Initial review of my E350CDI

Pyscho_Si

Pyscho_Si

Pyscho_Si

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Joined
30 Nov 2002
Posts
2,059
Location
Bolton
Updated with views after 20K of ownership.


Further to an earlier post, I traded in my C-Class W204 C220CDI Sport Auto early and exchanged it for a 14 month old E-Class W212 E350CDI Sport Auto with 9K miles of the clock. I have no pictures yet but will take some soon and find somewhere to upload them to.

I haven't had much chance to drive the car yet as I'm still recovering from whip lash following being rear ended a month back in my old car.

Style

Styling wise, I agree with most of the online reviews that it is very conservative. Not as curvy as maybe the Jaguar XF but I think it is on par with the new 5 series and the A6 but I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Being the sports model it does look quite aggressive from the front with the DLR lights and the proper Mercedes badge on the bonnet rather then in the grill like my previous c-class. Also being dark metallic blue it is a little different from the silver every other Mercedes seems to comes in.

Engine and Gearbox

This is the more powerful 261BHP V6 diesel and being a diesel, I guess I should mention the torque … 620 Nm 457 lb-ft but to be honest and not being a physicist, I couldn’t tell you if that is good or bad. 0 to 60MPH is about 6 seconds in the dry and a few more seconds if it is damp but it is overtaking were you notice the available power. For a car which is nearly 2 tonnes with passengers, I don’t think the performance figures are that bad.

The biggest thing I immediately noticed was how smooth the car is. For years i've hated a certain individuals hatred of 4 cylinder diesel engines on here but I can finally see and agree with his point of view. The MB V6 diesel is so quiet and refined when cruising and I never knew a diesel could sound so nice under acceleration. So Mr Fox ... I'm now firmly in your camp when it comes to 4 cylinder diesels.

Although I didn’t buy this car as a ‘green’ car, I have been impressed with the economy. A 250 mile round trip between Bolton and Hull last weekend, motorway going and A Roads (via Withernsea, Beverley, York and Skipton) on the way back I managed an average of 43MPG and urban driving I’m getting mid 30’s. I guess this down to the car sitting at 900RPM at 30MPH and 1,600RPM at 70MPH. What is amusing is this car produces less CO2 then my last car and therefore in a lower tax bracket.

Handling

I have to admit the car feels more nimble than you would expect from its size. I think 265/35/18’s on the rear help getting the power down and the sports suspension does a good job. It is quite hard but nothing like you get in a S-Line Audi or a BMW with run flats. I’m not sure if it is a more advanced setup then you get in the c-class but it seems adapt to the 3rd world quality roads you get around here pretty well.

I think I will get a better understanding of the handling in the coming weeks.

Interior

The E-class is very much a 4 seater as the transmission tunnel is quite large in the back. Also the (real) leather sport seats are shaped in the back for only two. In the front the seats are extremely comfortable and offer good support. I’m looking forward to driving down to Spain at the end of the month. Room inside is good and I like having the gear selector on the steering wheel column as it just makes the cabin look cleaner. Additionally this car has some optional lighting system which has LED’s all around the cabin but as I haven’t driven it in the dark yet I can’t comment about them.

This car comes with the ‘COMMAND’ system which I guess is a bit like the BMW iDrive system. Following the classic top gear episode a few years back in which Clarkson struggled with Linguatronic, I wasn’t expecting much but I have to say I’ve been impressed so far. I was a little concerned I was going to miss the features from my TomTom but other than ‘Google Search’ and the speed camera database it seems to do a pretty good job. iPod integration is good and I do like the Bluetooth music interface. Makes it easy to play stuff from my iPhone if I forget my iPod. Not sure how much use I will get out of the DVD player … maybe I should take a DVD to watch when I’m crossing the channel on the train.

Other Stuff

This is my first car with bi xenon headlights but as I haven’t driven in the dark yet I haven’t tested the effectiveness. It also comes with Intelligent Light System, which adapts the lights depending on what you are doing. It also comes with high beam assist, which should be useful down country lanes.

Parking Assist is something that might come in helpful as I’m dreadful at parallel parking. Unlike the Audi system it doesn’t park for you but rather finds you a space using the parking sensors and gives you instruction on how much steering is required. I haven’t tested it yep but I am interested how effective it is saving my alloys from the curb.

Boot space is pretty good… enough room for a few dead bodies if the need ever arises.
 
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Pyscho_Si said:
The biggest thing I immediately noticed was how smooth the car is. For years i've hated a certain individuals hatred of 4 cylinder diesel engines on here but I can finally see and agree with his point of view. The MB V6 diesel is so quiet and refined when cruising and I never knew a diesel could sound so nice under acceleration. So Mr Fox ... I'm now firmly in your camp when it comes to 4 cylinder diesels.
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Now try a 6+ cylinder petrol engine, and you will see that even that diesel engine isn't a smooth as you 'think' it is, it's just very smooth compared to what you were used to.

To be fair, most of the ...well to use your phrase "hatred" towards those that dare suggest that 4 cylinder diesel engines are not the automotive equivalent of the Enterprise-E's warp drive ...is simply born of ignorance, ignorance of what else is out there and what it is really like ...either that or they have a 4 pot diesel and have convinced themselves it's amazing and feel they must convince everyone else it is too ...even though, unsurprisingly, there are those that know better.

I'm glad you are pleased with it anyway, I do like the current shape E class, just not as much as the 5 series or the XF. It is a very nice, well put together car though.

I will say this though, I have some experience of the engine in your car, and it really isn't 'that' smooth, it's actually got a rather gravely feel and note to it in my opinion, there are better ...even in the 6 cylinder diesel category. It's in a totally different league to a 4 cylinder unit though, no doubt.
 
Drove fom Bolton to Belsize Park (Camden) this morning with awful traffic (took over 4.5 hours instead of 3.5) and managed over 49mpg indicated. Very impressed as I expect my old C220CDI would have struggled to get this with the traffic conditions.
 
[TW]Fox;21867342 said:
Sounds like a nice car, I do like the new E Class.
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I'm well impressed with it. Should be able to ge close to 900 miles out of a tank when on a motorway run. Should make my life easier when driving to Spain as my French is awful.

I love the way one minute it is a relaxing motorway crusier and then feels nimble on a 'b' road for a bit of fun.

Only thing I can't get to work is programming the passenger mirror to automatically move when I select reverse. Manual says I can but dealer says you need memory seats.
 
The E350CDI now has 29K miles on the clock of which 20K are mine, so I thought it might be a good time to reflect on my experiences so far.










Costs:

Let’s be honest, Mercedes are famous for having stupid high ownership costs. The car had its first service under my ownership at the start of the New Year. I do not have a clue what the cost was I have the car on a £42 a month service plan (4 services in 3 years). As expected the service experience was excellent with the car picked up from my home and delivered back later in the day. I did have the option of a loan car but as I was working from home I didn’t have the need. On the downside I did have a Smart Car parked outside all day. Only additional cost at the service was the £32 I paid for wiper blades.

To be honest, my car allowance (plus the annual tax refund on business mileage) pays for the PCP payments and therefore I’m left with Insurance (£1K a year), Servicing and Tyres. Working out the costs with a colleague, my E350CDI works out about the same as his BMW 320ED corporate lease car. I know which I would prefer to drive.

Fuel economy is beyond what I was expecting. On a decent motorway run I am able to easily hit the mid 50’s. My current commute from Bolton to Chesterfield over The Peaks will give me between 38 and 44 depending on how I drive and Bolton to Valencia in a fully loaded car roughly keeping to the speed limits will average out at about 44. Sat on the French toll road at 95, it was still registering about 40MPG (at just over 2000RPM)

Filling an empty tank is not an enjoyable experience as a full tank (85L) is about £130 a time.

I have not bought any tyres yet but the rears (265/35/18’s) are about £230 a time. I did buy 4 aftermarket alloys to put my old winter tyres on. At £135 each they look exactly like the ones Mercedes are using for their winter package. Mercedes AMG wheels are diamond cut and do not like salt (as I found from my previous C-Class) and as I already owned the winter tyres it seemed stupid not to utilise them …. and yes they have come in useful this year as ‘up north’ we do get snow now and again.





Performance:

Acceleration for such a large car is impressive. I believe the 0-62 is about 6 seconds but it does get bogged down with a slight delay with the automatic gear box. It is overtaking which really impresses me. As the car tends to cruise along at low revs (30/40MPH = 1K RPM, 72MPH = 1.6K RPM) the kick down is 2 gears and gives you plenty of punch to make your overtake.
Top Speed is well beyond the speed limit so pretty irrelevant. It is also limited out of the factory at 156MPH. Because of how quickly the car accelerates, I have set a secondary limiter at 100MPH to hopefully save my licence. It is surprising how often completing an overtake I hit that limit. It is only a quick 20 second job to remove the limiter for when I drive over to Germany.

Because of the about of torque, it is very easy to drive the car in every day driving without exceeding 2K RPM. The seven speed automatic box is a joy and is the first car I’ve ever driven with 2 reverse gears.

Brakes are awesome and have saved my life a few times in Spain. The only problem with the brakes is that you stop much quicker than a lot of other cars on the road and have to keep an eye in the rear mirror to make sure you do not get rear ended.

Looks:

Yep, it is a four door large German executive saloon. It is never going to be the prettiest car on the road and I think being a Sports model it is quite aggressive looking from the front. It is quite boxy but I love the amount of visibility you get from the big windows. I like the way you wouldn’t mistake it for another type of car.

Mine is a dark metallic blue colour which changes depending on the warmth of the light. I like the blue because it is different from most Mercedes which seem to be Blue.

Technology




I love the lights. You would not believe how much I adore the ‘Adoptive Bi-Xeon’ lights on the Mercedes when I’m driving in the dark. I love the way it changes the beam pattern depending on the road you are driving on which makes life so much easier for my eyes. Also found the ‘Full Beam Assist’ is most useful on Spanish motorways in the dark as I’m yet to find a straight bit of Spanish motorway. The car does not have traditional front fog lights. Interesting when you turn on the rear fog, the DRL’s automatically turn off. When the car does do is adjust the dipped headlights to find the optimal range before the fog reflects the light. I found this very useful at the start of the year when driving home over The Peaks with visibility down to less than 10m. All I could see out of the rear mirror was the reflection of my rear fog light.

This car has the NGT4 Command system. The only obvious thing missing from the latest version is the ‘live’ function but as my iPhone 5 doesn’t do data connections I’m not missing much. Coming from a TomTom 1005 I was expecting to miss a lot of the features such as the excellent traffic routing but you know what … TMC has improved in coverage since I last used it and it isn’t as bad as I was expecting. The Sat Nav is easy to use, has a half decent collection of POIs installed and seems to calculate the fastest route. The only thing missing are speed cameras and speed limits.

Sound is okay, maybe not as good as the funky systems you get in a Jag or Lexus but sufficient for my needs. I can plug in my iPod and fully control it on the colour screen. I think I was spoilt with my first car, a BMW 1 Series with Logic 7 sound system which was superb. Only used the DVD player when sat on the channel tunnel train and it sounded half decent.

I have just started to use the ‘Parking Assist’ and it is pretty good. The rear and front parking sensors do make parking easier but it is a big car and to be frank I’m awful at parking.

Comfort

Bolton to Dijon none stop other than the on-board a train while going under the Channel and then feeling fresh enough to go for a walk, have a few drinks and nice dinner. Should also have pointed out I had my 60+ year old mother in the car at the same time.

Really is a 4 seater. The middle seat in the rear is only suitable for short journeys as the rear seats are shaped a bit like a sports seat. Front is very comfortable and I’ve never struggled to find a comfortable position.
Door storage passes Fox’s criteria of being laid with carpet. Maybe they could be a little larger but they are okay to store documents. Glove compartment is sufficiently big enough to cold about 6 cans of coke which is useful on a long journey.

Boot is pretty big, big enough for a few bodies or baggage for 4 adults going away from a week or two. As I do not play golf, not sure how many golf bags you can fit into it but I guess a few.

The negatives:

It takes a while for the engine to warm and when cold the fuel consumption is awful. Takes a good 5 to 10 minutes on a very cold morning for it to decide to blow out some warm air. Similar to my previous Mercedes, I seem to still get cold feet syndrome on a cold day. It seems to take for ages for the foot well to get warm. The front demist is about as useful as a chocolate fire guide until it gets warm. Unless you manually adjust the fan, it is as useful as a fly farting until the car is warm.

I sometimes wish it had a proper handbrake or even an electronic one as the foot operated one can sometimes be a pain.

Can’t really think of any other negatives at the moment..
 
Looks a real nice car, had a C220 2012 this week, was very nice but have to say I had the same issue as you that the heaters don't seem to be great. :(

Managed 54mpg on a run across national speed limit roads and was seeing low 40's n my 10 mile trip to work.

Out of all the executive cars I've driven, the Mercedes has the best ride I feel. :
 
Lovely cars but I still think the interiors look like Vauxhalls, with the sharp angles and the vertical sharp bit in the middle air vent. The ride on these is something else though. Extreme comfort.
 
daz said:
Not sure where you're getting that from at all.
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I can't explain where he is getting it from either but it's the first thing I think of when I see it, too, so there must be something in there that triggers Vauxhall memories. I think it's the sharp fronted dash and the way the radio looks.
 
[TW]Fox;23868031 said:
I think it's the sharp fronted dash and the way the radio looks.
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Probably this.

I drove an E350 CDI like yours for a few thousand miles and quite enjoyed it. However, getting back in to the 535d after made it feel like a sports car! The E is definitely a lot softer and more refined.
 
PMKeates said:
Probably this.

I drove an E350 CDI like yours for a few thousand miles and quite enjoyed it. However, getting back in to the 535d after made it feel like a sports car! The E is definitely a lot softer and more refined.
Click to expand...

If you think the Mercedes Sport E-class Sport is soft I would hate to think how hard the BMW is.
 
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