Merco
Active Member
Well Folks -
The day has finally arrived! I picked up the new car - C-Class Estate Executive SE in Indigolite with Alpaca grey interior yesterday and have had a day driving it. Some interesting points when I picked the car up - the VIN makes it a W204, not S204 which I expected. They told me it was built in Stuttgart not South Africa and as far as they knew all the C-Class cars estate or otherwise were W204s?
Also, the car came with designated badge deletion so there is nothing on the back save for the star. The salesman - who actually seems alright - told me that this was standard for the Executive SEs but I'm not sure this is right? Can anyone shed any light on this and any thoughts on deletion of the numbers on the back vs non-deletion would be interesting.
They also made me fork out £40 on car mats which I was a bit miffed about as I was sure they were included otherwise I would have bargained them in with the price of the car?
And now to the drive - it was strange at first picking up the car. It had been such a long run-in and I had made myself aware of so many of the little foibles and joys of owning a MB through this forum and the interweb that the initial 'take-yer-breath-away' awe I'd expected didn't materialise. Perhaps I was expecting too much? Perhaps I'd just built it up to be too big a deal in my own mind? In any case - it was a big deal and it was plush inside, a comfortable and spacious cabin, COMAND without a 6-CD changer or media interface but with Linguatronic. No LED running lights but I'm not too bothered about any of that. The car is a bright and smooth change from the ALfa. The Alfa was much lower with a sportier suspension and you really felt the bumps in the road. This car seems to have ironed out the roads of the South East for me considerably and it's quite refreshing to be in such comfort.
Haven't yet had that 'King-of-the-road' feeling you get with a nice new car but once I got it home, the wife loved it (the car I mean!) and so did the mother-in-law (also mean the car!). So, that boosted my ego somewhat.
Today I drove it down to the South coast and even though it's a C200, I haven't noticed a huge difference in power between that and the Alfa although the pick-up at the lights is a little slower. In 3rd it zips along but the car obviously isn't at full load. When it is you wouldn't want to be zooming along anyway I'm sure.
All-in-all, I'm really happy with it. It does look stylish and cool, feels bigger and more comfortable. I think the COMAND system with Linguatronic is superb although I haven't yet worked out how to find an address with just the postcode yet and having that level of control from a single system is impressive. It would be nice if I could sync up the ipod to it but I didn't purchase that as an option and with music eventually loaded into the hard drive it'll be fine as is. Initial thoughts are that I might have included that as an option if I were to order again, possibly the Advanced Lighting system and maybe Cruise Control but these are minor issues which I don't wish to detract from the joy and romance of owning this car which for me is very special.
The dealer told me there was no need to run the engine in as they all came run-in already (again, if anyone's able to confirm then great) but said I might want to keep it below 3000rpm for the first couple of thousand miles. Again, like with the car mats, model designation deletion and S204 vs W204, not sure how accurate this was.
As a final point however - and this isn't so good and I know it's been mentioned on here before - I was presented by the finance manager with the dreaded 'survey'. He told me that if I were to put anything save for 'Completely Satisfied' on any one of the items then the salesman would suffer a penalty. I asked him if this was some kind of joke - what if I wasn't happy with the structure of the dealership, or the general service I received but actually the salesman was alright, would he still suffer? - and I was told, 'yes!' I asked what happened - whether it was a case of him having to buy Tesco Value Potato Waffles instead of Birds Eye or if they just cut off a finger, and he wasn't that amused. I explained that this was no way to collect honest information about the service they provided and what was the point in including any other points on a scale if they sat bare-facedly blackmailing you to fill in only one. I find this absolutely outrageous and the audacity to sit in front of someone who has paid a huge amount on a new car and tell you that if you don't complete this in exactly the way we tell you, then this person will suffer is beyond the pale! I will be filling in appropriate boxes to this end when the time comes! The salesman guy was alright actually but to then be presented with this by the finance manager I actually found quite offensive. But anyway - I won't let that detract from the car!
I'll post some pictures and some more thoughts on this smooth riding, comfortable, stylish and luxury car as I get more used to it but so far so good and here I am!! :bannana:
The day has finally arrived! I picked up the new car - C-Class Estate Executive SE in Indigolite with Alpaca grey interior yesterday and have had a day driving it. Some interesting points when I picked the car up - the VIN makes it a W204, not S204 which I expected. They told me it was built in Stuttgart not South Africa and as far as they knew all the C-Class cars estate or otherwise were W204s?
Also, the car came with designated badge deletion so there is nothing on the back save for the star. The salesman - who actually seems alright - told me that this was standard for the Executive SEs but I'm not sure this is right? Can anyone shed any light on this and any thoughts on deletion of the numbers on the back vs non-deletion would be interesting.
They also made me fork out £40 on car mats which I was a bit miffed about as I was sure they were included otherwise I would have bargained them in with the price of the car?
And now to the drive - it was strange at first picking up the car. It had been such a long run-in and I had made myself aware of so many of the little foibles and joys of owning a MB through this forum and the interweb that the initial 'take-yer-breath-away' awe I'd expected didn't materialise. Perhaps I was expecting too much? Perhaps I'd just built it up to be too big a deal in my own mind? In any case - it was a big deal and it was plush inside, a comfortable and spacious cabin, COMAND without a 6-CD changer or media interface but with Linguatronic. No LED running lights but I'm not too bothered about any of that. The car is a bright and smooth change from the ALfa. The Alfa was much lower with a sportier suspension and you really felt the bumps in the road. This car seems to have ironed out the roads of the South East for me considerably and it's quite refreshing to be in such comfort.
Haven't yet had that 'King-of-the-road' feeling you get with a nice new car but once I got it home, the wife loved it (the car I mean!) and so did the mother-in-law (also mean the car!). So, that boosted my ego somewhat.
Today I drove it down to the South coast and even though it's a C200, I haven't noticed a huge difference in power between that and the Alfa although the pick-up at the lights is a little slower. In 3rd it zips along but the car obviously isn't at full load. When it is you wouldn't want to be zooming along anyway I'm sure.
All-in-all, I'm really happy with it. It does look stylish and cool, feels bigger and more comfortable. I think the COMAND system with Linguatronic is superb although I haven't yet worked out how to find an address with just the postcode yet and having that level of control from a single system is impressive. It would be nice if I could sync up the ipod to it but I didn't purchase that as an option and with music eventually loaded into the hard drive it'll be fine as is. Initial thoughts are that I might have included that as an option if I were to order again, possibly the Advanced Lighting system and maybe Cruise Control but these are minor issues which I don't wish to detract from the joy and romance of owning this car which for me is very special.
The dealer told me there was no need to run the engine in as they all came run-in already (again, if anyone's able to confirm then great) but said I might want to keep it below 3000rpm for the first couple of thousand miles. Again, like with the car mats, model designation deletion and S204 vs W204, not sure how accurate this was.
As a final point however - and this isn't so good and I know it's been mentioned on here before - I was presented by the finance manager with the dreaded 'survey'. He told me that if I were to put anything save for 'Completely Satisfied' on any one of the items then the salesman would suffer a penalty. I asked him if this was some kind of joke - what if I wasn't happy with the structure of the dealership, or the general service I received but actually the salesman was alright, would he still suffer? - and I was told, 'yes!' I asked what happened - whether it was a case of him having to buy Tesco Value Potato Waffles instead of Birds Eye or if they just cut off a finger, and he wasn't that amused. I explained that this was no way to collect honest information about the service they provided and what was the point in including any other points on a scale if they sat bare-facedly blackmailing you to fill in only one. I find this absolutely outrageous and the audacity to sit in front of someone who has paid a huge amount on a new car and tell you that if you don't complete this in exactly the way we tell you, then this person will suffer is beyond the pale! I will be filling in appropriate boxes to this end when the time comes! The salesman guy was alright actually but to then be presented with this by the finance manager I actually found quite offensive. But anyway - I won't let that detract from the car!
I'll post some pictures and some more thoughts on this smooth riding, comfortable, stylish and luxury car as I get more used to it but so far so good and here I am!! :bannana:
they charged me for the "special" Grand Edition mats, which as far as I was aware were part of the standard spec, and was told that as they were counted as a "luxury accessory" (what on a £55000 car isnt classed as a luxury
) they had to charge for them. Next time (if there is one) I think I'll give them back and get some from Halfords.
