C350e owners club

[350e]

It's another one of those automotive trade offs, a higher pressure would infact reduce the rolling resistance but the trade of is that there's less contact meaning less grip and because the contact patch is smaller, the wear rate is higher.
Of course, the rate at which this affects your tyres and fuel economy is infinately variable dependent on driving style, weather, road surface, steering input, acceleration and braking forces. The weight of the car, the distribution of that weight, the list goes on.
In a nutshell, because we are not in an F1 car, I'd suggest that if the pressures are as indicated in the fuel filler cap, or a few psi either way, you'll be ok [emoji106]

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Thanks for that.
Have to say my wife and I ( me more than her) are probably worth 3 slim Germans and with are usual two passengers I think I will the use the recommended ( fuel filler cap) higher pressures for 5 in the car
Who knows I might then get those magic mpg numbers :bannana:

 

[Joseg]

Thinking of getting the 350e (estate or Saloon) as my next company car. Great thread this.

I know the boot has been discussed a couple of times... But looking at the photos of the saloon I don't get how the boot capacity is reduced from 480, standard C class, to 335 litres for the 350e. At least they're the official figures.

Is the whole floor of the 350e boot raised (Or is it just the step and losing the under floor space/cubby)?

Has anyone on here seen both side by side, is there really 1/3 less space in the 350e boot?

p.s. I know the easy answer is get the estate... but I can get a lot more toys on the saloon (premium Plus, etc).

I had the exact same dilemma. I have a c220d company car that is due change. Test drove the c350e saloon. Boot was nowhere near as good as my current c class. Cubby holes at left and right of boot near opening much smaller. The obvious raise in the floor half way back in the boot makes it less practical too. You also lose the space beneath the boot which currently has a basket in it in my car. Probably quite obvious but as the floor is raised the opening into the car when the seats are down is also significantly smaller. Was keen to stay with the saloon but my head over ruled my heart and I am due to recieve my c350e estate at the end of September. The saloon would have been fine for me 90% of the time but I just felt the estate would give me a bit more flexibility if carrying suitcases, golf gear or work gear. Plus it has a flat, albeit raised floor.

 

[Joseg]

Service Manager in IT. Car will be through Arval.

You may not have a choice on the lease co - we usually go through Arval but got this car through your fleet. Significantly cheaper.

 

[CaptainChaos]

Just a thought - I am not good at checking tyre pressures...

Good job your car had £185 of snazzy tyre valves to do it for you!
You can check your pressures on the dashboard or on the app.

 

[Saxon6]

So, after 24 moths and 24,000 miles later it is time to hand the C350e keys back to MB in a few weeks.

It’s amazing to see that this thread has received nearly 400,000 views, and that’s for a single model within the entire C class range, I think that shows the impact this car has, and will continue to have, in the growing hybrid market.

After 2 years the question for me was, do I purchase another C350e or go looking elsewhere?

As a very early adopter (mine was the first UK shipment) we were subject to a number of recalls, such as the wiring loom, and software updates, but with a new car full of tech that was to be expected. However, the car did spend more time in the garage than I would have expected for a quality brand like MB waiting for bits, which I suspect was due to short supply of parts caused by high factory orders.

That said, the build quality of the car of the car in general has been excellent, with creaks and rattles from the dash only starting to appear the past few months.

After this car I am now fully sold on the principle of hybrid / electric vehicles for a number of reason be they financial or environmental. It is certainly the way that all vehicles will go. Cars like to new Tesla Model 3 will most likely be game changers.

For me, the one big disappointment I have had with the C350e is the electric range. Much has been said on this so I won’t labour the point. But with BIK on the rise (when I bought the car in 2015 it was 5%, come 2019 it will be 16%, trebling in just 4 years!), plus VED hitting cars over £40K, having a car that has a good electric range is the best way to counter the increasing costs associated with driving / owning a car.

I was typically only get 12 miles out of a full charge, and on the other side of the coin, if I gave the car a thrashing on just the ICE I have seen a mere 19mpg! I know that’s not the point or purpose of the car, but unless you religiously plug the car in everyday and only make short journeys, the mpg is worse than a euro6 diesel.

When I was able to run the car mostly on electric the fuel savings were very significant and I posted about this some time back, so I do believe electric is the way to go for me and the type of journeys I do.

There are some good deals to had on the C350e, and I feel that it is an excellent first generation PHEV, but the EV range is just not there. Another 10-15 miles range, great, I’d would have already placed the order for a new one. Maybe the second generation C350e will achieve that but until then my order has gone elsewhere.

Hence I have decided to jump fully into the EV philosophy and ordered the new longer range 94Ah BMW i3. When they first launched it the mileage range wasn’t very good, now it has a real world range of 90-100 miles. Still not far enough for many, but for me that means I can do my commute on just 2 charges a week.

So whilst the BIK, P11d, VED etc keep going up, I am hopeful that I can counter those costs by avoiding the need to ever visit the fuel pumps.

For me it’s definitely a hat’s off to MB for their first attempt at a quality PHEV, but at the very least they must get the electric range in line with what they advertise, and hopefully increase it with their next generation, at that point I will be looking with renewed interest.

 

[350e]

So, after 24 moths and 24,000 miles later it is time to hand the C350e keys back to MB in a few weeks.

It’s amazing to see that this thread has received nearly 400,000 views, and that’s for a single model within the entire C class range, I think that shows the impact this car has, and will continue to have, in the growing hybrid market.

After 2 years the question for me was, do I purchase another C350e or go looking elsewhere?

As a very early adopter (mine was the first UK shipment) we were subject to a number of recalls, such as the wiring loom, and software updates, but with a new car full of tech that was to be expected. However, the car did spend more time in the garage than I would have expected for a quality brand like MB waiting for bits, which I suspect was due to short supply of parts caused by high factory orders.

That said, the build quality of the car of the car in general has been excellent, with creaks and rattles from the dash only starting to appear the past few months.

After this car I am now fully sold on the principle of hybrid / electric vehicles for a number of reason be they financial or environmental. It is certainly the way that all vehicles will go. Cars like to new Tesla Model 3 will most likely be game changers.

For me, the one big disappointment I have had with the C350e is the electric range. Much has been said on this so I won’t labour the point. But with BIK on the rise (when I bought the car in 2015 it was 5%, come 2019 it will be 16%, trebling in just 4 years!), plus VED hitting cars over £40K, having a car that has a good electric range is the best way to counter the increasing costs associated with driving / owning a car.

I was typically only get 12 miles out of a full charge, and on the other side of the coin, if I gave the car a thrashing on just the ICE I have seen a mere 19mpg! I know that’s not the point or purpose of the car, but unless you religiously plug the car in everyday and only make short journeys, the mpg is worse than a euro6 diesel.

When I was able to run the car mostly on electric the fuel savings were very significant and I posted about this some time back, so I do believe electric is the way to go for me and the type of journeys I do.

There are some good deals to had on the C350e, and I feel that it is an excellent first generation PHEV, but the EV range is just not there. Another 10-15 miles range, great, I’d would have already placed the order for a new one. Maybe the second generation C350e will achieve that but until then my order has gone elsewhere.

Hence I have decided to jump fully into the EV philosophy and ordered the new longer range 94Ah BMW i3. When they first launched it the mileage range wasn’t very good, now it has a real world range of 90-100 miles. Still not far enough for many, but for me that means I can do my commute on just 2 charges a week.

So whilst the BIK, P11d, VED etc keep going up, I am hopeful that I can counter those costs by avoiding the need to ever visit the fuel pumps.

For me it’s definitely a hat’s off to MB for their first attempt at a quality PHEV, but at the very least they must get the electric range in line with what they advertise, and hopefully increase it with their next generation, at that point I will be looking with renewed interest.

Excellent report, thank you.

It is interesting and not surprising that you have opted for a BEV.

I too will move on to a BEV when the time comes, unlike around 90% of buyers today I had to buy my car outright at about the same time as you but that means I will have to hold on for a another year or so.

It is not surprising that you chose a BEV because it has been found in research carried out by Inside EVs that after having experienced a PHEV most owners will do the same.

I agree that Mercedes and others need to match a cars range with those claimed.

As it happens most of my journeys are for short distances and often the ICE is not used but if I were to regularly undertake long journeys I would be even more disappointed than I am presently.

 

[wrighty senior]

You pays your money and takes your choice.....
I have tried the BMW i3. It just didn't work for me due to my very varied types of journey (one of my offices is 100miles from where I live). The other thing I found with the quite early model I tested was it was so 'plasticky'. It just didn't have the feel of a prestige car (this may now have been improved).
The point is, a fully EV is only an option if you do not have to regularly do long distances. However, for reasonably short commutes it is the ideal solution.
All EV and Hybrid technologies are in a state of 'compromise'. This means that owning two cars (one for commuting and one for long distance) is the only perfect solution. I will definitely replace my C350e with the same animal. Then I am hoping that in a few years there will be a perfect single car - perhaps with a Hydrogen fuel cell as its heart???

 

[Saxon6]

You pays your money and takes your choice.....
I have tried the BMW i3. It just didn't work for me due to my very varied types of journey (one of my offices is 100miles from where I live). The other thing I found with the quite early model I tested was it was so 'plasticky'. It just didn't have the feel of a prestige car (this may now have been improved).
The point is, a fully EV is only an option if you do not have to regularly do long distances. However, for reasonably short commutes it is the ideal solution.
All EV and Hybrid technologies are in a state of 'compromise'. This means that owning two cars (one for commuting and one for long distance) is the only perfect solution. I will definitely replace my C350e with the same animal. Then I am hoping that in a few years there will be a perfect single car - perhaps with a Hydrogen fuel cell as its heart???

You are quite right, it is clearly not a vehicle for everybody. The i3 for me is solely a commuter vehicle with a daily round trip of 40 miles, so it should be ideal (I hope!).

We do have the luxury of a long wheelbase VW T5 combi van which serves as the family load lugger for those long journeys, or trips out with bikes etc.

I would agree with the 'feel' of the C350e vs i3, however BMW are coming at it from a different angle than MB. They are using recycled materials and sustainable construction techniques for the vehicle, so this is why the materials look and feel different, with little or no use of leather for example, but that is a deliberate aesthetic approach taken with the i3.

It will be interesting to see the new MB EV vehicles, or EQ as they are branding them. I feel sure they will adopt the same 'recycled' approach.

Agree with you on the Hydrogen fuel cells, clearly we can't build (or finance) more Nuclear Power stations in time to meet the rising need that the new government policy towards scrapping pure ICE vehicles will have, so fuel cells at this moment in time seem to be the most sustainable option without filling every street with hundreds of charging points!!

 

[Dodgy]

You are quite right, it is clearly not a vehicle for everybody. The i3 for me is solely a commuter vehicle with a daily round trip of 40 miles, so it should be ideal (I hope!).

We do have the luxury of a long wheelbase VW T5 combi van which serves as the family load lugger for those long journeys, or trips out with bikes etc.

I would agree with the 'feel' of the C350e vs i3, however BMW are coming at it from a different angle than MB. They are using recycled materials and sustainable construction techniques for the vehicle, so this is why the materials look and feel different, with little or no use of leather for example, but that is a deliberate aesthetic approach taken with the i3.

It will be interesting to see the new MB EV vehicles, or EQ as they are branding them. I feel sure they will adopt the same 'recycled' approach.

Agree with you on the Hydrogen fuel cells, clearly we can't build (or finance) more Nuclear Power stations in time to meet the rising need that the new government policy towards scrapping pure ICE vehicles will have, so fuel cells at this moment in time seem to be the most sustainable option without filling every street with hundreds of charging points!!

I've heard quite a lot of talk recently about hydrogen fuel cell powered cars. At the very least, they are way behind BEVs in the development curve, but worse than that, Toyota (who have done a lot of fuel cell research) have just patented a solid state battery. They clearly weren't putting all their eggs in the fuel cell basket. Even worse than that, have you heard what the messiah (or Elon, as he likes to be called) has to say about fuel cells? Not completely bought into the idea, you might say...

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[Doodle]

A man with a massive investment in battery technology dismissive of fuel cells? Never!

 

[Dodgy]

A man with a massive investment in battery technology dismissive of fuel cells? Never!

Yes, but he chose to invest in battery technology, not in fuel cells. His opinion led to the choice, not the other way around...

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[Doodle]

I would not disagree, but that was then, this is now. Once one is that far down the rabbit hole it's difficult to turn around should you want to.

 

[Vailmale]

I've gone from HATING my C350e (I had an issue where it couldn't charge in the first month or so and was exposed to MPG in the low 20's!) to being pretty keen on it - but perhaps only in the warmer summer months (despite the dismal summer we've had).

I can do my 20 mile round trip to gym with a few bursts of ICE to rip away from lights and overtake etc. - but mostly on electric and can easily achieve 99mpg (or more I guess - it's no longer possible to check on the App for a number > than that?).

I wrecked my long term mpg with about 8 trips of 200+ miles, but am at just under 46mpg for the last 6595 miles (and that has included some very naughty times of Sport+).

Ambience and comfort are nice and as I can't justify a Tesla, it'll be another PHEV for me next, but perhaps a Golf GTE as there are some ludicrous deals around at present and it's claimed 31 electric miles would be a really useful on the supposed 19 (although I tend to never exceed 16) on the Merc.

 

[350e]

(although I tend to never exceed 16) on the Merc.

How I wish I could get better than 12.

 

[350e]

Duplicate

 

[350e]

You pays your money and takes your choice.....
I will definitely replace my C350e with the same animal. Then I am hoping that in a few years there will be a perfect single car - perhaps with a Hydrogen fuel cell as its heart???

If I were to replace my car today for another Mercedes PHEV it would be the SUV
because the saloon has fallen out of favour and I would be concerned about the depreciation.

 

[C350ezoom]

Mine was updated on the third attempt! First at service was only a part SW download so didn't add OAT. Second one failed during download stage - why they don't download to a laptop first I don't know - third attempt success and now I wonder if it was really worth it!

Are you saying that you now have OAT available in place of KPH?

 

[sxileander]

I'm afraid not. It is on the total mileage screen only. A bit inconvenient but better than nothing.


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[thewinelake]

What's the view of the panel regarding build quality of c350e saloon vs estate? I hear that the saloons are built in South Africa, and the estates in Germany, so there might be a difference?

 

[wivenhoe]

What's the view of the panel regarding build quality of c350e saloon vs estate? I hear that the saloons are built in South Africa, and the estates in Germany, so there might be a difference?

My 2015 C350e saloon was built in Germany - I know as the dealer tracked it after it was held in the factory. Perhaps it has changed now.

I have been very happy with the build quality - no issues whatsoever. The car is 2 years old next month and everything is as solid as the day I collected it.