RussellS
New Member
Hello, I have just registered and thought I would introduce myself.
I'm Russell and I live just up the road from Portsmouth on the south coast of England. Last year I bought a used (less than one year old) Mercedes C220d AMG Line Premium Estate.
The Mercedes replaced a Hyundai i40 Premium which I had from new and was 5 years old. I absolutely love the interior of the Mercedes and the controls etc. However, I have to be honest, there are a couple of things that I am dissapointed about and I think should be much better on a supposedly high end car.
Firstly, the sound quality from the audio system is not particularly good. Now I've looked into this and I now know that I have the Audio 20 system installed which just has 4 x 4inch full range speakers (one in each door) and I think a 6.5inch subwoofer (if such a small speaker can be called a subwoofer) somewhere which I haven't found yet. This is all driven directly from the head unit and not from a separate amp. Personally I think this is shocking given the cost of the car and the fact that this is labelled a Premium model and not just the base model. My Hyundai i40 on the other hand was superb in this department with a full Harmon Kardon setup with mid range speakers and separate tweeters in the doors and a proper subwoofer in the boot all powered from a seperate HK amp. I was shocked to find that there weren't even any tweeters mounted in the tweeter panels in the front doors on the Mercedes.
The other thing with the Audio 20 system I was surprised about was the hands free telephone system and the lack of voice dialling. However this wasn't really an issue once I discovered that the voice button on the steering wheel connects directly to the Google Assistant on my phone and I can voice dial using that which works perfectly. I now actually prefer this system as I can also send text messages etc using the same method.
The second thing is that I find the left foot rest (sometimes referred to as the dead pedal) uncomfortable. It doesn't really appear to be a proper foot rest but just a lump in the carpet. I find it not wide enough for my foot to rest on properly and so my foot tilts and slides off it. It would have been nice to have a proper foot rest there.
However, apart from these two issues I love the car. The performance if great, the equipment level is good and lots of room in both the cabin and the boot.
I'm currently in the process of fitting some Alpine tweeters in the door housings to see if that improves the sound at all and later on maybe fitting a proper powered subwoofer in the boot. I will document my progress in these forums as I go. I am also looking at a foot rest addon to see if that improves the comfort.
Oh, and the other thing that was a tough pill to swallow but not Mercedes fault is the car tax. The Hyundai i40 was £30 a year whereas the Mercedes is £485. How does that even make sense, the Mercedes has a more efficient engine with less emissions. I also have a 4.2L V8 Supercharged Jaguar XKR in the garage which does around 20mpg and the tax on that is about £200 less than the Mercedes. ~The adverts used to say 'tax doesn't have to be taxing' ...... I've got news for them lol
Anyway, sorry for the long rambling post,
Russell
I'm Russell and I live just up the road from Portsmouth on the south coast of England. Last year I bought a used (less than one year old) Mercedes C220d AMG Line Premium Estate.
The Mercedes replaced a Hyundai i40 Premium which I had from new and was 5 years old. I absolutely love the interior of the Mercedes and the controls etc. However, I have to be honest, there are a couple of things that I am dissapointed about and I think should be much better on a supposedly high end car.
Firstly, the sound quality from the audio system is not particularly good. Now I've looked into this and I now know that I have the Audio 20 system installed which just has 4 x 4inch full range speakers (one in each door) and I think a 6.5inch subwoofer (if such a small speaker can be called a subwoofer) somewhere which I haven't found yet. This is all driven directly from the head unit and not from a separate amp. Personally I think this is shocking given the cost of the car and the fact that this is labelled a Premium model and not just the base model. My Hyundai i40 on the other hand was superb in this department with a full Harmon Kardon setup with mid range speakers and separate tweeters in the doors and a proper subwoofer in the boot all powered from a seperate HK amp. I was shocked to find that there weren't even any tweeters mounted in the tweeter panels in the front doors on the Mercedes.
The other thing with the Audio 20 system I was surprised about was the hands free telephone system and the lack of voice dialling. However this wasn't really an issue once I discovered that the voice button on the steering wheel connects directly to the Google Assistant on my phone and I can voice dial using that which works perfectly. I now actually prefer this system as I can also send text messages etc using the same method.
The second thing is that I find the left foot rest (sometimes referred to as the dead pedal) uncomfortable. It doesn't really appear to be a proper foot rest but just a lump in the carpet. I find it not wide enough for my foot to rest on properly and so my foot tilts and slides off it. It would have been nice to have a proper foot rest there.
However, apart from these two issues I love the car. The performance if great, the equipment level is good and lots of room in both the cabin and the boot.
I'm currently in the process of fitting some Alpine tweeters in the door housings to see if that improves the sound at all and later on maybe fitting a proper powered subwoofer in the boot. I will document my progress in these forums as I go. I am also looking at a foot rest addon to see if that improves the comfort.
Oh, and the other thing that was a tough pill to swallow but not Mercedes fault is the car tax. The Hyundai i40 was £30 a year whereas the Mercedes is £485. How does that even make sense, the Mercedes has a more efficient engine with less emissions. I also have a 4.2L V8 Supercharged Jaguar XKR in the garage which does around 20mpg and the tax on that is about £200 less than the Mercedes. ~The adverts used to say 'tax doesn't have to be taxing' ...... I've got news for them lol
Anyway, sorry for the long rambling post,
Russell