JonMad
Active Member
Yep, Olly leant me his loaner for the day whilst my CLK was getting it's B Service (CLK price now dropped, by the way , as well as having a bang up to date service history).
Was interesting being given the key but knowing nothing other than it was a C class estate and a diesel.
On the road, clearly it's turbocharged, the ride is good but not super smooth, still smooth enough to feel you could cruise to the south of france in it. Not too much road or engine noise, particularly once I slotted it into D and not 4
It definitely felt solid - the steering, the indicator stalks and the other controls. I guessed the year correctly at 1999 and not knowing the engines in this model had guessed at around a 2.4. It felt very solid given the indicated mileage -then Olly told me it'd actually done over twice that . Knowing now that the motor is a 5 cylinder, yes, that does make me recall that it did have a nice gruff note under acceleration.
It was definitely a wafter - particularly in 'W' setting on the gearbox where it felt like it started in 2nd - 'S' was punchier out of the A27 roundabouts. Coming to my first corner slightly faster than anticipated highlighted that this is not a sports car in any way. Slow in, slow out seemingly the best way to approach anything not a straight line (on the A32 back homeward in my CLK afterwards, it felt so, so keen to turn in and through the corners). It was also my first experience piloting something with a 3 pointed star raied proud on the bonnet. And I think I liked it.
Cheers for the experience - certainly got me interested in an older Merc as an option for the future