rxonmymind

So my wife took the Mercedes Benz from the dealer as s loaner and I was overall impressed with the new four turbo that many auto makers are going to now. Let start with the engine. As I start it up the engine it's barely audible and for comparison quieter than my IS350. The shifter is rather clunky in that one has to push it to the side then down from park into drive. Moving on. Acceleration is very impressive! Good goobley!!! That's without the turbos kicking in. If I didn't know before hand I'd swore it was a V6. What stood out was the absolute silence when accelerating. Nothing from the exhaust and if there was, it's negligible and not worth noting. As I merged into traffic I thought to myself THIS is the kind of insulation the Lexus convertible should have to take better advantage of the great sound system. In fact I wonder if the Mercedes muffler would fit. Lol. Nice engine, very very quiet interior.
The interior was nicely appointed with soft touch materials throughout. Very spartan interior with minimal cluster and what I'd define as clean. My only quibble was the seats and that can be huge on long trips. For my frame of 5'10 240lbs the back supports were odd. Couldn't put my finger on it though. Also sitting in it with the seat all the way back my knees were only one hand span away from the glove box. A close fit. If your over 6'1"" that may be a challenge.
So I'll be able to drive this for the next few days but my early impressions are very positive. Even the engine bay has room to work in! A nice departure from the tight form fitting engine bays hat are a PIA to work on. Big hands can fit in there. Not sure of price comparisons/performance of competition but if this Mercedes could prove to go 300k I'd seriously consider it as a purchase for my daughter.

The ride is firm but comfortable. A bit stiffer than my IS. But that certainly is due to it being new vs 53k. Steering is precise while the feel.of the steering wheel is comfortable. I find it interesting that the tires are Continentals and not the default Michelin's.

pbm317

While a solid car, that's the outgoing C-Class.

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

Alive is a great song

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Boy you might now want to sit in the new C300 4Matic that replaces this C250, you may fall more in love

rxonmymind

I didn't know that. Still a solid "beginners" car for a graduating senior that I have in mind four years from now.

Haha. Good observation and yes it's not bad.

We'll that's not going to happen anytime soon. *grin*. Loving my IS too much.

RXSF

Yep, you'd be more impressed with the new four banger in the 2015 C300. 240 horses and 270 lb feet, healthy gain from what is in the 2014 C250

LexBob2

While new car shopping a couple of weeks ago I sat in a new C300 with a sales rep and got a demo of things. REALLY nice interior and amenities! I didn't drive it, as they only had two cars and we'd pretty much made up our minds what we were going to get. A nice effort by MB.

Aron9000

^ The C class is no longer the "cheap" class IMO. They're way nicer than what they were 6-7 years ago. Plus Benz can afford to make them a bit nicer, more polished, more feature laden since the entry level Benz is now the CLA

rxonmymind

Sound system is also very good. Better in my opinion than the stock RX. I say that off the cuff without knowing 100% whether this Mercedes has the premium sound or stock. All leather perforated leather seats and leather wrapped steering it may just be a tick above stock. In any case thus is a system I could live with and not have to modify.

The seats are a little too thin and one can feel yourself "bottoming" out over hard bumps. The seats are not made for stocky upper body humans. The shocks/suspension on this car driving over say an extended bumpy highway surface makes your whole body go wiggley-jiggly. A little to stiff IMO. A driver should never feel to this extent the harshness of the road being transmitted to the person. It's great for "spirited" driving as it's set up I'm sure(I'll respect it as it's on loan to us) and smooth highways but what car isn't?
Even with these few negatives the damn car is growing on me!

pbm317

I believe what you're experiencing is very much a "euro" tuning of the suspension and dynamics. It might feel harsh to someone coming from a Japanese vehicle, but I've found that it's generally quite the opposite. While smaller items may seem like they're coming through, the overall ride is much more controlled and well dampened. Each "event" in the suspension is settled out quick quickly, whereas Japanese and Korean vehicles tend to have a bit of... almost wavelike amplitude that will crash through to the cabin. European cars are firm, but not harsh, at least in my opinion.

I'd be surprised if your C250 loaner actually has leather, it's likely the MB Tex synthetic leather, similar to Lexus NuLuxe. And from your picture, it doesn't have the premium sound system, which would have a badge on the door speaker for "harman/kardon"

rxonmymind

Pbm317
Thanks for your input. Everything you mentioned is spot on. The ride is firm and the response of the the suspension is very quick.
Glad to know this is the stock system for a fair comparison. My wife even wants to change out the RX stereo and normally she has little interest in this sort of thing. However, after spoiling her with the Focal three piece component set with Amps to match in our last car she now knows the difference of quality sound. The 2009 RX 350 isn't one of them. From my research some have said it's a Pioneer set up and what a disappointment.

rxonmymind

Navigation is not independent of the radio. I found this out in the hospital parking lot picking up my wife. With the radio turned off I started to back up while out of habit looked at the console for reference. It was blacked out. Fro a split second I thought I had got in the car and reversed to quickly for it to "power" up. So II moved forward again into my parking spot, put it in park and reversed again. Nothing. One has to turn on the radio/power button to turn everything on. Also no parking sensors. Man those are handy.
I like the fact in the Lexus one can "turn off" the radio and still have the reverse camera to work. Also I didn't see any Aux/charging area for my dead phone. Why did I bring the charger I thought. Grr.

RXSF

^^ that is the weird thing about the mercedes COMAND unit. I find myself always having the radio on. They provide a mute button to use so that you can have everything powered on if you don't want sound

chikoo

Yup. My ML350 standard sound system is above and beyond the Lexus Premium Sound in my IS250 and the RX350.

I will presume you are driving the "Sport" edition - the one with the large Tristar grill. If you want to experience "luxury" drive the one without one, and has the tristar mounted on the hood.
LUXURY Edition - Smooth


SPORT Edition - wiggley jiggly on bumpy surfaces

rxonmymind

Lol. Thanks. Yes I do have the wiggley jiggly edition. I'll have to try out the luxury model.
Had to give the car a good soap bath as there is nothing like bubbles & coffee in the early am.