Well 6 months and some 7000 miles since acquiring my first Mercedes I think it is time for a short review.
The car is a W205 C220d AMG line Premium Plus auto in palladium silver, Went for the Pano roof, Intelligent lights, assistance pack and red leather as extras.
Firstly my thanks to the forum and all its members for the wealth of information I have picked up about both the brand and car.
This is my first Mercedes having moved across from a string of Audi’s, VW’s and Peugeots. Never had a car with so many toys and gadgets, below are my first impressions on the car and the use of some of the toys!
Impression’s so far are very good, the cabin is very well made and now I have got used to the single stalk does all (a struggle afters years in VAG’s) controls. The stuck on IPad is now accepted as part of the car and I no longer notice its quirky appearance. The command dial input is intuitive and I have been surprised how quickly I got used to it. The Satnav turn half left is now considered part of the on-board entertainment!
The car is sublimely comfortable and consumes miles unlike any car I have driven, even with the AMG line sports suspension I find myself feeling little tiredness after a long trip. The seats are firm, but with all the adjustments they are very supportive and comfortable. Still not sure about the timer on the old bun warmers though, prefer a well done stern in the winter months.
Negotiated a set of winter wheels as part of the deal, a mild winter did not stress them. but boy did they cope with standing water and deep puddles very well. Time will tell whether they were worthwhile but living in rural Surrey hills I have been caught out quite a few times over the years and as I am planning to keep the car for a while seemed like a good idea to try them. Also purchased a set of HiTech mudflap’s off Amazon, MB don’t supply any that fit an AMG line. Seem really solid and keep the crud off the car quite well.
Intelligent lighting is great apart from tendency to inhibit high beam when amongst street lighting, I like to project my presence ahead of junctions with its use. The cut off for preceding and oncoming cars is amazing, although I feel it is a tad sluggish restoring to full beam after they have passed by.
Distronic plus is a real boon on busy motorways and in traffic queues, this is a real stress reliever on long journeys. Find myself using this more often than not, good insurance for village speed monitoring round here too.
The car is my first automatic too, still not sure about downshifts mid bend though!!! My commute is 20 miles through country lanes so I have got used to pre-empting those unwelcome down shifts using the paddles myself. One might have thought that by 2016 some kind of steering input or lateral g sensor would have been included in the shift algorithm, with satnav and maps built in its not like the car cannot work out where its going at least 90% of the time?
Burmeister sound system is as others have stated, more than a bit light on the bass, also I am a bit infuriated with the import of album art, sometimes works then another time nothing!!!!
The concerns expressed on here about security have led me to install an OBD locking cover, quite straight forwards to fit and can highly recommend sailesmarketing.com. Quote Auto Express for a discount, AE did a review a while back.
Boot space sadly limited, given the huge space beneath that is not big enough for a spare wheel, some design rethink could improve it. A climbing trip with three aboard showed only too well how such a shallow boot cannot hold much (sad memories of my 2003 Passat that could carry an elephant in the boot!).
Boot lighting is somewhere close to p**** poor, the light is blocked by the first thing you put down, I was also horrified to find a filament lamp in a 2016 car with LED’s everywhere else. So off to Ebay for two LED units, one to replace and one additional for the upper forward left side of the boot. This now floods the boot from both sides and my old eyes can see what I am doing!
As for those kin’ door handle lights, all four worked fine for a couple of months then both offside lights took a few weeks off and then started working again. But all four are now at different brightness levels. A small thing but really lets down a prestige car…. Cannot be ***ed to take it in to dealer just for this so can wait for service time.
Cleaning routine has been my existing two bucket scheme. I did a light clay over followed by AG SRP and HD wax immediately after delivery. Thanks to this forum I am now a convert to Sonax BSD, which does indeed deflect BS between washes and makes subsequent cleans a lot easier.
The car is a W205 C220d AMG line Premium Plus auto in palladium silver, Went for the Pano roof, Intelligent lights, assistance pack and red leather as extras.
Firstly my thanks to the forum and all its members for the wealth of information I have picked up about both the brand and car.
This is my first Mercedes having moved across from a string of Audi’s, VW’s and Peugeots. Never had a car with so many toys and gadgets, below are my first impressions on the car and the use of some of the toys!
Impression’s so far are very good, the cabin is very well made and now I have got used to the single stalk does all (a struggle afters years in VAG’s) controls. The stuck on IPad is now accepted as part of the car and I no longer notice its quirky appearance. The command dial input is intuitive and I have been surprised how quickly I got used to it. The Satnav turn half left is now considered part of the on-board entertainment!
The car is sublimely comfortable and consumes miles unlike any car I have driven, even with the AMG line sports suspension I find myself feeling little tiredness after a long trip. The seats are firm, but with all the adjustments they are very supportive and comfortable. Still not sure about the timer on the old bun warmers though, prefer a well done stern in the winter months.
Negotiated a set of winter wheels as part of the deal, a mild winter did not stress them. but boy did they cope with standing water and deep puddles very well. Time will tell whether they were worthwhile but living in rural Surrey hills I have been caught out quite a few times over the years and as I am planning to keep the car for a while seemed like a good idea to try them. Also purchased a set of HiTech mudflap’s off Amazon, MB don’t supply any that fit an AMG line. Seem really solid and keep the crud off the car quite well.
Intelligent lighting is great apart from tendency to inhibit high beam when amongst street lighting, I like to project my presence ahead of junctions with its use. The cut off for preceding and oncoming cars is amazing, although I feel it is a tad sluggish restoring to full beam after they have passed by.
Distronic plus is a real boon on busy motorways and in traffic queues, this is a real stress reliever on long journeys. Find myself using this more often than not, good insurance for village speed monitoring round here too.
The car is my first automatic too, still not sure about downshifts mid bend though!!! My commute is 20 miles through country lanes so I have got used to pre-empting those unwelcome down shifts using the paddles myself. One might have thought that by 2016 some kind of steering input or lateral g sensor would have been included in the shift algorithm, with satnav and maps built in its not like the car cannot work out where its going at least 90% of the time?
Burmeister sound system is as others have stated, more than a bit light on the bass, also I am a bit infuriated with the import of album art, sometimes works then another time nothing!!!!
The concerns expressed on here about security have led me to install an OBD locking cover, quite straight forwards to fit and can highly recommend sailesmarketing.com. Quote Auto Express for a discount, AE did a review a while back.
Boot space sadly limited, given the huge space beneath that is not big enough for a spare wheel, some design rethink could improve it. A climbing trip with three aboard showed only too well how such a shallow boot cannot hold much (sad memories of my 2003 Passat that could carry an elephant in the boot!).
Boot lighting is somewhere close to p**** poor, the light is blocked by the first thing you put down, I was also horrified to find a filament lamp in a 2016 car with LED’s everywhere else. So off to Ebay for two LED units, one to replace and one additional for the upper forward left side of the boot. This now floods the boot from both sides and my old eyes can see what I am doing!
As for those kin’ door handle lights, all four worked fine for a couple of months then both offside lights took a few weeks off and then started working again. But all four are now at different brightness levels. A small thing but really lets down a prestige car…. Cannot be ***ed to take it in to dealer just for this so can wait for service time.
Cleaning routine has been my existing two bucket scheme. I did a light clay over followed by AG SRP and HD wax immediately after delivery. Thanks to this forum I am now a convert to Sonax BSD, which does indeed deflect BS between washes and makes subsequent cleans a lot easier.
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. In the end I had to resort to pulling out the manual !
