Tempted by this... UPDATE: It's home...
- Thread starter Maniac
- Start date
Stark said:
I just know I'll miss the Z and given its depreciation and my desire always to have a car that was a bit special, I'm going to put the Z into the summer category and use the Merc all year round.
Just one fly in the ointment so far which is for some reason the 360 camera isn't available until May. So I wait until then to have it or get everything else almost immediately.
Not a deal breaker but I really liked the idea of a 360 camera for parking a long car.
The spec will be as per my photos in the start of the post albeit I'm going 18 inch star wheels for comfort and peace of mind rather than the admittedly nicer looking multi spoke 19s which will make tyres more expensive and increase tyre noise/poor ride plus be a PITA to clean. I Like the blue. Wanted a colour rather than black white or greys and blue should look nice against the grey interior/seats.
This colour and wheel type;
Nice move Gary 
Be good to compare MB against the Bmw in terms of build quality & materials .
I was at my parents yesterday listing their 8yr old C Class online for them .
I was amazed at the zero wear on seats & steering wheel against similar BMW year & models
a woeful show on Bmw the way their interiors show wear :thumbsdown:
After 54k the interior felt & looked brand new
now get your garage cleared out & get the Z into a nest for winter
Be good to compare MB against the Bmw in terms of build quality & materials .I was at my parents yesterday listing their 8yr old C Class online for them .
I was amazed at the zero wear on seats & steering wheel against similar BMW year & models
a woeful show on Bmw the way their interiors show wear :thumbsdown: After 54k the interior felt & looked brand new
now get your garage cleared out & get the Z into a nest for winter
ronk said:
What struck me on the downside was their (MB) use of the A service B service schedule :wink: very sly & as a savvy car user i may be somewhat cynical but it smacks of exploitation
over the period of my parents ownership they have forked out waaaaaay more in routine services than the Bmw Ins1 : Oil service : Insp 2 schedule would have cost them :wink:
I read that they had lost customer focus for a while and this seemed to be true.
Ie at Newcastle.
Service:-
the car my wife had at the time was returned with a wrongly assembled mirror which sent the alarm to fault in the morning - they wanted me to drive it back to them for correction !
Sales:-
We went in to buy her a new C class - I'm still waiting for the plonkers to return the call
Sunderland :-
snotty sales wallah more or less said can you afford it ?
We had arrived well dressed in a six month old Disco !
Walked out and bought Audi !
Ie at Newcastle.
Service:-
the car my wife had at the time was returned with a wrongly assembled mirror which sent the alarm to fault in the morning - they wanted me to drive it back to them for correction !
Sales:-
We went in to buy her a new C class - I'm still waiting for the plonkers to return the call
Sunderland :-
snotty sales wallah more or less said can you afford it ?
We had arrived well dressed in a six month old Disco !
Walked out and bought Audi !
Nice choice Gary. My brother has recently bought a new 320d Touring and in the right spec its a lovely car, however looking at MB deals at the moment theyre hard to ignore. Looking forward to my next motor I was thinking 3 series xdrive but the C Class Saloon is looking very tempting and as others have mentioned the Beemers interiors are looking slightly dated in comparision. I would be interested in what you think of the C Classes refinement as it seems to get knocked for it in reviews.
Tim.
Tim.
Tim, I think the refinement on the C Class is great, I was looking at them too, and drove one for a while....and also whilst my Z and SLK were in the bodyshop, I've had 3 Mercedes and the build quality is amazing.....and the refinement is superb. I love my old E89 and they are leaps ahead. Of Merc and Audi in driving ability, but interiors, Mercedes just use better quality materials.
To follow up on my post of yesterday. At around 10am I picked up my new C220 Bluetec AMG Line complete with the premium plus pack, which after having a standard C220 for a week and a half as a courtesy (my delivery was a bit late), has to be a must.
The premium plus really does add a lot of nice touches, Panoramic Sunroof, Ambient Lighting, Burmester sound (590W), larger screen, COMAND online, keyless entry / start and other goodies.
As for the car's refinement, from reading reviews I did have concerns so asked specifically to test one with a standard AMG suspension set-up and one with the Airmatic suspension. I couldn't tell much difference if any and the salesman said that after driving both extensively he doesn't think the airmatic makes a big difference. For me the refinement is good, build quality (albeit after only one day) seems to be fantastic the cabin whilst looking beautiful is also a very comfortable place to be. The scroll wheel and touch pad make navigating the COMAND NAV system very easy and it all seems to be very common-sensical and intuitive to operate.
My own criticism is that the suspension might be a tad hard, but then it does handle very well, has a lot of grip and with specc'ing AMG Line I think it's fair to expect a slightly stuffer ride. To put this into context though, whilst it's a bit hard, it's 100x better than the Z4MC in terms of damping.
There is very little road noise, but to be honest the Burmester sound system is so good I had it up fairly loud :wink:
Driving home last night, and this may sound silly, but the interior ambient lighting really adds a touch of class to the cabin. After test driving the 420d M-Sport and the A5, for me the C Class is easily the nicest cabin to be in. I managed to get a great deal with MB (20% off list), BMW were very rigid with the 420d and over a 3 year PCP the best they would offer worked out to be £150PCM more than the C-Class. The BMW is beautiful from an exterior perspective and does feel a more involving drive, but the interior is terrible (imo of course), the C-Class isn't far behind in terms of driving experience (Sport+ does make a big difference, especially to steering feel) and the cabin is far superior and I still think it's a very handsome car (especially with the black roof), in the end it was an easy decision for me in the end.
Anyway, a few photos. I'm flying to Kazakhstan this evening, but when back hopefully I'll be able to capture the ambient cabin lighting too:
The premium plus really does add a lot of nice touches, Panoramic Sunroof, Ambient Lighting, Burmester sound (590W), larger screen, COMAND online, keyless entry / start and other goodies.
As for the car's refinement, from reading reviews I did have concerns so asked specifically to test one with a standard AMG suspension set-up and one with the Airmatic suspension. I couldn't tell much difference if any and the salesman said that after driving both extensively he doesn't think the airmatic makes a big difference. For me the refinement is good, build quality (albeit after only one day) seems to be fantastic the cabin whilst looking beautiful is also a very comfortable place to be. The scroll wheel and touch pad make navigating the COMAND NAV system very easy and it all seems to be very common-sensical and intuitive to operate.
My own criticism is that the suspension might be a tad hard, but then it does handle very well, has a lot of grip and with specc'ing AMG Line I think it's fair to expect a slightly stuffer ride. To put this into context though, whilst it's a bit hard, it's 100x better than the Z4MC in terms of damping.
There is very little road noise, but to be honest the Burmester sound system is so good I had it up fairly loud :wink:
Driving home last night, and this may sound silly, but the interior ambient lighting really adds a touch of class to the cabin. After test driving the 420d M-Sport and the A5, for me the C Class is easily the nicest cabin to be in. I managed to get a great deal with MB (20% off list), BMW were very rigid with the 420d and over a 3 year PCP the best they would offer worked out to be £150PCM more than the C-Class. The BMW is beautiful from an exterior perspective and does feel a more involving drive, but the interior is terrible (imo of course), the C-Class isn't far behind in terms of driving experience (Sport+ does make a big difference, especially to steering feel) and the cabin is far superior and I still think it's a very handsome car (especially with the black roof), in the end it was an easy decision for me in the end.
Anyway, a few photos. I'm flying to Kazakhstan this evening, but when back hopefully I'll be able to capture the ambient cabin lighting too:
Just as an addition, I really went in to MB wanting a CLA. For me, it's a much better looking car (especially as I'm only 27, looks a bit 'younger' too). But the cabin feels a bit cheap compared to the C-Class and the drive experience doesn't compare either. This C-Class version is new (July I believe) and I think MB have hit a magic recipe (at least for my requirements....the Z4MC gives me all the out and out speed / thrills I need).
If I had to have just one car and lose the Z4....I think I would have stuck with BMW and would have considered the M235i. Although if I had just one car, I'd probably end up going 2nd hand for a 1M
8)
If I had to have just one car and lose the Z4....I think I would have stuck with BMW and would have considered the M235i. Although if I had just one car, I'd probably end up going 2nd hand for a 1M
8)