After my wife’s bump have been given an S320CDI as a courtesy car, due to the not at fault MB acident service 
.
This car is not bad at all. I was astonished at the combination of performance and economy, got 35mpg over mixed driving into Manchester (non rush hour), even having a bit of hoon round the lanes I still got 27mpg
. The car pulls well in gear, it is quite quiet once warmed up, quiet when pottling around and when cruising. Negative aspects of the engine were, start up noise, the noise under acceleration and the vibration at standstill, particularly through the brake pedal and wheel 
There also was a moment’s hesitation under hard acceleration as the gearbox changed down and the turbo spooled up.
I timed the cars acceleration and got it to do a very impressive 0-60 7.8 secs and 0-100 in just under 19 secs, the car has 10k miles on. See vid.
S320CDI 0-100 bit out of focus
Car was fitted with 18" AMG alloys, which gave the steering nice weight, they produced good grip and helped the cars handling, they did however allow minor road imperfections to be felt and caused thumping over big bumps, the ride was still one of the best, but the S430 I had on 16" wheels just floated along , although it's grip was noticeably less and the car understeered far more. The AMG wheels also were prone to terrible scuffing with no raised rim to protect them, all four were badly scored when the car arrived.
Overall I was quite impressed, although a petrol S350 may be a little quicker, quieter and smoother, it can't compete with the overall package when you look at the economic benefits. I don't think I would spec the car with the AMG alloys , the ride is compromised and unless you spec the car with the ABC suspension package it's not that comfortable being pushed hard enough to exploit the extra grip (but the wheels did look nice ).
.This car is not bad at all. I was astonished at the combination of performance and economy, got 35mpg over mixed driving into Manchester (non rush hour), even having a bit of hoon round the lanes I still got 27mpg
. The car pulls well in gear, it is quite quiet once warmed up, quiet when pottling around and when cruising. Negative aspects of the engine were, start up noise, the noise under acceleration and the vibration at standstill, particularly through the brake pedal and wheel There also was a moment’s hesitation under hard acceleration as the gearbox changed down and the turbo spooled up.I timed the cars acceleration and got it to do a very impressive 0-60 7.8 secs and 0-100 in just under 19 secs, the car has 10k miles on. See vid.
S320CDI 0-100 bit out of focus
Car was fitted with 18" AMG alloys, which gave the steering nice weight, they produced good grip and helped the cars handling, they did however allow minor road imperfections to be felt and caused thumping over big bumps, the ride was still one of the best, but the S430 I had on 16" wheels just floated along , although it's grip was noticeably less and the car understeered far more. The AMG wheels also were prone to terrible scuffing with no raised rim to protect them, all four were badly scored when the car arrived.
Overall I was quite impressed, although a petrol S350 may be a little quicker, quieter and smoother, it can't compete with the overall package when you look at the economic benefits. I don't think I would spec the car with the AMG alloys , the ride is compromised and unless you spec the car with the ABC suspension package it's not that comfortable being pushed hard enough to exploit the extra grip (but the wheels did look nice
).
Uphill!! 
