C350e owners club

[JulesFB]

Do you know if that is going to be a general recall, or only if someone complains about it?

I hadn't complained about it as I haven't had an issue and he was apologetic that they couldn't have completed the work. May well just be a 'fix at service' as opposed to a full recall, I guess as it isn't a safety concern.

 

[Deleted member 126969]

Do you know if that is going to be a general recall, or only if someone complains about it?

I hadn't complained about it as I haven't had an issue and he was apologetic that they couldn't have completed the work. May well just be a 'fix at service' as opposed to a full recall, I guess as it isn't a safety concern.

I imagine they hate dong recalls if at all avoidable so yes, on service makes sense from their perspective.

My Jeep had a recall done a few years back that fixed one issue and created another. For a good while, they denied it and happily installed new transfer case shift motors at customers expense.....it was finally acknowledged that the issue was software (usually) and had been caused by the previous recall so a mod program was set up. Mine didn't get done until it went in for another safety recall the other week.

I find it depressing but sadly not at all surprising that the dealers and MB refuse to acknowledge the obvious water ingress issue with the charge connector and cable assembly. If there isn't a problem....why are they changing the cable then? Treating us like idiots.

 

[JP350e]

Do you know if that is going to be a general recall, or only if someone complains about it?

Wind noise - my car suffers from it. The dealer didn't think it did, but asked me to keep an eye (ear) on it. It's especially noticeable in cross winds. It sounds like the window is open fractionally.

No wind noise whatsoever on mine (Estate, Premium Plus)..

 

[shooms]

Apropos the 330e, we tried one and although it was nice enough, it didn't feel special like the C350e does. Arguably a better drive but we are happy with the MB.

Likewise. I had both on test for a few days and found the 330e fun to drive but the C350e just felt more special. The BMW was a nice car but the Merc had the edge as an all rounder.

There was also the fact the my better half found the BMW made her rather queasy.

Exactly my thoughts & experience

So.. despite having a 330E Beemer for a demo at the weekend & really rather enjoying the drive (the inside trim on the demo was gopping though - tan & orange ambient light combo clash ! See attached pic) I've ordered yesterday a C350E without even a test drive (& won't get one until January) due to having to order a new car thru Leaseplan by the end of November.

Sports Premium+
Brilliant Blue
Privacy glass
360 camera
HUD
Drivers assistance package (the missus insisted !)

FINALLY had a C350E demo for the weekend to play with (ordered mine blind without having a demo at the start of December but only being able to have a demo in Jan).

I had a black saloon, premium sport pack (I went for brilliant blue premium+ on my order).

Impressions:

- Car is sexy inside & out
- Cabin is an especially special place to sit (love the black ash & made the right choice for me in ordering it)
- Whilst the Sport+ / Sport / Comfort / Eco is a doddle, playing 'live' with various modes in Eco can be a faff.
- That said I love Save / Charge for motorways for pure EV only in urban areas.
- Standard speakers are decent with nice clean high end & a decent bottom end (can't wait to hear the Burmeisters though)
- Standard sat nav was adequate but a tad underwhelming
- I found the MB equivalent of the idrive is really intuitive to use - except (& probably me) the only way to change or select tunes in sat nav mode was to hit the media button, select & then hit the nav button again - a faff.
- Sport+ is intoxicating (never had a car with surge like that when already doing in excess of a banning speed)
- Even in Eco mode a decent boot down will give you flight take-off pickup
- The drive may not be of BM standard but is very engaging & enjoyable especially on twisties
- Love love love the little touches like the blue calipers, blue light flash, blue plug in hybrid flash, the rear light shape, the boot sensor & buttons.
- The driver assist package is decent and not too parochial but does the job when tested.

The only downside is that I have to give it back this afternoon & go back to driving the DS5 hybrid until May (I had an email last week to say that my order is being pushed out from late March / early April to May)

Bottom line - I deffo made the right choice in the C350E :bannana:

 

[CaptainChaos]

I imagine they hate dong recalls if at all avoidable so yes, on service makes sense from their perspective.

I agree, and I have no problem with that when it's not a safety related item.

 

[TheCorm]

Took my car in today, explained the issue with the charge back going on and off when you move the wire to the guy there and he agreed it was the pack but they need to inspect the vehicle for all warranty claims.

So worked from there for 90 mins with free wifi and hot drinks, pleasant enough.

They're ordering a new pack in which they say will be there tomorrow or Wednesday and then I can either collect or have it couriered to me, have kept the dodgy one for now as so far it's still working with some cable wiggling.

My colleague at work says 3 pin charge pack is doing the same and this is her 2nd one so feels like an inherent issue with these type of packs, I think the cable lengths are too short as often they get slung in through windows etc and the Mercedes one in particular has a very short pack to plug lead which in most sockets would mean it hangs.

Ironically in my setup it sits on the floor doesn't hang, I even stuck some rubber feed on the bottom so it sits in place but the pack has done over 400 charges now I think as I used to use it twice daily, now at work it's a proper charge point so I only use it at home or sometimes in hotels, holiday lodges etc.

Filled up on way back, lowest mpg so far during ownership, 54.3mpg with engine off for 50% of the time, so still not bad.

Despite being told all the warranty checks were done, they weren't so they had to pick it up and test everything (seemingly again) just to give me my replacement charge pack. Mercedes and their dealers still treating everything about a Hybrid the same as a normal car.

I have been tracking the guy and this morning I got to work with a 100% on everything on the eco circle as it was very leisurely due to the ice. The guy collecting/dropping off has dragged down the figures especially coasting but he's on his way back so new charge pack today!

While at the dealer they charged it up to 46% but then they used it down to 19% despite not appearing to leave the area of the dealership!

 

[skraus]

..

 

[skraus]

Do you know if that is going to be a general recall, or only if someone complains about it?

Wind noise - my car suffers from it. The dealer didn't think it did, but asked me to keep an eye (ear) on it. It's especially noticeable in cross winds. It sounds like the window is open fractionally.

look for other chains on the topic regarding noise. there is a workshop bulletin and if you squeak enough they'll fit acoustic front windows which helps.

 

[Deleted member 126969]

Speaking of bulletins (and recalls) can anyone point me to where these are listed please? I had a bit of a search earlier but only found a link for MB USA and my VIN didn't work on there. I did find a generic site but it would be much better if there was an official MB one for us.

TFL

 

[Dodgy]

I agree, and I have no problem with that when it's not a safety related item.

And it seems that no more than a third of vehicles are affected, so it would cost a lot more to fix them all then to fix vehicles with reported issues...


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[Deleted member 126969]

And it seems that no more than a third of vehicles are affected, so it would cost a lot more to fix them all then to fix vehicles with reported issues...


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That doesn't fit with what happened though does it? OP says he will be having it sorted, despite not having an issue with it (yet). Unless I misunderstood of course, which is entirely plausible

This day and age, every part is traceable, so if there is an issue, then MB MUST know which cars are going to carry the problem parts. Given that, then they have a duty to sort it out, surely, which seems to be what is happening.

 

[ChuckNorris]

The advantages I could see of the 330e were the lower tax (regardless of spec) and the peachy 8-speed ZF box. Our 7-speed is a bit clunky compared. But the lack of an estate really goes against it, and I think the 350e has a much better interior. I also think the location of the charging point is in a really inconvenient place on the 330e. It needs to be on the front or the back of the car, but they've stuck it on the front wing!

I've been comparing the two on our Leaseplan scheme at work and the clincher for me is that just comparing the saloons against each other, the BMW is over £100 per month cheaper on the personal contribution (and still £70 per month cheaper of specced in M Sport or Luxury compared to the Sport version on the Merc).

I'd love an estate as the boot on my C250 is just a little tight for holidays but I can't ignore a major price difference like that.

Might see how the 530e lands on the price list in the next couple of months and decide my final order from there.

 

[Rassiloth]

I've been comparing the two on our Leaseplan scheme at work and the clincher for me is that just comparing the saloons against each other, the BMW is over £100 per month cheaper on the personal contribution (and still £70 per month cheaper of specced in M Sport or Luxury compared to the Sport version on the Merc).

I'd love an estate as the boot on my C250 is just a little tight for holidays but I can't ignore a major price difference like that.

Might see how the 530e lands on the price list in the next couple of months and decide my final order from there.

It was similar for me. Mine is a Leaseplan car (or will be in a few months), although the cost difference was a little smaller by the time I'd picked out options and accounted for all the taxation twists and turns etc.

The clincher for me though was when I had the BMW on test for a few days and my wife (who has driven rally cars in the past) came very very close to being sick in the car. And that was just driving down the M62 in a straight line at legal speeds.


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[ChuckNorris]

It was similar for me. Mine is a Leaseplan car (or will be in a few months), although the cost difference was a little smaller by the time I'd picked out options and accounted for all the taxation twists and turns etc. The clincher for me though was when I had the BMW on test for a few days and my wife (who has driven rally cars in the past) came very very close to being sick in the car. And that was just driving down the M62 in a straight line at legal speeds. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Oh wow, what set up did the BMW have and what did you opt for with the Merc?

 

[Deleted member 126969]

Took the long way home from the shops earlier today and ran the car in Sport/Hybrid pretty much the entire trip just to get some miles on the ICE. A mile or two from home decided to put it into CHARGE mode to top the battery up a bit. All fine, you certainly feel the difference, but I did notice that the engine does indeed sound a bit 'gruff' as some reviews have commented. In fact, parked in the drive idling in CHARGE mode and it almost sounded like a quiet diesel. Put it back into HYBRID and it immediately slowed down and quietened down, as you'd expect. Inside the car, you don't notice it all that much although it is audible, but outside, it didn't quite have that luxury image! Guess I'm spoiled by having had V6 or V8 engines for such a long time. Then again, the old 2l Zetec engine in the Westfield is almost silent when idling.

Shame they didn't do a V6 hybrid package.

Only reason for running it in sport is to speed up the running in process. If we leave it to its own devices and just run in COMFORT/Hybrid all the time, it'll take us forever to get 1500km on the ICE and I don't really want that. Might be worth some pointless road trips just to clock up some miles on it. On engines I've built, I always do the following technique. Decent mineral oil in the sump, good quality cam lube all over the cams and followers. Warm it up while bedding in the cams at 2-3k rpm, varying that for about 20 minutes, then go drive it for about 50 miles, doing short bursts of accelerate/decelerate using increasing amounts of throttle and revs until you are up to full revs and full throttle for a very short burst. This beds the rings properly but doesn't load it up too much. Change the oil & filter then do 500 miles of moderate but normal driving, change oil & filter again, this time putting quality synthetic oil in. Job done.

No way to achieve this technique on this car though as I have no idea what they did to it at the factory and it'll likely have a synthetic oil in it already, and they are no good for bedding rings. Does anyone know what MB do to their engines in production? Do they see a dyno or are they just run up with compressed air? They must have a decent procedure, just like to know what it is.

 

[Rassiloth]

Oh wow, what set up did the BMW have and what did you opt for with the Merc?

It was the M-Sport spec. It was just very reactive to the road surface (maybe a little too reactive for an everyday car). I really enjoyed driving the BMW but when looked at as a whole just felt the Merc had the edge as an all rounder. Then Leaseplan dropped the lease costs by a fairly large chunk of change which brought them much closer in cost.

Apart from the ride the BMW did feel a bit spartan compared to the Merc. I may be a little biased as my Dad always had Mercs but I did find the local Merc dealer more helpful than the BMW one.

In the end I've ordered a Selenite Grey Premium Plus with the intelligent lights, 360 degree cameras and the passive driver assist. Plus a couple of cosmetic changes (switched the interior to black ash and added the night pack). I wanted the full driver aids but the cost would have triggered a company surcharge :-(.

It's currently due at the end of April but I'll believe that when it's sitting on my drive!



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[Jules Goddard]

Has anybody resolved the "C350e has no temperature gauge" problem?

 

[CaptainChaos]

Engine temp or outside temp?

Engine temp is in one of the many menus from the steering wheel buttons.

Outside temp is available only on the odometer trip screen. If yours doesn't show it, a software upgrade is available from the dealer.

 

[Amdabbas]

This brochure is loaded with information.

http://tools.mercedes-benz.co.uk/current/passenger-cars/e-brochures/c-class-saloon-estate.pdf

 

[Pmg102]

Would people expect the tracker to work even if the engine isnt started?!

Had a bump in the works car park last Friday (or more accurately the guy driving the landrover doing the car park gritting slid into my parked car), and they picked it up yesterday afternoon on a low loader... sounds worse than it is, but I refused to drive it in the snow with lose panels.

But the location is still showing as my works car park

Odd

Anyway - I've been given a BMW 520d as a replacement car... and it is making me want my Merc back already. Very dark interior, all black - pleased I went with the grey seats in mine. Steering is much heavier. Engine is a good diesel, but not a patch on the petrol/electric mix. IDrive feels dated (pretty much the interface from my 6 year old 3 series). And I miss the driving aids - I MUST remember it doesn't have adaptive cruise control otherwise things are going to get messy