Motoring Discussion > Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions Miscellaneous
Thread Author: WillDeBeest Replies: 28

 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - WillDeBeest
Well, GB expressed interest so I thought I'd write a quick report on my day with a C220 CDI while my LEC was being serviced.

First impression was that it was black - and dirty. It had probably only been out for one day with a previous customer, but it was covered in beige dust and road muck to the point where the service man had to apologize for the state it was in. Inside was perfectly clean, but the appeal of black cars escapes me, especially now that the whole me-too world has one.

Getting comfortable was easy enough, despite having to pull the seat adjuster lever for myself - full electric adjustment with memory is the single best gizmo in the LEC. The flat-bottomed wheel is odd, but perhaps the logic is that it enables it to sit comfortably low without impeding access; once you're in your thighs are either side, not directly below, so turning it is not a problem. Still looks a bit try-too-hard to me, though – like the rest of the ‘AMG Sport’ fancy dress – big wheels, skirts and a 1990s-retro lip spoiler on the boot lid. And no MB star on the bonnet – apparently the yoof market prefers a big one on the grille; I don’t.

Getting comfortable would not be so easy for anyone behind me, though. Before getting in (and moving the seat back) I’d put my laptop bag on the floor behind my seat, but realized after a bit of poking about that I could connect my iPod to the socket in the armrest compartment if I had the right cable. The cable, of course, was in my bag, but the bag was now so tightly wedged in that I had to slide my seat forward again and get out of the car to retrieve the cable from the bag. Wouldn’t do for every day, then.

But how was it for just the one day? Really not bad at all. I was prepared for a jiggling, jarring ride on account of the big wheels, but it was surprisingly civilized; firmer than the E, certainly, but not the point of discomfort. Less refined was the engine – essentially the same as the one in my E, but the quality and quantity of noise permeating the cabin even at town speeds would be enough to put me right off.

All I did with it was tootle along the M4 towards Heathrow (including a detour to the hard shoulder to avoid the white 5-series that tried to join me in my lane without looking first) but it seemed to do that pretty much as expected. No problems with visibility, nor with acceleration when the traffic allowed. The transmission has the C and S modes I’m used to, with the option of a paddle-controlled M mode too that I didn’t really get to try out but would find useful in the E – there are times when I still think “I want third for this bit” and the E’s box requires two touches where one ought to do.

What I’ve not yet mentioned was how it was to use, rather than merely drive. I didn’t get to read the manual, of course, and the key functions were familiar enough from other MBs, but the multi-coloured instrument panel and computer display were too much to work out without it. I couldn’t find a display that would show me the MPG for the current trip, although it must be in there somewhere. I did stumble on a mode that popped up a speed sign every time the limit changed, which might be useful if I didn’t have a windscreen to look out through, and several other displays that displayed amounts of detail that were dangerously distracting. And, though the iPod connected easily – and sounded very good, I thought, better than the system in the E – I had to settle for what it thought I ought to be listening to, including a Mendelssohn chamber work and a (very funny) three-year-old episode of R4’s Look Away Now, because I couldn’t find a way to make any selections of my own.

The route and the traffic (and having to do a day’s work in between) meant I didn’t really do any ‘proper’ driving, but it did feel pleasantly well-sorted in the way I so appreciate about my old, and similarly-sized, S60. Would I buy one? Probably not, because the S60’s eventual replacement will be something a size smaller. But it was a more than acceptable courtesy car – certainly preferable to the A160 they gave me last time.
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - -
Thanks, good write up.

I like them, probably an ideal replacement for my ageing 124 coupe, to me eyes your W211 E class and the 204 C class are the nicest looking modern Benz, i don't like the latest E the rear lights especially look like something they had left over from a ditched design and overall its wrong somehow, as is CLS and latest CL, but then beauty and the beholder and all that.

Don't hear of too many problems apart from the Diesel injectors which must all be sorted by now surely?

The fiddling with menus and the like i'm reluctant to get involved in, presumably this one was loaded with toys (command or whatever its called) to make it attractive, to be fair with most people this works its only rather niche semi luddite buyers like me that don't want the electronics....but neither did i want the rust that was part of the previous models.

Other than that i daresay it was typical MB just point squirt and it did everything for you easily, which is where they do score so highly.

Still a manual foot operated hand released parking brake?

Enjoyed reading, ta very much.

 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - Mike H
My overriding impression of the only C-class I've been in is that the rear seat was uncomfortable low, meaning that with my feet normally positioned on the floor of the car there was no thigh support as the lower half of my leg pushed my knees upward. Might be OK for children or smaller adults (I'm 5'7") but I can't see a taller adult being comfortable for any distance irrespective of knee room.

That was a while back (7 years?) and they may have changed now of course.
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - WillDeBeest
... foot operated hand released parking brake?

Oh yes, with the familiar loud clunk. If VW can damp the grab handles, how hard could it be for MB to silence the brake release?
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - WillDeBeest
I went out to check. MB can do silenced grab handles (never use the things meself - don't really know what they're for) so who can put one lot of engineers in touch with the other?
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - No FM2R
>> how hard could it be for MB to silence the brake release?

I believe its deliberate for the avoidance of doubt.
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - WillDeBeest
You mean any doubt that lingers after the instrument panel has lit up in red and the car has beeped angrily at me for pulling away with the brake still on? Hmmm - s'pose so.
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - madf
They sell cars to US buyers who tend to be pig ignorant of anything and sue unless it tells them what is happening.. So the clunk is probably for their benefit..

Please your Honour, I drove 100 miles withe the handbrake on and melted the rear wheels and tyres and caught fire because there was no warning sound to tell me I had not released the footbrake or summat like that
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - No FM2R
You don't think ABS *has* to make that annoying vibrating shudder, do you?
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - -
MB parking brake doesn't have to go off with a clunk, simply hold your foot on the applied parking brake, release the handle and hold it in the relaease whilst you let your foot up, silent release, no different really just other way round to not ratchetting a ratchet handbrake on by holding the release button down.

Never worried me as i only release the parking brake once every time i use the car, would likely get on yer wick if you were daft enough to buy a manual MB though, and i can't imagine owning such a good car and changing gear, like having a dog and doing yer own barking.
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - No FM2R
All of our cars are automatics. Consequently I never use the parking brake / hand brake / whatever / call it what you will. (particularly hazardous environments to one side).

I'm not sure why everybody else seems to.

Am I missing something?
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - Armel Coussine
>> Am I missing something?

With Park engaged there is a transmission lock and it takes much more effort for someone to shunt your car a couple of feet to squeeze into the parker you have inconsiderately part-blocked.

You must want body and driveline damage to be kept to a minimum surely? Hand brake is fine except on a very steep hill in San Francisco for example. Oh and remember to leave the steering in more or less straight-ahead position. You don't want to come back and find your car at an ungainly angle out in the road at one end.

Heh heh...
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - Bill Payer
>> Please your Honour, I drove 100 miles withe the handbrake on and melted the rear
>> wheels and tyres and caught fire because there was no warning sound to tell me
>> I had not released the footbrake
or summat like that
>>

You wouldn't do that in a Mercedes - the warning beeps are almost ear-splittingly loud!
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - -
>> You wouldn't do that in a Mercedes - the warning beeps are almost ear-splittingly loud!
>>

I'll vouch for that, you leave the sidelights on with any other car and you get a soft melodic reminder, do so with a Merc and its a jarring unpleasant blast that you can't ignore.

The warning buzzer if you got a gear wrong on their older lorry gearboxes was similarly ear splitting.
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - Runfer D'Hills
Leave the lights on? How quaint !

Do they still do cars with "manual" lights? I suppose it's those Renault/Daisy-o things is it?

:-))
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - -
Oh yes old MB's and others without toys are still going strong...those auto lights wipers command climate memory seats nor any of the other garbage it doesn't have still haven't failed...the sunroof still tilts and slides and all 4 windows sans B pillar drop silently...it'll do me a good while yet...

:-;;;
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - Bill Payer
>> Leave the lights on? How quaint !
>>
>> Do they still do cars with "manual" lights? I suppose it's those Renault/Daisy-o things is
>> it?
>>
I don't know if it's common on other makes, but owners of more recent Mercs are up in arms as there's no OFF position for the lights. It's been replaced by AUTO, so if you're in a situation where the car thinks it's dark but you don't want the lights to come on, then hard luck!
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - Runfer D'Hills
True enough Bill. The other thing mine does which irritates the shirt off me is that even if you turn the radio to silent before turning the engine off ( you can't not have the radio switched on if the "command" system is on ) it comes back on again murmering at you next time you start the car. Most of the time I can briefly live with it long enough to turn it down again unless of course it's Vanessa blinking Feltz.
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - TeeCee
>> Leave the lights on? How quaint !
>>
>> Do they still do cars with "manual" lights? I suppose it's those Renault/Daisy-o things is
>> it?
>>
>> :-))
>>

Auto is fine, as long as you know when to override it.
One of my gripes at the moment is the number of people I see driving around in thick, low-lying fog with the lights off. I wondered why anyone would be insane enough to do that until I was in such conditions in a car with auto lighting and the lights stayed off 'til I overrode it. The sensor looks up, sees the daylit sky and leaves the lights off. Bright sky with very poor visibility fore and aft is quite common in these parts.

There's nothing wrong with automated systems, except that there are people out there too stupid to spot when they're not getting it right.
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - Londoner
>> There's nothing wrong with automated systems, except that there are people out there too stupid
>> to spot when they're not getting it right.
>>
Maybe it's not stupidity. Maybe they just don't realise. A nice touch on Audis is that when "Auto" is selected, indicators on the rotary control tell you which lights are actually being used, so you can see at a glance if only sidelights/driving lights are selected.
Last edited by: Londoner on Thu 25 Apr 13 at 09:19
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - WillDeBeest
I'm afraid I'm with TC - how many people actually bother to look?

Not just generally stupid people either. Mrs Beest is no mug but when I first knew her in the late 1980s she showed me her camera - a rather nice little Ricoh rangefinder. It had a green dot on the aperture ring and another on the focus scale, and when both were selected, she insisted, the camera would provide automatic focus. No amount of explanation of depth of field and hyperfocal distance would shake her from this view, and we have a lot of out-of-focus pictures to prove it.

Back to cars, she's never grasped the function of cruise control, and never quite came to terms with the Verso's sixth gear. Fortunately our LEC's lights switch does have an OFF position, so I've trained her to use that rather than AUTO. And this is a woman with two scientific degrees; what the genuinely stupid do is anyone's guess.
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - swiss tony
I'm a firm believer that the more systems a car has, the stupider the driver becomes...
No auto lights, then the driver has to decide when to turn the lights on, with auto lights that decision is taken away. BUT there are times, like in fog, that there is enough light that the system wont turn the lights on, but a sensible person will turn them on.

 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - Londoner
It's not so much drivers NOT using their lights that bugs me so much as those who DO use them - specifically, those morons who switch on their rear fog lights when visibility is very good! When opportunities to overtake are limited, it's very irritating.
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - ....
>> Back to cars, she's never grasped the function of cruise control, and never quite came
>> to terms with the Verso's sixth gear. Fortunately our LEC's lights switch does have an
>> OFF position, so I've trained her to use that rather than AUTO. And this is
>> a woman with two scientific degrees; what the genuinely stupid do is anyone's guess.
>>
I vaguely remember you saying Mrs dB didn't drive the S60 very much, how does she cope with O not being off or did you have the DRL's switched off ? Without switching them off you're either driving on dips all the time or sidelights...
Last edited by: gmac on Sat 27 Apr 13 at 18:40
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - WillDeBeest
Mrs Beest drives the S60 a lot more these days, Gmac. And ours does have an Off position for the lights, as I had the DRLs disabled when the car was three months old. Round here, though, with all its tree-lined roads and dappled light, especially in summer, a dark green car can become worryingly invisible, so the switch spends a lot of time in the On position but with the beam adjuster (another control Mrs Beest doesn't really understand, although even her Fabia had one) set to its lowest.

The LEC, incidentally, has bi-xenon lights that level themselves, so the option of pointing them down when they're just there to be seen isn't available. They're vastly better than the S60's halogens for seeing my way at night, but I've wondered whether parking lights alone (which illuminate the whole inner lamp housing) might be enough in those situations. Would go against the grain, but I saw a police Astra this morning doing just that with its pinprick parking lights, and the LEC's would certainly show up better than those.
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - ....
>> I had the DRLs disabled when the car was three months old.
>>
Good move, probably saved you a fortune in bulbs and band aids.
Yours is the original S60 so I don't know what the access is like but on the facelift model it's rubbish, if you don't have small hands then you need to remove the airbox and ECU to gain access on both sides or take the front bumper off and remove the complete headlight unit to get access.
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - WillDeBeest
No such problems on mine, I'm pleased to say. The headlamp bulbs are the least easy to change (unless that's the brake lamps, or the main beam - still using the originals!) because there's not much room behind the housing, but it's still a three-minute, no-tools job that I've done in office clothes when the car reported a bulb failure as I was setting off: remove bayonet-fit plastic dome, fold down springy retaining clip, pull off electrical connector, pull out old bulb, slot in new one and reverse steps.

I once got one slightly wrong and had a funny blotch in the centre of the beam pattern, but the car was coming up to a service and the dealer corrected it for me then.
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - Bill Payer
>> >> There's nothing wrong with automated systems, except that there are people out there too
>> stupid
>> >> to spot when they're not getting it right.
>> >>
>> Maybe it's not stupidity. Maybe they just don't realise. A nice touch on Audis is
>> that when "Auto" is selected, indicators on the rotary control tell you which lights are
>> actually being used, so you can see at a glance if only sidelights/driving lights are
>> selected.
>>

I forget the exact sequence, but wifey's Jazz has something like Off, Auto, 'side'lights, headlights. Normally they're in the Off position, so in fog (or more commonly, rain) you click the switch the old-fashioned couple of clicks.

The lights on indicator on the dash is on but you wouldn't know you only had sidelights unless you look at the switch (which is of course tucked behind the steering wheel).
 Mercedes Benz C-Class W204 - first impressions - Avant
That's an awful lot of irritations on cars costing £30,000+ isn't it! Less of them, it seems, on the basic C-class that WdB borrowed (thanks for a very interesting report, WdB). And none of them, I suspect, on the Volvo S60.

MB need to ask themselves whether customers really want some of these features as standard. I've had five VAG cars in recent years and they seem to be better at avoiding unnecessary irritations - although regrettably the electric parking brake has worked its insidious way down to the Golf and A3.
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