wonkycustard
New Member
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2009
- Messages
- 14
Hello
Just thought it may be of interest my musings on 5000 miles in 8 weeks inside a E250 Sport.
Its a company car that i was lucky enough to have chosen in my spec and colour. It replaced my previous C220 Elegance which i had for 3 years and 85K miles.
Other cars in the house include MX5 and Caterham R400 so one for each task.
Car was delivered by Mercedes on March 1st. All good with 8 miles on clock and one small scratch on front wing that I T cut out.
Good points of ownership:
Car was built in early dec 09 and came with latest injectors and all software updates.
Seats are great and very good lumbar support for 500mile days.
Steering feel is smooth as silk and great weighting.
Sport steering wheel feels loverly even after 9 hours behind the wheel.
Air circulation is much much better than the C class with little noise even on morning demist mode.
Clever headlights are very clever and provide supurb illumination even at 100mph +
Gearbox is a lot lot quicker to respond than the previous C class 5 speeder and the gearing is about 500rpm lower at 2400 rpm at 85mph cruise.
Flappy paddle gear shift is great and quite quick. Supurb for A and B road overtaking where you can hold a gear prior to overtaking.
Curry hook in boot is a nice touch
Brakes are stunning
Complete lack of wind noise from window seals and windscreen.
Arm rest is just nicely padded on either side so as not to cause discmonfort after 5 hours.
Ambient lighting is a nice touch and gives a warm welcome.
Suspension is settled on the motorway and handles low frequency bumps well. High frequency bumps around town is a bit jiggy. I found the tyre pressures to be set for fully laden on delivery. Once adjusted the ride was slightly less choppy. The suspesion looses the plot at high speed on B roads with waft and bounce over multiple crests and bumps. The car rolls little around the corners but it will drift into understeer if pushed. At low speed with the traction off, you can provoke a slide in the wet at 40mph on roundabouts after a gentle turn in and a prod of torques, then easily collected with a dab of oppo...
Rear seats are very comphy (colleague drove me for 4 hours) and the road noise is very good - much, much better than the drivers seat. The rear seat is reclined a little too far though.
The engine is much more refined than my C class 220D. Its very quiet when cold and after about 30miles warms through properly and feels very different. The engine feels at its best after an 80 mile run, with smooth response and an almost Audi 5 pot warble when pressing on.
Engine power is good and almost as quick as the CLS320. Low down power is maybe a touch more then the CLS. The 330BMW stomps all over the E250 above 50mph. Power is sufficient to play with leaving the 2L diesel BMW/Audi/Merc/ford etc company drivers on the motorways from 60> 90mph. The motorway drag race is level pegged with 530 BMW's.
things to tweeks for facelift....
Footwell insulation is Ok but not great, with some warmth coming through onto your calf after 6 hours driving.
Stereo lacks bass and midrange - I should have upgraded to harmon.
Road noise is way too much at anything above 50mph. Its much much more than my previous C220 (on 16") AND bmw 33O and 320 d on 18's. On some roads you cant even hear the bloody awfull stereo. looking under bonnet it appears that there is not sound insulation behind the front wheel arches or infront of the bulkhead ?. The road noise is realy quite poor.......
At 80> 85mph there is a constant reverberation like whine from the induction that enters the cabin, it alters with throttle position. This is diminished at 90mph. Which makes 88 > 90 mph cruise more comfortable but no good for the licence. Its not the turbo, its a hollow sound.
The turbo is audible at 1500 > 2500 rpm around town and on quiet paved motorways (bliss)
The plastic false leather seat sides get a bit sweaty after 4 hours on your thighs, horrid i know but also quite uncomfortable.
The parking sensors are a little slow to react and you must bear this in mind when moveing at anything more than about 1mph.
The washer fluid bottle is too small - just like my C class one was .
The silly cuboards under the front seats keep falling open under hard braking.
MPG over 5000 miles is 41mpg
On an average 400 mile run on the motorways I get 44mpg. I once saw 48mpg when I reset the odo at a constant true GPS 70mph. Worst mpg was a fast evening blat down 150 miles of fast cross country A roads where I got it down to 34mpg. Round town I get about 38 mpg.
This compares to my C220 and way below the Mercedes figures. Glad I have a fuel card or else I would be asking how the hell Merc bluff the data tests .......
all in all i love it but its a bit too noisy, plenty quick enough for its task, loverly and roomy, sharp looks, and gets the thumbs up from lads in souped up focus's and envious looks from BMW 3 series drivers........
Just thought it may be of interest my musings on 5000 miles in 8 weeks inside a E250 Sport.
Its a company car that i was lucky enough to have chosen in my spec and colour. It replaced my previous C220 Elegance which i had for 3 years and 85K miles.
Other cars in the house include MX5 and Caterham R400 so one for each task.
Car was delivered by Mercedes on March 1st. All good with 8 miles on clock and one small scratch on front wing that I T cut out.
Good points of ownership:
Car was built in early dec 09 and came with latest injectors and all software updates.
Seats are great and very good lumbar support for 500mile days.
Steering feel is smooth as silk and great weighting.
Sport steering wheel feels loverly even after 9 hours behind the wheel.
Air circulation is much much better than the C class with little noise even on morning demist mode.
Clever headlights are very clever and provide supurb illumination even at 100mph +
Gearbox is a lot lot quicker to respond than the previous C class 5 speeder and the gearing is about 500rpm lower at 2400 rpm at 85mph cruise.
Flappy paddle gear shift is great and quite quick. Supurb for A and B road overtaking where you can hold a gear prior to overtaking.
Curry hook in boot is a nice touch
Brakes are stunning
Complete lack of wind noise from window seals and windscreen.
Arm rest is just nicely padded on either side so as not to cause discmonfort after 5 hours.
Ambient lighting is a nice touch and gives a warm welcome.
Suspension is settled on the motorway and handles low frequency bumps well. High frequency bumps around town is a bit jiggy. I found the tyre pressures to be set for fully laden on delivery. Once adjusted the ride was slightly less choppy. The suspesion looses the plot at high speed on B roads with waft and bounce over multiple crests and bumps. The car rolls little around the corners but it will drift into understeer if pushed. At low speed with the traction off, you can provoke a slide in the wet at 40mph on roundabouts after a gentle turn in and a prod of torques, then easily collected with a dab of oppo...
Rear seats are very comphy (colleague drove me for 4 hours) and the road noise is very good - much, much better than the drivers seat. The rear seat is reclined a little too far though.
The engine is much more refined than my C class 220D. Its very quiet when cold and after about 30miles warms through properly and feels very different. The engine feels at its best after an 80 mile run, with smooth response and an almost Audi 5 pot warble when pressing on.
Engine power is good and almost as quick as the CLS320. Low down power is maybe a touch more then the CLS. The 330BMW stomps all over the E250 above 50mph. Power is sufficient to play with leaving the 2L diesel BMW/Audi/Merc/ford etc company drivers on the motorways from 60> 90mph. The motorway drag race is level pegged with 530 BMW's.
things to tweeks for facelift....
Footwell insulation is Ok but not great, with some warmth coming through onto your calf after 6 hours driving.
Stereo lacks bass and midrange - I should have upgraded to harmon.
Road noise is way too much at anything above 50mph. Its much much more than my previous C220 (on 16") AND bmw 33O and 320 d on 18's. On some roads you cant even hear the bloody awfull stereo. looking under bonnet it appears that there is not sound insulation behind the front wheel arches or infront of the bulkhead ?. The road noise is realy quite poor.......
At 80> 85mph there is a constant reverberation like whine from the induction that enters the cabin, it alters with throttle position. This is diminished at 90mph. Which makes 88 > 90 mph cruise more comfortable but no good for the licence. Its not the turbo, its a hollow sound.
The turbo is audible at 1500 > 2500 rpm around town and on quiet paved motorways (bliss)
The plastic false leather seat sides get a bit sweaty after 4 hours on your thighs, horrid i know but also quite uncomfortable.
The parking sensors are a little slow to react and you must bear this in mind when moveing at anything more than about 1mph.
The washer fluid bottle is too small - just like my C class one was .
The silly cuboards under the front seats keep falling open under hard braking.
MPG over 5000 miles is 41mpg
On an average 400 mile run on the motorways I get 44mpg. I once saw 48mpg when I reset the odo at a constant true GPS 70mph. Worst mpg was a fast evening blat down 150 miles of fast cross country A roads where I got it down to 34mpg. Round town I get about 38 mpg.
This compares to my C220 and way below the Mercedes figures. Glad I have a fuel card or else I would be asking how the hell Merc bluff the data tests .......
all in all i love it but its a bit too noisy, plenty quick enough for its task, loverly and roomy, sharp looks, and gets the thumbs up from lads in souped up focus's and envious looks from BMW 3 series drivers........
