not liking this.

 

Might be plastic, but IMO it does a pretty good job of imitating carbon-fiber....the way that NuLuxe does a good job of initiating leather.

The 2020-2023 Encore GX has a similar-surface silvery band-strip that runs across the upper dash and also (more or less) imitates carbon fiber....it was changed for 2024 with the new wide-video-panel.

 

Those materials are hard plastic too and were not comfortable with my knee resting agsinst them.

In a picture, not in person. This car has carbon fiber trim, but for some reason this console is just a printed plastic and having the two materials next to each other really highlighted how crappy that material looks.

you can kind of see it in the picture I posted, The area to the right of the screen is real CF, and it has great depth and sheen, and then the area under the screen is the fake CF printed plastic:

 

So, then, the S-Class offers a choice between CF and wood trim? Sound like a good choice to me.

 

That’s a C Class loaner I had today not an S Class

The S class has choices between multiple wood trims, piano black veneer and carbon fiber. But whatever you choose that console piece is cheap
plastic. It’s the same material in the S as in that C loaner.

 

The real issue is the lack of thought given to ease of operation. On the newer car you need to hover your arm in air above the screen and that can be annoying while driving and splits focus.

The old systems allow your arm to have a place to rest and smaller, direct control movements to activate everything.

The newer one also just looks cheap. It's so much more generic and the lack of physical interaction cheapens and makes operating a $20k car no different than a $500k car since a touch screen is a touch screen. But cost cutting and optimizing overhead is needed these days with how weak the dollar is lol!

 

Agree on the touchscreen. Much harder to hit what you want and takes much more concentration off the road.

I will say that this C Class felt incredibly solid, I was actually very surprised. Doors felt great, felt just as good as my S Class. I actually shut the drivers door in my office garage several times because I was surprised how good it felt. Ride and drive was also tight and stable and felt like a Mercedes should.

This C was graphite gray which is one of the colors I have been considering for the next car, I gotta say it was kinda blah and when my white car pulled back up the white really is striking…

 

Go with the deep green! Or that blue, I really like both of those colors in person

The C is a real Mercedes, anything less is "meh"

 

I have time, going to keep what I’ve got for a while, next summer maybe once we have seen the refresh 223

 

FYI that’s definitely not carbon fiber on the dash. The carbon fiber trim gets the piano black center console. your loaner had the metal weave pattern. Carbon fiber looks like this:

 

The only thing worse than a touchscreen is a touchscreen angled to catch all of the reflections and highlight dust and finger prints. Make them go away…

 

You’re correct, it’s the metal weave pattern. It’s a real metal weave though, just not on the console.

Definagely agree there. The angle magnifies the dust and fingerprints.

 

See I can’t really tell from the pic. Is the outer part of the rim supposed to be polished or more of a matte silver?

 

It’s a satin polish, that’s what they are supposed to look like.

 

No big deal. A soft cloth and some warm water usually takes care of that problem. Just don't use any harsh detergents or abrasives.