pezzy669

I am about to hit the 6 month mark of having my '09 C300 Luxury - it was a lease special so it is pretty much a base model with no options. I am at 70k miles on my '09 and have had a good 10k behind the wheel.

Pros:

- Powertrain is amazing. Except for the common M272 rod knock on hot starts this engine is incredible. Torque for days from idle, smooth as butter and incredibly flexible power from idle to redline.

- Transmission is 95% there. The other 5% includes it jerking into gears and not wanting to make up its mind. Other than that it is smooth as butter and does what I want.

Cons:

- Interior is pretty low rent for what this car costs. Having to budget to replace both side air vents and a passenger air vent. 2009 interior is quite fragile and is prone to dog damage. These bits are scheduled for replacement in 2017.

Colin G

How do air vents get damaged? In all my years of owning cars since 1987 I have never had to replace an air vent.

intrdrgn

when I purchase mine, I had a couple of vents damage from the inside where you adjust them side to side. I don't know how this happen to previous owner but that's how mine are.

tekfoc

I do from having a little extra activity, her legs being raised up.
had them break in a car I had years ago.

tekfoc

just trade it in for a 13 or 14
or if you want to save get a 12 it has updated body and interior and the m272 motor.
not as powerful as the 13 and 14 but much easier to work on since it's not direct injection.
hence why I got a 12.

97 GSX 97

The interiors are significantly nicer for 12-14. Part of the reason I bought my 2014.

cvx5832

I agree with all in your assessment. This on an '08 C300 Sport with 120k miles. Car purchased new.

I haven't experienced the broken air vent, but I have a couple rear door pins I've already replaced.

On the hot engine knock ours has done that since new. Thankfully it hasn't gotten worse and I frankly don't hear it anymore.

The gear change choices are indeed sometimes goofy. I have another transmission 10 years older that's way smoother and ALWAYS in the right gear. Granted it has 2 less...

pezzy669

The two side window defroster vents apparently dry rot and will break if you look at them wrong - seems to be a MB problem across models. Worst part is MB does not sell them separately outside buying a whole new dashboard.

Passenger vent was unexpected breakage. Taking my dog to the vet I had to make a panic stop and my poor pup slammed against the dash and passenger right side vent (nearest to window). Did not notice until a few days later the louvres were all screwed up. I know I know.....need to secure my pup for her safety. Yes she was fine.....just had to get herself out of the floorboard and back in the seat.

Did not know you could get the 3.0 in the facelift, wish I had known this! I thought transition to 1.8T in base went hand in hand with the face lift. I would take the 3.0 in the facelift in a hearbeat.......that interior is light years better than the '08-11. Nothing against 4 bangers as I have had 7 of them from various manufacturers in a range from 1.8-2.5. First car was a '86 300E (hence my MB love) and I just love the sound and smoothness of a 6.

Good to know on the engine knock - I don't worry about it anymore based on many other anecdotes of yours of M272 engines with 150k+ miles on them. Doubt I will own this car at that many miles as I only do ~5k miles a year (10k in 6 months was because of multiple Florida road trips).

Trans is odd ~5% of the time. It seems to mostly be stop and go traffic where you have to be on and off the gas (driving in Downtown/Midtown Atlanta on surface streets) that it gets tripped up and can be clunky. Transmission fluid change did not make a bit of difference so think its just the computer fuzzy logic not knowing what the hell to do. Other than that its logic is probably the best of any auto I have driven and the other 95% of the time the shifts are butter smooth. One huge + I will say is I am honestly surprised at how quick it can kick-down, especially when in comfort and you demand a 2-1 kick-down from start.

pezzy669

One fun item I forgot to mention was driving on ice.

We had an ice storm in mid-January here in Atlanta and I had to be on my laptop to make sure my properties had clear parking lots (Property Manager by trade) and my laptop died and my only charger was at work ~1.5 miles away.

Had the wonderful experience of driving a RWD car on non-treated ice covered roads. Will say it was not as treacherous as I was expecting (think my newer Michelin Premier A/S saved me from hell).

Mercedes ESP will let you stay at a good sideways angle but moving in a straight line. Experiencing ESP previously I thought it would at least keep me going straight forward, it definitely did not and majority of the drive I would be at a 5-10 degree angle with the rear wheels spinning away with me counter steering up front to stay moving straight. Kicking down the gas for a second or two would kick in the ESP and straighten things out until I let back off the gas when I would just go sideways again. This surprised me as it seemed to give quite a large amount of leeway.

Did get stuck at 2 uphill stoplights that took a few light cycles to get through, I'm sure I burned up what was remaining of my rear brakes at those two lights.

Have to say that drive was fun only because I was the only idiot on the road so had plenty of room to drive crooked and get stuck at stoplights. Still fun none the less!

LILBENZ230

This is the strangest part of all the things that you've said. I've owned 4 Benz cars, a W203, 2 W204s (one 11, now a 14), and a W211. They have all had ESP slip logic that ruled with an iron fist. None of them have allowed for the slightest bit of slip or yaw.

During the ice storm that you're talking about from a few weeks ago, I got to compare the Benz ESP to the ESC on our 2015 Optima. Night and day. The Kia was so slow to react I thought it might be broken.

pezzy669

I am right there with you in disbelief as my experience is that it is iron fist in dry conditions. I can barely get the tail loose in dry conditions before it pumps the brakes on my aggressive driving maneuvers to reel things in.

On the completely iced over roads I was pretty much angled towards the curb on a road that is highly crowned for water runoff with ESP light flashing like crazy and doing about 10-15 MPH. It was only when I kicked the gas down to get the wheels spinning more that it reeled things in.

Guessing there are some limitations to ESP on its control at lower speeds that the iced over roads and slow speeds I was at where it cannot get the car in the right attitude. I was fortunately able to keep the car going straight and I am sure ESP helped but it was not the keeping your car straight savior it is put out to be.

Despite driving to work pretty much pointed towards the curb....at least my car kept me from kissing the curb on what was pretty much an ice rink. Certain I burned up my rear brakes at one uphill stoplight as it took me two green light cycles to get through.

Like I said it was fun.......when you can just spin your tires with no effort it is kind of entertaining. I'm sure people up north will roll their eyes on this but us down south are cool with this as we don't experience it much.

LILBENZ230

Well if the ESP light is flashing, it is working. It can only manage available traction, though - it can't create it. So that might be the issue you had.

Neokiller309

I've had my 09 Luxury for about two years now, and put about 40k miles on it.

Agreed on the interior, the air vent adjusters suck.
EIS failure sucked big time.
When it comes to the Trans, only complaints I have is the whine upon deceleration and the delay when you shift into reverse.

Khan28

Good to hear that the car is holding up well throughout the years. It seems MB improved on the bottom end knock that happened when the engine was shut off, sat for a few hours then restarted like 2 hours later. The 2006 C280 I had before did that but the 2012 C300 I now have hasn't done it since I purchased it in August. Transmission has the delay from R to D and vice versa and there is a bit of a whine when I accelerate or let off the throttle and the car coasts at around 40kmh-60kmh but the shift quality is very smooth and it kicks down nicely. It shifts a lot better than the W212 E350 my Uncle has which is herky jerky and shifts to a high gear way too early so there is TC vibration.