As some of you know I often visit Scotland from my home in Kent and I don't feel I really know my car until it's done the big run! Well circumstances have meant that although I bought my C350 Elegance at the end of August 2012 I hadn't been able to get to Scotland until this week.
My last car, a W203 C180k, used to get between 32-36mpg on a normal Scotland run and average 28mpg over the whole trip (round towns, traffic, shopping etc). My W204 has just managed 32mpg which isn't bad. The drive home took 7hrs and 10mins at an average speed of 68mpg. You will appreciate you have to go faster than 68 in order to make up for the traffic lights, roundabouts and delays. Overall I thought 32 mpg was OK for a fully laden 3.5 V6. The average for the whole 1400 miles was 28mpg.
I chose the Elegance as I was fed up with sporty suspensions not providing that "waftability" that first attracted to me to Mercedes 250,000 miles ago. I have been delighted with the ride on this first long run. Very comfortable, and with it's standard adaptable dampers it was easily able to cope with some spirited cross country drives. I'm also very pleased with the refinement and comfort. My last car's seats used to give me a numb bum after 3 or 4 hours but my w204's seats were still comfortable after a whole days driving. I also noticed that we could talk between the four of us more easily as cabin noise was less. Overall I'm delighted with the car's build and refinement (an unstressed engine doubtless helps) and I've arrived home not even tired. The car truly feels mine now we've done the "long run"-silly I know!
