C350e Advice & Opinions!

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Sadly, out of warranty then. Try and find yourself a reputable (recommended) independant MB service and see if they will do a diagnostic. Or main dealer of course. Either way, it likely isn't going to be cheap.

An apparently common problem on Teslas is a large fuse in the battery pack failing. I can see how a blown HV battery fuse could be a problem on our cars too. Diagnostics required though, no point in guessing.

thanks for your help, would you think it would be safe to drive, as i drove 15 miles last night
 
Honestly, I have no idea as to whether it's safe to drive in that state it's in. Without some clue as to which part of the horribly complex system is faulty, anything I might say would be a totally uninformed guess. Even if we knew exactly what was wrong, I doubt anyone but MB can say with any certainty.....and evidence suggests that even most MB dealers have zero clue on these, sadly.

Shortly after buying mine I got myself an iCarsoft MB2 diagnostic box. A few reasons, but mostly so I don't have to rely on dealers for an initial diagnosis in the event something does go wrong. Given how much MB charge for a diagnostic check, buying my own unit, even though it isn't anywhere near as capable as the MB STAR system, seemed like a good idea to me. It probably helps that I have been messing with cars for 50 years and spent almost 40 in an electronics based industry, so have a bit of a head start with this sort of thing.

Try and find a good indy and take if from there, but bear in mind you need to find one who understands it's a hybrid and can demonstrate knowledge of them.....and keep us posted.
 
For clarity re the 'would I have bought it' comment I made - this says at least as much about me as it does the car, I was just giving my own opinion. Personally, I've not enjoyed the MB ownership experience all that much. To be brutally honest, it's largely down to me making poor decisions and not doing due diligence. I was so excited at the idea of buying at least one new car before I died, that I got carried away. I had no previous experience of spending this amount of money on a car so had no idea how badly I would react to the depreciation. It's not that I couldn't afford it - I can, just that I don't like it! On top of that, I really wanted a Tesla S but couldn't bring myself to spend that much on a car. Again, I could afford it, just couldn't do it.

So, I ended up buying a car I didn't really want, without having a test drive (as MB couldn't seem to organise one and I was stupid enough to 'assume' it would be fine) and I didn't look closely enough at the warranty before it was too late. As a consequence, every time I look at it, I am reminded of my own stupidity. Every time (pretty much) I am obliged to deal with MB, I tend to have a bad experience one way or another - from the absurd servicing costs to the belligerent and unresponsive customer "services" department. Dealers who treat me like garbage, you name it. In fairness, the last dealer I went to did manage to do what they said they would when they said they would - strikes me as a shame that something as basic as that should be viewed as a result.

You dont say how old the car is so Im not sure where you are in terms of warranty...

The dealers all have very nice glass palaces the coffee isn't bad but many don't have a fantastic reputation. I've recently purchased an approved used from a dealer and so far the service has been good, I'll probably go back for its next service (it's only a small service) as the MOT is due at the same time and part of the approved used deal is they guarantee it will pass the MOT obvious wear and tear items except of course. However after that I'll revert back to the independent specialist I've used for the last few years who have been great.

If you want to cut maintenance costs find a good Indie.
 
You dont say how old the car is so Im not sure where you are in terms of warranty...

The dealers all have very nice glass palaces the coffee isn't bad but many don't have a fantastic reputation. I've recently purchased an approved used from a dealer and so far the service has been good, I'll probably go back for its next service (it's only a small service) as the MOT is due at the same time and part of the approved used deal is they guarantee it will pass the MOT obvious wear and tear items except of course. However after that I'll revert back to the independent specialist I've used for the last few years who have been great.

If you want to cut maintenance costs find a good Indie.


Just over 3 years now, bought new, for cash. Yes, I know......

Current plan is to carry on with dealer servicing until it hits the end of the hybrid warranty at 6 years then DIY it and hope for the best!
 
Just over 3 years now, bought new, for cash. Yes, I know......

Current plan is to carry on with dealer servicing until it hits the end of the hybrid warranty at 6 years then DIY it and hope for the best!

If by DIY you do mean doing it yourself I'd be cautious, when you do come to sell you'll have no documented service history after year 6 that would hit the marketability of the car and hence devalue it even more on the market. Buying used I'd always want a documented service history.

Worth noting that many MB Indie's have Star machines for diagnostics and also access to the Mercedes-Benz on-line service function so your car keeps its on-line service history up to date.

Even though I purchased second hand I feel your pain for depreciation, general rule of thumb cars lose half their value every 3 years

£40k new today - £30k after 3 years - £15k at 6 years... you get the drift. The only way to avoid the pain is to keep a car for a long time, pal of mine got a new Nissan Terrano and kept it for 14-15 years ultimately cheap motoring but most of us want all the latest bells and whistles...
 
I always intended keeping this a long time. I did toy with selling it on recently, but have decided to stick to plan A and just accept it’ll be worthless when I eventually do sell it. It’s already lost about £20k so it gets a bit less painful every year from here on out! Given that, last thing I intend doing is spending a penny more than I have to on servicing.
 
I recently had C350e and loved it, it was great fun to drive and the 9 year old inside of me found great pleasure in upsetting youths at traffic lights.

That said, even with a light foot it was particularly poor on fuel.

I replaced all the tyres with premium tyres with better fuel efficiency, yet at best would get around 38mpg.

The zero road tax was great, although found the average battery range was around 12-14 miles depending on what we had on at the time.

Useful for around central London, but the limited battery range means you’ll only really see a benefit if you frequently travel short distances where you’ll be able to charge.

My uses were 4 hours on motorways each day with around 1-2 hours around London so a real mix of electric driving and petrol driving.

We’ve since changed to an E220d and although the road tax was a shock, we’re now seeing around 65-78mpg and saved a fair amount on fuel.
 
Thanks for the replies all, really useful. I forgot to say, I will be buying second hand, a 2016 or 2017 reg estate. I’ve read a lot of bad reviews about MB dealerships, I think I’ll give our local one a try and see if I can test drive before committing.

I had a C350e and E350e - both were trouble-free, but I switched to a new BMW 530e mainly as their battery warranty is much better than Merc's. Merc's warranty is only against total failure in the 6 years but BMW's is warranted to be no less than 70%. If I were buying a C350e 3+ years old then I would definitely cost in having to take full extended warranty and also see if I could get the battery tested to see what the depletion was. You need to also check that the extended warranty covers all of the hybrid system.
I read somewhere that the BMW battery is modular, hence they can warrant against 30%+ deletion as they would only need to change battery modules rather then the whole battery.
 
Thanks Wivenhoe, that’s great. Has anyone bought extended warranty that covers the entire car? I’ve been looking but not come up with anything that I can trust yet.....!
 
Bearing in mind not all breakdown recovery services are up to speed with hybrids, I wouldn’t fancy self-servicing the electricery on a hybrid ....
 
There's also the dedicated thread on this forum...

C350e owners club

I've had mine two years. Done 24,000 miles. I have a 20 mile commute each way each day and, probably, do 300 miles on longer trips each month. I charge at home and at work and average 57mpg since I've had the car. I've recorded every fillup and have the figures.
These cars are horses for cources and actual economy is very dependant on use. its a really heavy 2l turbocharged petrol automatic which is never going to be economical. the 300de will probaly be my next car and, with the diesel and double (and then some) electric range, I'm expecting my average economy to go up to the mid or high 80's per gallon. When you do put them in Sport + mode, they are very quick and the tail will step out when required.
The biggest critism I have is the fact that the back tyres last 12,000 miles.

@Nick Harper I have 20k miles on my rear tyres. I expect they will need replacing at 25k miles.
 
Hi guys, just an update, the car has been in with mb for 10 days now, after all the checks'
it's not the battery after all, they had to get a specialist to take out the battery ''appartenley''
and are saying now that it's the the high power battery heater that's at fault,
this was in with them 6 day's before the same malfunction error showed on dash,
and are saying that it will cost £3850 to replace and fit, which i think is a disgrace tbh,
i asked for the part number and was told that they could'nt give to me as there not allowed !!!
i wanted to see roughly waht the part cost, they said because i bought the car in the uk !
they wont cover warranty, i'm 3 weeks without a car at this stage, and when they took it first
they said they upgraded the firmware for the battery's and then the fault showed within 2 days
of getting done, any help appreciated :(
 
Hi All, a little unrelated but is it true you can't get the outside temp on the instrument cluster on a C350e i have tried all ways but no success, also is it worth changing the command system for another system, any ideas would be welcome.
Cheers
 
Hi All, a little unrelated but is it true you can't get the outside temp on the instrument cluster on a C350e i have tried all ways but no success, also is it worth changing the command system for another system, any ideas would be welcome.
Cheers

I’ve now changed by C350e but from memory you could and showed with another menu such as odometer.

Mine has Audio20 which frankly was terrible for satna, the question would be why to change to.
 
Hi All, a little unrelated but is it true you can't get the outside temp on the instrument cluster on a C350e i have tried all ways but no success, also is it worth changing the command system for another system, any ideas would be welcome.
Cheers

The early cars needed a software update to get it to show. Even then, it only shows on one trip menu. All the others insist on showing speed in kph due to the way MB decided to interpret the rule about having the ability to display speed in kph.

You could always fit one of those aftermarket Android based alternatives if you don’t like COMAND. I think you get to keep COMAND but get extra features on top so maybe a good option?
 
Hi guys, just an update, the car has been in with mb for 10 days now, after all the checks'
it's not the battery after all, they had to get a specialist to take out the battery ''appartenley''
and are saying now that it's the the high power battery heater that's at fault,
this was in with them 6 day's before the same malfunction error showed on dash,
and are saying that it will cost £3850 to replace and fit, which i think is a disgrace tbh,
i asked for the part number and was told that they could'nt give to me as there not allowed !!!
i wanted to see roughly waht the part cost, they said because i bought the car in the uk !
they wont cover warranty, i'm 3 weeks without a car at this stage, and when they took it first
they said they upgraded the firmware for the battery's and then the fault showed within 2 days
of getting done, any help appreciated :(

Not sure of the relevance of where you bought it as far as warranty really as we established it was outside it due to mileage anyway, sad to say. You did say it was at 80k miles, yes? If it’s 80k km then it should still be covered for any of the hybrid components so perhaps approach MB directly rather than via the dealer? Sadly, the alternative of taking it to a UK dealer if it was covered isn’t an option at the moment.

Given you can get battery packs from scrap yards vie ebay etc, there’s a good chance you could get a used heater too. If MB and their dealers really won’t help, maybe try an indy?
 
Thanks for the replies, appreciate it, On friday i actually got 13 electric miles, must be true about the warmer weather, and alway setting the trip computer to zero. Some one mentioned that the car remembers the last journeys so if you reset it gives you the true electric miles. if that makes sense.
 
The ‘guess-o-meter’ doesn’t affect how many miles you actually get, it just tries to tell you how many are likely, based on history, state of charge and current energy usage.

Because the battery is so small, the heater has a huge impact on how far you can go. The heater is roughly 3kW. Assuming(!) the ICE hasn’t run, got warm, and provided any heat, you are relying totally on that 3 bar electric fire to warm the cabin.
 
The ‘guess-o-meter’ doesn’t affect how many miles you actually get, it just tries to tell you how many are likely, based on history, state of charge and current energy usage.

Because the battery is so small, the heater has a huge impact on how far you can go. The heater is roughly 3kW. Assuming(!) the ICE hasn’t run, got warm, and provided any heat, you are relying totally on that 3 bar electric fire to warm the cabin.
I suspect that this fact alone is why electric range is so much less in the cold. Even preheating the car, the heater still needs to run, all be it, at a low level.
 

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