Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Mercedes The 'old' 5 speed auto is far from rubbish. It's flawlessly smooth, though of course not lightning quick. But it suits the engines it's mated to well. |
I've driven C220CDI automatic and BMW 320dA, and the changes were far from "flawlessly smooth" in the Merc -- but it was very smooth in the BMW. Also, the Merc transmission is much slower, and has negative impact on fuel consumption. All BMW are on 6-speed Steptronic for 5 years now, and even the latest Mondeo (which is quite far from Mercedes quality or pedigree) implements a 6-speed Tiptronic. In such a "climate" Merc's old transmission is heavily outdated, and I'm almost certain it will be completely phased out in 2009.
And don't get me wrong: if Merc was bundling the old transmission only to the smallest engines (C180K and C200CDI), I wouldn't nag about it for a second. But they also give it for the C220CDI (which is the mainstream engine variant for C-Klasse here in Central-Europe), and you don't even have a choice, so you cannot pay 1000-2000 euros more to have a "proper" and cutting-edge gearbox... I tend to get quite upset when my hands are "tied down" like that. And that's the one thing that drove me away from buying a C220CDI/C200K this summer -- so I'll wait for the GLK220CDI until spring 2009, and hope to get the C220CDI or C250CDI with 7GTronic by then
