 |
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Where did you get such a great deal on tires in the NYC area? Feel like I got screwed on my Dunlop 4D Wintersports by comparison.
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Rico
> gabbo241
05/09/2014 at 14:51 |
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I visited a LOT (like 10 spots) of used tire shops all through Jerome Ave. in the Bronx trying to find a good deal on some used Michelins, it was next to impossible to get 4 of the same so I started asking what price I could get on some new tires under $500 (Michelins are in the $800 range).
The spot I went to was a used tire shop on like 170th and Jerome Ave. the guy said he can give me the 4 Kumho's for $100 each but I told him I had $380 on me right now if he could get me the tires the same day, he did and I got a rebate out of it!
Alex B
> Rico
05/09/2014 at 15:42 |
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Looks great. Love this gen C class. Looks really good.
Roge
> Rico
05/09/2014 at 16:08 |
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I was going to post something snobby about transmission calibration and textured plastics, but just because this is the internet doesn't mean we all have to be pricks. Enjoy your new car and drive it in good health!
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Rico
> Roge
05/09/2014 at 16:38 |
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I know all about the 7G transmission issues, they have yet to rear their ugly head with my car, but I only have 325 miles on it so who knows when they'll come up or how MB will handle it. You'd think this being the last model year of this design they'd have those kinks worked out but I guess not.
As far as textured plastics go, I've been driving a 2002 Honda CRV not exactly the epitome of build quality lmao.
Thanks for the kind words!
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Rico
> Alex B
05/09/2014 at 16:39 |
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I love it too, not going to lie the 2015 model looks miles ahead of mine, I saw it at the NYIAS. I'll likely be turning this one in for that one in 2 years so I'm not gonna complain!
Tom McParland
> Rico
05/09/2014 at 17:45 |
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Glad you are enjoying the car!
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mumblese
> Rico
05/10/2014 at 02:52 |
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There are some insanely good deals for C class in EU too, MB wants to sell the new model fast but there are loads of the "old" ones on the dealers lots. And They would sell even without discounts, the new C model is apparently priced to spend a lot of time in the lot. Comparing just base models with the same engine the new C is barely 3k cheaper than E class.
Enjoy your car, I had an E class 10 years ago, one of the first W211 and I can't stop thinking about the car even after many years I parted my ways with it. I had Audis, I had BMWs, I had Lexus, but Mercedes..that is a car of little details. Every button is where I expect it. The little things like the parking sensor LED lights that show you how far you can go were on top of the back window so you can look in the mirror and yet see the control lights. I am not sure if they still use this method, probably rear camera is now pretty standard, but it was one of those little gimmicks that I absolutely loved.
I know only two types of MB owners - those who stick with the brand and those who mourn they tried something else. (this is of course mostly valid for people who buy/rent their cars new, I know also a lot of used MB owners who would rather ride the bus...)
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Rico
> mumblese
05/10/2014 at 11:31 |
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That's what puts a smile on my face about my car, every time I turn around there is a small little detail that shows some effort was put in designing the car.
cabarne4
> Rico
05/13/2014 at 13:19 |
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2 things:
- With the stop / start, what sort of MPG are you seeing?
- I didn't realize Mercedes still offered MB Tex Vinyl. That's incredible. Couple of notes: highest quality vinyl ever produced... in the world. Mercedes has been making / using it since the 80's. Ever see 190e's and 300e's with seats that look brand new? Those are MB Tex. Feels like leather, looks like weather, ages like Keanu Reeves.
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Rico
> cabarne4
05/13/2014 at 14:16 |
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With Stop/Start activated I try to coast a lot more and don't accelerate hard (you start in 2nd gear in ECO mode) so I average about 22-23 city. In Sport mode with a heavier foot I average about 18. On the highway with ECO mode on and cruise control set I can easily break 30 mpg.
And funny you mention 80's Mercs, when I got my window's tinted a guy had an 80's Merc that he was picking up, I don't remember the model but it was a Diesel, he let me snap pics of the interior because it was in immaculate shape still.
Look at this:
I should share this post to the first page, that (what I'm assuming is MB Tex) just stands the test of time, and the seats were SUPER comfy.
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cabarne4
> Rico
05/13/2014 at 18:59 |
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Yeah, those are MB Tex! Asides from the occasional tear, they stay that nice.
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Rico
> cabarne4
05/13/2014 at 19:03 |
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I can't think of any material that looks that new after 30 years.
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cabarne4
> Rico
05/13/2014 at 19:07 |
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Keanu Reeves?
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cabarne4
> Rico
05/13/2014 at 19:51 |
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Marcus
> Rico
05/27/2015 at 16:07 |
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Love NY’s flexible pricing structure for certain things lol