C350e owners club

[Dodgy]

Really annoys me that they've removed the Web app, I found it reasonably good....now there is the choice between the Android app which is poor or using the website on your phone which is slow and awkward. I moaned at them on Twitter and they told me to call for support....what's that going to do? They're going to turn it back on !?

There is a recall out there currently to do wit checking the wiring around the charge socket, mine was done this week....no issue found.

I’m planning to have a rant at them. Did you target @mercedesbenz?

 

[TheCorm]

I’m planning to have a rant at them. Did you target @mercedesbenz?

Jamie Cormack on Twitter

 

[Dodgy]

Jamie Cormack on Twitter

I’ve just realised I can’t fit my tirade into twitter...

 

[wrighty senior]

End of an era. My time with the C350e is coming to an end. Three and a half years; 75,000miles. Average MPG=38.
Very few problems - probably the most annoying (because it took the dealer so long to get the correct parts) was failure of the LED courtesy lights in the door mirror!
Loves:- the torque! I rarely lose a traffic light drag race - general ride and performance - going out to the car and it's already warm and the screens are clear.
Hates:- no real hates but having to get the software update to get external temperature reading (on just one screen!) was a pain - I find the noise of the engine (from the outside) disappointing - life of rear tyres was far too short (perhaps due to my driving style) - range before needing to refuel (I would have loved a bigger fuel tank but equally would not want to sacrifice any space in the already small boot).
The best thing I can say about the C350e is that if a new version was available, I would have gone for another one. However, the plug-in Hybrid isn't available!
I have looked at various other brands -> BMW 2,3,4 and 5 (hated them all); Jaguar XE & XF (could not find an affordable version with sufficient performance); Alfa Giulia (very good but still not at Mercedes / Jaguar quality, ride, etc.) so I have decided to have the C300d instead. Fingers crossed I enjoy it as much as the C350e.

 

[Deleted member 126969]

At last, someone else who finds the sound of the engine sub-optimal....

How about the new E350e?

 

[Goldngin]

Always enjoyed your posts Wrighty, especially your ability to rip up the rear tyres every 8,000 miles! How did your battery last and did you recharge it frequently?

End of an era. My time with the C350e is coming to an end. Three and a half years; 75,000miles. Average MPG=38.
Very few problems - probably the most annoying (because it took the dealer so long to get the correct parts) was failure of the LED courtesy lights in the door mirror!
Loves:- the torque! I rarely lose a traffic light drag race - general ride and performance - going out to the car and it's already warm and the screens are clear.
Hates:- no real hates but having to get the software update to get external temperature reading (on just one screen!) was a pain - I find the noise of the engine (from the outside) disappointing - life of rear tyres was far too short (perhaps due to my driving style) - range before needing to refuel (I would have loved a bigger fuel tank but equally would not want to sacrifice any space in the already small boot).
The best thing I can say about the C350e is that if a new version was available, I would have gone for another one. However, the plug-in Hybrid isn't available!
I have looked at various other brands -> BMW 2,3,4 and 5 (hated them all); Jaguar XE & XF (could not find an affordable version with sufficient performance); Alfa Giulia (very good but still not at Mercedes / Jaguar quality, ride, etc.) so I have decided to have the C300d instead. Fingers crossed I enjoy it as much as the C350e.

 

[Belda]

Hi Everyone.

We currently own a 2009 C220 CDI Blue efficiency sport estate which has done 77000 miles at an average of 48mpg has been a wonderful car! Tomorrow we will be going to purchase a 6 month old 350e sport estate.

This will predominantly for my wife to use on the school run and other short trips.

We have been looking at the facts/figures and just are not sure if this is the car for us or not.

Your advice will be most welcome.

Mark

 

[Dodgy]

Hi Everyone.

We currently own a 2009 C220 CDI Blue efficiency sport estate which has done 77000 miles at an average of 48mpg has been a wonderful car! Tomorrow we will be going to purchase a 6 month old 350e sport estate.

This will predominantly for my wife to use on the school run and other short trips.

We have been looking at the facts/figures and just are not sure if this is the car for us or not.

Your advice will be most welcome.

Mark

What do you want to know?

How long are the school runs and the short trips?

Can you charge at home (do you have off-street parking)?

 

[Belda]

Hi

Thanks for responding.

I guess I’m generally trying to see if this is indeed the right car for us.

School run is a 3 mile round trip, kids clubs and errands are all about 7 mile round trip.

We have off street parking and can charge at home.

Ideally we want this car to mainly run on electric power baring the the long journey. Is this realistic?

 

[Dodgy]

Hi

Thanks for responding.

I guess I’m generally trying to see if this is indeed the right car for us.

School run is a 3 mile round trip, kids clubs and errands are all about 7 mile round trip.

We have off street parking and can charge at home.

Ideally we want this car to mainly run on electric power baring the the long journey. Is this realistic?

In the middle of winter, 7 miles is borderline for electric only. I don’t think my battery is the best they’ve ever made though.

Actually, did they increase the battery size? Mine is 6.2kWh. If the one you’re looking at is 9-ish, it’ll be fine for everything you’ve listed.

 

[Belda]

In the middle of winter, 7 miles is borderline for electric only. I don’t think my battery is the best they’ve ever made though.

Actually, did they increase the battery size? Mine is 6.2kWh. If the one you’re looking at is 9-ish, it’ll be fine for everything you’ve listed.

Ok thank you.

We will google to see if the increased the battery capacity. Does not have that info Spec. sheet.

Even if it was 6.2kWh would you say that we would still get good mpg in regards to how we are planning to use the car?

 

[Dodgy]

Ok thank you.

We will google to see if the increased the battery capacity. Does not have that info Spec. sheet.

Even if it was 6.2kWh would you say that we would still get good mpg in regards to how we are planning to use the car?

I don’t think you’ll use much fuel at all, even with the original battery size (TBH, I don’t think they changed it). Just flip the switch to e-mode and unless you press the pedal to the metal, you’ll be using electricity the whole time.

 

[Dodgy]

Just a thought: if you don’t need it for long journeys at all, you could go full EV. Maybe a bit scary if you haven’t plugged in at all, but the B250e might be worth a quick look...

 

[Belda]

Just a thought: if you don’t need it for long journeys at all, you could go full EV. Maybe a bit scary if you haven’t plugged in at all, but the B250e might be worth a quick look...

Dodgy....thank you for the time and information you provided us. Our mind has been put to rest and we will more than likely be coming home with our new car tomorrow.

It was hard for us to make a decision, as most owners that left feed back seemed to be high milers and were disappointed with real life figures, which is understandable.

Will be posting our real life stats soon.

Thanks

 

[Belda]

Just a thought: if you don’t need it for long journeys at all, you could go full EV. Maybe a bit scary if you haven’t plugged in at all, but the B250e might be worth a quick look...

We need one of each our second car is going to be full EV BMW i3 probably this will be for my commute round trip 5 miles.

 

[Dodgy]

We need one of each our second car is going to be full EV BMW i3 probably this will be for my commute round trip 5 miles.

Quite interested in the i3 myself.

The C350e is a lovely car. If you do use petrol, sport and sport+ are an education unless you’ve had a 300bhp car before. I tend to stick to e-save on long journeys once I’ve left the town.

 

[Belda]

Do you know the expected battery life on the C350e? We tend to keep our cars for 6yrs plus.

I just checked out the B250e as I did not know MB did them in full electric...this might actually be more practical for me!

 

[Dodgy]

Do you know the expected battery life on the C350e? We tend to keep our cars for 6yrs plus.

I just checked out the B250e as I did not know MB did them in full electric...this might actually be more practical for me!

You might want to check out some of the previous posts from @Chris-S. I think it’s 6 years or 63k miles of warranty. I do remember a couple of people having battery issues, but I think most have been OK since they sorted out an early design fault.

Thoughts about the B250e:
1. Although it looks like a great car, it has no rapid charging capability, so it really is hopeless for long journeys
2. Since it’s been withdrawn from production, is there a chance that servicing and repairs might become difficult?

I just don’t want you to take the plunge without thinking about it. From what I hear, it’s half Tesla and the half that isn’t Tesla has better build quality. Sounds interesting...

 

[Deleted member 126969]

@Belda our usage profile pretty much matches what you are planning most of the time. Current tank of fuel shows 316 miles with 64% left, an average of just over 85mpg. There are a few trips beyond electric range in there or it would be much better. We’ve had over 1000 miles out of a tank before.....and it’s not a big tank.

We charge it at home after every trip and find we generally drive more economically than we used to with our previous cars. Wafting along in silence is quite addictive, but once you are on a longer trip and using the ICE, the performance can be quite tempting too.

Pretty sure the battery was not changed during the production of the car - just the 6.2kWh. If a facelift C appears it’ll likely get the same power train etc that the new E has, with the 12kWh battery.

Our experience with the range matches @Dodgy lucky to get 7 or 8 miles in winter, summer about 12 to 14 depending on journey and driving style, as well as if you use E mode and run the battery down flat rather than leaving it in hybrid where it’ll always retain around 16% or so but switch to ICE.

Worst mpg so far was a round trip of about 300 miles, mostly motorway, starting on full charge. Gave low 50s IIRC

 

[Dickie44]

New C350e - ride quality and audio system

Have recently taken delivery of a C350e estate as a replacement for a 2014 W212 E300h in AMG trim. The latter car was absolutely marvelous, and I am noticing a big difference between the two cars.

Firstly, the amount of vibration through the steering is a lot more than the E class. This despite the Air Suspension and smaller wheels. The car went back to MB today, with about 2000 miles clocked in three weeks and had the wheels rebalanced, this has helped somewhat but still far more vibration than I would have expected. It seems to get a lot more noticeable at 65 - 70 mph. I wonder if anyone else has noticed this, or whether it's a function of the tyres or suspension setup? The suspension does seem pretty hard, with the comfort / sports switch really making very little difference.

Secondly, tyre pressures. The car was delivered from MB with the front wheels at 290 kPa and the rears at 330 kPa. The manual says 250 and 270? I'm assuming that it was delivered to me with the tyres overpressured?

Thirdly, the Audio 20 system seems really, really sluggish to respond to inputs? Is this normal? And no voice dialing or selecting music via voice input? And the voice inputs on the sat nav are awful to the point of being entirely pointless. The traffic feature on the Garmin Sat Nav also seems woefully inaccurate compared to the COMAND system in the W212.

Finally, the touchpad. This just seems completely unresponsive, with the 2 finger shortcut to the media menu not registering 90% of the time, and attempts to use it to enter numbers failing completely. Seems it can't tell what a number 4 looks like..... Do I need to clean it, or wet my finger? Is a special glove required?

Anyone else experiencing the same issues?

Did you solve you vibration issue? I’m suffering a very simular issue. Had the tracking and balance done a few times. Just had Tyres replaced (no at my expense ).

I have wider and lower profile on the rears, 245 45 and 225 50 front, MB recommended, but I’m not so sure.