After 1,500 miles / 4 weeks I am starting to regret buying the Merc
Initial thoughts of the C204 were positive, i liked the way it drove if maybe a little sluggish but while i was getting used to the car i overlooked some its flaws.
Performance and handling
- Auto box isn’t that responsive with more lag than I had expected
- MPG is nowhere near what I was hoping to achieve at an average of 42MPG and approximately £30-£40 more a month to fill up.
- The engine is hardly refined and sounds more like skeleton pleasuring himself in a biscuit tin!
- Brakes need upgrading as there are nowhere near as sharpe as the Golf was. Loooooaaaadddssss of brake fade.
Build quality
- Interior – More squeaks than mice in a cheese factory
Entertainment
- Unbelievably bad DAB reception to the point where I have stopped using it.
- Bluetooth integration call menu is needlessly complicated and defaults to sorting by last name/first name
- Command online – Completely pointless
- Maps – cost of updating maps is stupid
Sorry you're not feeling full return on your cash Anthony.
IMO all four cylinder diesels sound like a sack of sh*t, especially cold, but a DPF delete can help that and mine is certainly smoother when warm and of course tuned.
The gearbox I can relate to - is it the steering dash column gearbox control that most of the new Mercs seem to have?
I hate this tbh. It's like a 70's American estate from the old movies, just unnatural for the European market IMO. I had an early 2015 C-Class C200 saloon petrol auto earlier this year for the weekend and although the engine was poor anyway, the box didn't help that.
Is it too late to trade for a 330d? I've seen some for £20k with under 40k miles now which represents great value.
I'd be confident that for most people, the six cylinder and ZF Auto with the kit it has (in M Sport trim) would improve on 80%, if not nearly all of the points you've listed above, obviously with personal perception in mind too
Hope you're not tied in too much to either upgrade the above bits or chop it for something that makes you happier
