mbenz76
MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2009
- Messages
- 1,055
- Car
- E350 AMG Night Edition Premium Plus Saloon
So after almost a week with my E350 CDI Sport Saloon, I thought I'd post a quick review.
Full details of the car are in my signature at the bottom.
Picked it up on Monday afternoon, and after a quick country drive that night I have only used it for driving to work and back (5 mile round trip to the city centre), so not really had a proper drive in it - until today.
Today we headed out to do some shopping, and put a couple of hundred miles on it going to Manchester and Liverpool.
75% motorway, 25% country A roads.
Firstly, a picture (quick phone pic with lots of reflection I'm afraid) from Tuesday in the car park I use for work. I have some better quality pics on my camera but not got round to taking them off yet.
It looks absolutely stunning in it's sports guise - quite aggressive, whilst still oozing class and refinement. From every angle it is good to look at. It is a large car - it looks big from the outside and it feels big on the inside.
So, back to the driving.
The car is very responsive and has lots of power (as you would expect). At 70mph the rev counter was still below 2000!
Gear changes seem intuitive and well timed, but being my first auto I am still learning how to drive it properly. Haven't used kickdown or thrashed it yet since the dealer and handbook advise against it for the first 1k miles or so.
I've not really noticed the hesitation when setting off like other members have mentioned, but I'm still getting used to driving auto so maybe I'm just not picking up on it yet.
Handling is good, and there is no roll on even the tightest corner. Same with bumps in the road - only the worst are noticed. Very smooth ride indeed. Also very quiet insidie - you wouldn't even know the engine was running when stood still, and at speed you only hear road noise on the worst tarmac. Some wind noise from the rear at 70mph, but only a couple of times through the journey, so put it down to cross winds.
COMAND
Distronic Plus - after figuring out how to operate it properly I gave it a good test on the motorway. Much better than standard cruise, but takes some getting used to. I'm still hovering my foot over the brake when speeding up behind another car. No need though as the Distronic Plus does all the work and slows me down. Switch lanes and we speed up again.
Blind Spot Assist -Annoying at first, but seems a good aid once you get used to it. Above a certain speed an amber triangle displays in both mirrors to indicate the system is operating. As soon as a car enters the blind spot (ar alongside in view for that matter) the triangle turns red on the relevant side. Indicate and a warning beep alerts you to the vehicle. The one criticism I have is that you don't notice the triangles unless looking at the mirrors - it would be good if similar warning triangles displayed in the instrument cluster in a similar way to the indicators.
Lane Keeping Assist - Much better than I thought it would be - I have visions of turning this off straight away. Vibrates the steering wheel when crossing the white lines. The vibration is subtle - if anything too subtle - but it is quite intuitive and doesn't do it if driving in a tight space or if you cross them while taking a tight bend. If you cross the lines while indicating or speeding up it keeps quiet as well, so not as annoying as you would imagine.
Night View Assist Plus - Couldn't decide whether this was the biggest waste of money or the best gadget ever before I used it. It is however superb. On a dark country road, the sides of the road are lined with treea, which through the window look like a single solid mass of black. On the screen with NV however, you can clearly make out each and every individual tree. Not used it with pedestrians around so can't comment on that, but had a couple of cyclists in the road while using it and it certainly made them a lot more visible than they would have otherwise been - especially since it looks so far ahead (something like 3/4 of a mile).
Intelligent Lights - These are excellent. The automatic element is much better than other cars I have driven and they seem well tuned into when to switch on and when not to. Their ability to turn into bends seems to work well and is definitely an advantage to have. Adaptive high beam is good and very responsive - dips very quickly when it detects lights ahead - if anything a little too sensitive as it also responds to the glow of signs. Very impressed with it's ability to follow the car in front by dipping the beam to just behind the car so as not to dazzle them.
Memory Pack - It's a little disappointing that you have to pay for this when many cars have memory as standard, but that aside it works as well as you could expect it to. Electric headrest adjustment is good, although you could arguable live without it, and electric steering wheel adjustment is very good. My complaint is that when calling up the memory position you have to hold the relevant button until it has finished moving everything - let go and it stops - it would be better if you just pressed it and it did everything like my last car.
As for the other gadgets and gizmos:
During the week, running to work and back in rush hour, I was getting about 22mpg, which is not too unexpected since the engine is not only 3 litre, but also new.
Today, after the first 70 miles of A roads and motorway, I got an average of 42mpg, which to be honest is much better than I hoped for.
In summary, an absolutely excellent car - comfortable, refined, powerful, smooth and responsive. I'm looking forward to some very happy motoring to come.
Full details of the car are in my signature at the bottom.
Picked it up on Monday afternoon, and after a quick country drive that night I have only used it for driving to work and back (5 mile round trip to the city centre), so not really had a proper drive in it - until today.
Today we headed out to do some shopping, and put a couple of hundred miles on it going to Manchester and Liverpool.
75% motorway, 25% country A roads.
Firstly, a picture (quick phone pic with lots of reflection I'm afraid) from Tuesday in the car park I use for work. I have some better quality pics on my camera but not got round to taking them off yet.
It looks absolutely stunning in it's sports guise - quite aggressive, whilst still oozing class and refinement. From every angle it is good to look at. It is a large car - it looks big from the outside and it feels big on the inside.
So, back to the driving.
The car is very responsive and has lots of power (as you would expect). At 70mph the rev counter was still below 2000!
Gear changes seem intuitive and well timed, but being my first auto I am still learning how to drive it properly. Haven't used kickdown or thrashed it yet since the dealer and handbook advise against it for the first 1k miles or so.
I've not really noticed the hesitation when setting off like other members have mentioned, but I'm still getting used to driving auto so maybe I'm just not picking up on it yet.
Handling is good, and there is no roll on even the tightest corner. Same with bumps in the road - only the worst are noticed. Very smooth ride indeed. Also very quiet insidie - you wouldn't even know the engine was running when stood still, and at speed you only hear road noise on the worst tarmac. Some wind noise from the rear at 70mph, but only a couple of times through the journey, so put it down to cross winds.
COMAND
- Sat Nav - works very well - there are some post codes which can be entered as 7-digit, but most are just 5-digits. The actual navigation is very good - much better than the factory nav in my previous car. Excellent lane guidance on the motorway. Some display elements could be improved but these may be tweak-able once you dig into the settings (which I haven't done yet).
- Media Interface - works great with the Ipod connected. Haven't tried it with USB disk yet, and probably won't now - going to buy a bigger Ipod to keep in the car.
- Telephone - Joined my Nokia N97 to bluetooth within about 30 seconds of trying - easy and trouble free. Imported contacts quickly and easily and they can be looked up just as easily.
- Linguatronic - I must say that this was much better than I thought it would be. After about 5 minutes doing the personalisation (where I trained it my voice) I can now dial phone numbers by name or number, set the sat nav, and change the audio source and track.
Distronic Plus - after figuring out how to operate it properly I gave it a good test on the motorway. Much better than standard cruise, but takes some getting used to. I'm still hovering my foot over the brake when speeding up behind another car. No need though as the Distronic Plus does all the work and slows me down. Switch lanes and we speed up again.
Blind Spot Assist -Annoying at first, but seems a good aid once you get used to it. Above a certain speed an amber triangle displays in both mirrors to indicate the system is operating. As soon as a car enters the blind spot (ar alongside in view for that matter) the triangle turns red on the relevant side. Indicate and a warning beep alerts you to the vehicle. The one criticism I have is that you don't notice the triangles unless looking at the mirrors - it would be good if similar warning triangles displayed in the instrument cluster in a similar way to the indicators.
Lane Keeping Assist - Much better than I thought it would be - I have visions of turning this off straight away. Vibrates the steering wheel when crossing the white lines. The vibration is subtle - if anything too subtle - but it is quite intuitive and doesn't do it if driving in a tight space or if you cross them while taking a tight bend. If you cross the lines while indicating or speeding up it keeps quiet as well, so not as annoying as you would imagine.
Night View Assist Plus - Couldn't decide whether this was the biggest waste of money or the best gadget ever before I used it. It is however superb. On a dark country road, the sides of the road are lined with treea, which through the window look like a single solid mass of black. On the screen with NV however, you can clearly make out each and every individual tree. Not used it with pedestrians around so can't comment on that, but had a couple of cyclists in the road while using it and it certainly made them a lot more visible than they would have otherwise been - especially since it looks so far ahead (something like 3/4 of a mile).
Intelligent Lights - These are excellent. The automatic element is much better than other cars I have driven and they seem well tuned into when to switch on and when not to. Their ability to turn into bends seems to work well and is definitely an advantage to have. Adaptive high beam is good and very responsive - dips very quickly when it detects lights ahead - if anything a little too sensitive as it also responds to the glow of signs. Very impressed with it's ability to follow the car in front by dipping the beam to just behind the car so as not to dazzle them.
Memory Pack - It's a little disappointing that you have to pay for this when many cars have memory as standard, but that aside it works as well as you could expect it to. Electric headrest adjustment is good, although you could arguable live without it, and electric steering wheel adjustment is very good. My complaint is that when calling up the memory position you have to hold the relevant button until it has finished moving everything - let go and it stops - it would be better if you just pressed it and it did everything like my last car.
As for the other gadgets and gizmos:
- The powered boot closer is a must have - very useful when parked close to a wall or other car as it means you don't have to lean over to grab the handle or get a dirty hand by pushing it shut using the actual boot lid itself.
- Garage door opener clearly require patience to program, and I still haven't got it to capture the code from my remote control!
- Heated seats - I had these in the last car as well, and they are 100% required with leather seats. These get hotter much quicker than my last car, which is great on a cold morning.
- DAB is good, but to be honest FM seems better in some locations. Where you can listen to FM with the odd crackle or two, DAB just cuts out - this is a bit annoying.
- Climate Comfort Seats - it's been too cold to see how effective these are but they will hopefully be a very useful addition in the summer.
- Tyre Pressure Monitor is similar to the last car I had and works as you would expect - my only complaint is it displays the pressures in bar and I haven't yet figured out if you can change it to PSI or not, which is obviously more useful in the UK.
- Heated steering wheel - heats up very quickly and is a worthwhile gadget to have on a cold morning. Definitely a good buy.
- Tow bar - haven't used it, and only got it for carrying cycles on, but it is completely invisible when folded away - which is just what I wanted. When folded out it sits quite close to the bumper so it remains to be seen how easy it is to use.
During the week, running to work and back in rush hour, I was getting about 22mpg, which is not too unexpected since the engine is not only 3 litre, but also new.
Today, after the first 70 miles of A roads and motorway, I got an average of 42mpg, which to be honest is much better than I hoped for.
In summary, an absolutely excellent car - comfortable, refined, powerful, smooth and responsive. I'm looking forward to some very happy motoring to come.