German Car Zone

I seen it several times, while the steering looks better IRL than on photos it not a beauty, worst in the german trio imo. the exterior is nice though, very nice.

Thanks for the detailed review Monster,

I was left with the same impression, and this promted me to bring forward my purchase by a staggering 18 months!!!

I am glad you liked the Tenorite grey , black leather and black birds eye maple, You need to see it with the AMG Sports pack

I had to get my dealer to call the factory in Stuttgart to change my colour from Palladium Silver (as I was 3 days past my final date for spec. changes) after seeing one in Tenorite Grey, absolutely smashing colour IRL

MB wrote to say that my car will be ready for collection from the Stuttgart factory in September. I will take a few pictures on the day.

Thanks again for the excellent post.

3 photos taken by my friend asd01.. more to come



And the sexyTenorite grey C280 Avant-garde.

While that may be true, I seriously didn't bother about the steering wheel at all when I saw it in person. It looks chunky and comfortable to hold, that's all about matters.

Here are some photos from the C Class launch, with Monster and Myself

Shot with uD600,S600 at 2007-07-29


Shot with uD600,S600 at 2007-07-29


Shot with uD600,S600 at 2007-07-29


Shot with uD600,S600 at 2007-07-29

I will give me impressions now on what I took from the new C Class it is not really a technical view on things but more of a users experience.
Monster has all the tehno specs for you!

When I first got a glance of the C Class, it was exactly what I was hoping for, a new car! nothing from the W203 and I was hoping for some of the essence to return from the great W201 (the car I drive).

Before we actually got to see the new C class, monster and I wanted to refresh ourselves with the rest of the model range so we had in our minds and our "fingers" with what we can compare with.

I have always liked the exterior of the C Class from every photo I had seen before, it has that new streamlining effect at the front but also a touch of the classic Mercedes-Benz 'boxiness' towards some of the rear. This truly helps to show that the design has gone back to some of its roots in the C Classes history.

The interior was indeed very very comfortable, it reminded me more of the S class, and to me the S class is a car that you could sit in the seats the whole day and never feel uncomfortable. in all the C class modle variants, the classic, elegance and avantegarde they all felt very comfortable.

But probably my favourite things in the new C class are all the gadgets!
Monster mentioned that he is not an audio expert, but I am an audio fan! so I will give my response to the audio systems.

I agree that the standard Mercedes audio system is very good, but, there are some level issues when listening to certain audio, if I had a CD with me to try I would have been able to get a better idea of what was wrong cause really I could have just been bad radio reception that was causing some of the distortion. However, when we made our way to the Harmon/Kardon logic 7 sound system fitted in the C280 and I went to play with all the controls I was very satisfied with the upgraded sound system. We even got a DVD to try and the sound quality was excellent. Very clear, precise and no distortion, I did change some of the levels to see what difference it would make and from memory I turned the bass and the treble up only a small amount on the H/K sound system. But in the Standard sound system I had to turn the treble up a little and the bass down quite a bit to stop it distorting when turning the audio system up a little to see what it can pump out.

The new interactions with the COMMAND system via the rotary aluminium knob is really what I have been waiting for. I took at this way of using the system very well, almost immediately in fact, the movement is simple it does not distract you too much from other things that are happening in the car and really it is quite a fast way to intereact with the system. what i like is that it is not too easy to move the wheel around it has some resistance so you can actually feel what your doing and the movements to move up and down levels are rather obvious so it is very good. I prefer it much more then the BMW's iDrive system.

To me all the controls are well made, and I really like the design and more important the layout it is clean, simple and I think it will just work especially when your driving along. Of course there are still the usual NAV, DVD, AUDIO etc. buttons that are found on many of the other Mercedes, however they are smaller and are a simple round touch button.

I would seriously suggest that people make some extra effort when trying the car out to really look at the COMMAND system as it really something that you will start to appreciate the more you play with it.

But overall the car has a great seating positing from driver to passengers. The boot/trunk is probably, not as wide as in other models but it is relatively deep so there is still ample space for luggage.

From aesthetics my favourite variant of the new C Class is the Avantgarde, it looks sporty, aggressive and a real fun car for the younger audience. the rear of the car is absolute perfection it is proportioned well and has a great flow to the eye.

Overall, I would buy one tomorrow if I could! but I will just have to wait, it is really an excellent new addition to the Mercedes family and an improvement far greater then the last W203 models.

thanks for reading

ASD

Exactly. I agree completely.

but it doesnt change the fact its not a good looking steering wheel, we even have polls regarding steerinf wheels so of course it matters to people.
If it was a bmw having this steering wheel people would complain, even mb people

Look at your sisters steering wheel, look a lot better than the steering wheel in C-class imho:

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s...WBMW118i18.jpg

I don't really pay attention to how steering wheels look to be honest. If they're nice to grip, their job is done.

so you refuse to admit that the steering wheel in your sisters car look better than the one in new C-class

PS the steering wheel in a Lotus Esprit its nice to grip, I guess you would be satisfied with same steering wheel in C-class