Thanks for the thread bump Merc estate as I hadn't seen this thread before. The night before I picked up my C200 I had a bit of buyer's remorse and wondered if I should have looked at something like the OP's car. I also found some 330e for sale, though these were a bit above what I paid for my 2016 C200 AMG Line (£17.5k at 30,000 miles). I had exactly the same fears as the OP, especially since I recently retired and the last thing I need is a huge repair bill.
Nissan Leaf and an older C class: job done.
Horses for courses, but you do need the parking space in London to keep it charged all the time.
Take away cheap home charging and the financial and convenience case evaporated quite quickly.
This was along the lines I started thinking, though it was a Renault Zoe that seemed to keep coming up, but again the battery issue was throwing me off: I had read about being able to lease batteries, but the monthly cost put me off. Turns out that was a good call as I'm using less in petrol than battery leasing could have cost.
Had my c350e 2018 for about 4 months now, premier plus model, no issues with it, if you can't be bothered plugging it in just select charge mode and it will charge hybrid battery as you drive. Would agree you have to be doing town and country miles to get benefit if you do all motorway then not worth it, only complaint I have is that mine is the saloon and the battery eats up a lot of boot room, still love driving it, have found a couple of companies that will replace dead cells in hybrid battery if required and not at the price MB will charge for new battery.
This (for me) is satisfying to read because I do only use my C200 on motorway journeys. If we're going local we take the 'other car' or more likely we walk as we're pretty handy for the shop we use mostly. In fact the C200 currently hasn't been driven for over 2 weeks, which seems a shame, but just the way our journeys have worked out. When I've used the C200 on longer trips I've been getting around 45mpg as I tend to drive gently these days at 65-70mph.
I'll probably be laughed out of this forum, but just to add 'the other car' is a 13 year old Ford Ka I picked up private sale locally, with 60k on it. It's got a few scrapes on it, but mechanically is fine (I recently regassed the air con myself as it was a little low after 13 years use and now works perfectly). Does around 50mpg, or more on longer trips, but the main thing is I can park it anywhere and not worry like I would if it was the C200. I use it to go to band rehearsals as I can fit my gear in the boot (just) and to gigs once we start again in September...looks a bit flashy turning up in a Mercedes anyway. Costs so far about £40 a month in petrol, which is less than the battery leasing could have been and only £30 a year in road tax. Insurance was £150 as well, despite zero no claims but 20+ years company car experience.
The only thing I'd maybe do differently in hindsight is perhaps look for an older C Class than the one I bought given the low use it's getting...lovely car though when I do use it. Maybe next car will be some kind of EV/Hybrid, but I'm hoping that will be at least 5 years for the main car, if not longer. If the Ka packs up, then I'd probably just get another cheap one.
So many ways to skin a cat as they say...
I am not sure if MB reliability is that bad, if I bought a lemon or if I'm just unlucky? The parts are expensive. I should note that probably only the starter motor was a hybrid-specific issue.
I got 46mpg when we went up to visit my family in July doing 65-70 on mostly motorways.
