W204 poor isofix location

[sp218]

Bought one of the few new C63 estate remaining in the UK recently and absolutely love the car.

The only gripe I have about the car is the poor lcation of ISOFIX points, hidden under the cover. Very difficult to get to and fixing my rather large baby seat took immense effort and several attempts. Had to use plastic guides to expose the fixing points but very clumsy and worried that the seat itself will deform permanently as a result of fitting the guides... much easier on my Audi with the fixing points clearly exposed which had plastic covers on them.

Probably a minor point given the other +s on the car but quite perplex by MB's design choice. Anyone share the same thought and know whether the seat ends up deforming permanently after having the isofix for a few years?

Sorry for the rant on my 1st post. Just love the car so much and hate the prospect of "damaging" my new car..

 

[Rayza]

Hi SP218,

Firstly good choice of car! I fully agree the isofix design is cr@p. Its much better for those cars that do not have folding seats (saloon). I too was worried as the only way you can use the child seats is by inserting the plastic guides. For me it was pretty hard to insert them between the leather sections.

I leave the black inserts in as much as possible as pita removing and inserting. The longest I had them permanantly inserted is approx 8 months. When i removed them the section was deformed but i found it did go into decent shape after a few days to a week, you could still tell but i stopped thinking about after awhile and does not bother me now.

 

[RWDpetrol]

Completely agree, one of the many reasons I'm getting rid of mine. Yeah, yeah, the engine is great but it all becomes annoying when the rest isn't up to scratch. No solution, I also used plastic guides.

Actually, even more annoying is that I couldn't turn off airbag on front passenger seat. Needed to carry stuff from B&Q so put rear seats down, got the wife to sit in the back awkwardly then realised no way I could put the baby in the front.

 

[sp218]

Hi SP218, Firstly good choice of car! I fully agree the isofix design is cr@p. Its much better for those cars that do not have folding seats (saloon). I too was worried as the only way you can use the child seats is by inserting the plastic guides. For me it was pretty hard to insert them between the leather sections. I leave the black inserts in as much as possible as pita removing and inserting. The longest I had them permanantly inserted is approx 8 months. When i removed them the section was deformed but i found it did go into decent shape after a few days to a week, you could still tell but i stopped thinking about after awhile and does not bother me now.

Thanks, Rayza.

Strange coz on an F10 M5, it's the one with folding seats option that has exposed hard points. Good to know that they return to their shape... Guess I will care less about it once had the car for a few years.

 

[sp218]

Completely agree, one of the many reasons I'm getting rid of mine. Yeah, yeah, the engine is great but it all becomes annoying when the rest isn't up to scratch. No solution, I also used plastic guides. Actually, even more annoying is that I couldn't turn off airbag on front passenger seat. Needed to carry stuff from B&Q so put rear seats down, got the wife to sit in the back awkwardly then realised no way I could put the baby in the front.

Still exploring the features of the car.. So what are the other bits that annoys you? Many seem to be able to forgive when you fire up the engine.

Previously coming from BMW and Audi, find the parktronic a little concerning when it only beeps at you near the end of the travel. I guess just takes getting used to as all Mercs are probably the same.

Would be interesting to ask the question to all owners the pros and cons of the C63 in their opinion... I can see what the pro might be! In fact maybe I ll do that and might learn something new about the car.