True101

Hi. I just placed an order for a 2016 Luxury with Premium 2, Distronics, Panoramic roof, backup camera, 4matic, etc. What I didn't add (to contain the costs) is the multimedia, Lighting and the AirMatic package.

Appreciate some help in understanding:
1. Driver Assistance: My understanding is (though it might seem silly but my reason for adding was) that Distronics package makes the grille look like s-class grille (i didn't like the blinders inserted in the grille). Is that assumption, right?

2. Lighting package with Active LED lights. I didn't add this package (thinking that it doesn't change the cosmetics of the light) but am now worried, that the LED lights that come with P2 package, might be missing a one big LED that gives the c-class that nice crisp look. http://assets.mbusa.com/vcm/MB/Digit...N-034-MCFO.jpg
I think that lighting package underneath the arc light, gives 2 big LED's (as shown in above link), while the P2 option, only provides underneath the arc, one big LED. A) Is that right? B) cosmetically is the difference quite noticeable?

3. Airmatic package. I love a super soft-cushy ride (similar to S-class). I do know on certain cars, air suspension makes a big difference in softening the ride, whereas I have heard on certain vehicles it actually makes the ride more aggresive (which I dont like). The dealer hinted to me that I shouldn't add this option. Now I'm worried that just for saving some money, I might actually be making a mistake?

Any help appreciated...

floridadriver

Driver assistance as packaged in the states is very nice, and it changes the grill by adding the block in the middle but takes away the movable air fins. I personally like the look better. The system is pretty neat. Car doesn't completely drive itself, but close. The look of the luxury grill is classy.

I don't have adaptive but have LED. Looks sharp.

Personally I'd go with airmatic from what you say. Here's it's not an expensive option, and the ride is very smooth without being floaty, and it's surprisingly adaptive when put in sport or sport+. You can also raise the car for more ground clearance if needed. It automatically lowers slightly at high speed. In my tests it took out some of the jolt of expansion joints. If possible, test the different suspensions out. It's not as cushy as the S-class but you wouldn't want it to be.

Jinzen

Go add the lighting package and Airmatic immediately...

The standard Luxury suspension SUCKS. I have one.

And without the lighting package, it doesn't look nearly as high end. I wish mine had it.

hpilot

Go with the Airmatic. This is the biggest regret I have with my car. The ride on rough roads is downright painful.

True101

Thanks Hpilot and Jinzen, on the:

Airmatics: I am probably going to add Airmatics package, though just to check 2 things:
a) the airmatics would not lower the car height while it is standing? (my tastes are bit different, I dont like cars with lowered after-market suspensions)
b) when I consulted the dealer, he remarked that Airmatics makes a significant difference on the sporty ride qualities of the vehicle, however on the luxury side, it doesn't make the ride any softer or plusher. That comment worried me, how about on the S-class, it has a soft/plushy ride, is that due to the air-suspension?

Lighting Package: Jinzen, what would be the exact difference in lighting package that makes the car look high-end?

gfmohn

(hpilot, the car you picture is not a Luxury model. Your comparison of Airmatic to a Base or Sport suspension is not relevant to this thread.)

I have a standard Luxury suspension. I address the balance of my remarks to Jinzen, who also has one. What tires are you driving? What pressures are you using? Have you tried different pressures? Could you be more specific about the type(s) of surfaces on which you find your standard Luxury suspension fails? All surfaces? Are you comparing the ride of your car with your previous vehicle?

For an example, in a previous post, I distinguished the performance of my standard Luxury suspension on rough surfaces and on wavy surfaces. "Tires are Pirelli P-7s (run-flats), on a C300 Luxury trim (with so-called Luxury steel susp.), with standard 17" wheels. So far, I have run 34/36 (cold) front/rear air pressure. At these pressures, these tires are very quiet. They absorb small bumps, tar strips, and rough surfaces better than the Michelin Pilot A/Ss on my previous 2007 C280 Luxury trim. They track very precisely, with excellent turn-in (meaning they respond immediately to steering inputs).

I refer to the C300 Luxury steel suspension as "so-called" Luxury, because it is much sportier than the suspension of my previous 2007 C280 Luxury trim. We have a lot of roads with wavy surfaces from frost heaves, braking of heavy trucks, etc. The wavy surfaces are usually located more toward the edge of the road, so the passenger is shaken more. The C280 largely floated over them, but the C300 follows them and shakes my wife about."

I could have further distinguished "rough surfaces" from expansion joints, areas where one layer of pavement has broken up (leaving sharp edges of about 1", but not a pot hole), and other medium-sized "whacks".

I am now running 34/34 (cold) front/rear air pressures. The small change did help on rough surfaces. I wrote the post above five weeks ago. Since then, the suspension has loosened up and is more compliant. My present mileage is a little over 2400. So if you have less mileage, you can still hope that your ride will improve.

At one dealer, I did test both the standard Luxury suspension and an Airmatic suspension. The test course included a stretch of 45-mph highway with bad expansion joints. i couldn't tell the difference between the Luxury steel suspension and a Luxury Airmatic suspension. I have collected all of the W205 reviews I could find (too many to count-over 50!). Several reviewers said they couldn't tell the difference. Three others said the Airmatic rode WORSE over small bumps! These comparisons were probably to Sport suspensions; almost all of the reviewers tested Sport models. Nonetheless, I would have gladly bought the Airmatic, if I could have afforded it.

P.S., the interactive LED lights are great! I drive on often dark suburban roads. Bicyclists and pedestrians are often on the side of the road, with the danger that the glare of oncoming cars will conceal them from me. I am old enough that driver workload is becoming a factor. I just set my headlights on "high", and they take care of themselves. (You can't turn them off!) They dip at just the right point (both for oncoming cars and for cars I approach from the rear).
Added remark: The only problem with these automatic headlights is that when I want to go to low beams because of a pedestrian, I have to fumble for a second while I remember how to select low beams manually!

floridadriver

a- Airmatic returns to 'comfort' mode on mine after car parked, it won't stay low. There's others here who have manipulated this by aftermarket programming or different links.

b. The dealers will always steer you away from options they don't have on the lot to sell you and aren't a good source of information sometimes due to a conflict of interest.

If you were driving a track (and why you'd pick a MB sedan to do that with is beyond me), then go with the sport, will give the most road feel. On US roads, the 'road feel' means just that. The airmatic pretty well simulates the other steel suspensions but each one being a bit more smooth and isolated. If at all possible, test drive all 4 variations of the car. One size doesn't fit all.

True101

thanks Floridadriver. I am in Minneapolis, and we dont have much variety of C-classes here to try (in particular there is not a single 300 luxury in the state). But I know now enough, to be adding tomorrow the: Airmatics and heating steering option.

The one option, I'm still at a loss of further information is Lighting package. All I hear is, 'its great' 'add it' but no exact information, like what is exactly the physical appearance differences between static LED and dynamic LED package.
1. When the ignition is off, do both headlights look same?

floridadriver

You're very welcome! Unless special ordered, there's not many Airmatics in US, and not alot of luxury package. And the luxury package cars here sell quickly, and usually have to be special ordered as well.

The photos as shown on the MB webpage are pretty spot on. There's a large difference to go to LED from standard which comes in premium package, and a very small one from LED to 'lighting package adaptive lighting'.

Here's link for another thread and it has photos as well. https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...ed-lights.html

LateC300

yea LED's are a hug regret of mine that i missed out on, i couldnt option it as i didnt build the car myself and my configuration was the only one in the country sans LED, so i had to get it

True101

After listening to you all , I upped the MSRP to now 54k.

I picked the Designo Cardinal Red color. I hope a mercedes luxury package doesn't look weird in that color?

It will be August/September I hear the car will be built, options are:
Premium 2
Driver Assistance
Lighting package
AIRMatics
4-wheel
Rearview Cam
Panormic sunroof
heated steering

gfmohn

Excellent, in only three days, you have received the information you needed to make your decision! This is the best use of the Internet. Mission accomplished, so now how we terminate this thread? The initiator of the thread should have the right to determine that the purpose for which the thread was established has been served and it's time to move on to a new subject. Anyone who feels they have more to say can always start their own thread, with their own subject. Alternatively (or perhaps also), a thread could be "timed out" when a certain time has passed without a new reply.

As it is, out-of-date threads lurk like lost lobster traps on the sea floor, which continue to catch lobsters for years without any profit. (There's a New England metaphor for you!)

To bring my suggestion to the attention of the Powers That Be, I will make this a suggestion on that forum.

hpilot

Did I miss something? Are you a Moderator?

CJBROWN

We are getting ready to order very soon as the coupe lease is up and I've been toying with the idea of the luxury package to get the grill and the dash. IMO the 17" wheels are horrid looking so that means adding another $500 to the already $1300 (console wood and model upgrade). The to top it off we want the designo diamond white so that's another grand. Geesh!

Our C250 with 18" amg wheels rides very hard. We likely would have bought out the lease because we're way under on miles and the car looks and drives like new, but it's getting dated (compared to the new C) and it rides like a truck. I even just bought $800 worth of new tires for it. Dayumm!! Anyway, I'm not too concerned with the softer ride, and would really prefer to have non-staggared 17" wheel which also helps with ride. Not being able to rotate tires makes them wear out twice as fast - 21K for 18" P-zero-AS's! Tell me the luxo version isn't too squishy or wallowey though...please????

I won't be opting for the air suspension or all the packages, we need to keep it under $45k msrp. So roof, camera, maybe P1, Garmin Pilot, designo paint, stop.

I'm starting to lean toward a base one with the same options, just get a stand-up star and replace the hood badge.

The other thing I wasn't too excited about on the luxury was the light color carpets with the beige interior - the base one is black which is much easier to maintain. I dunno, she had beige carpets in her beemer for eight years and it wasn't an issue.

HELP!!!

True101

As for C300 Luxury being too soft, you have no worries there. After S-class, C-class luxo with 17" wheels rides like a truck (18" wheels I wouldn't even test). Obviously, tire size plays role in ride softness/hardness just like suspension ...

Mercedes carpets are usually harder to wash (I dont know for some reason they dont like brush bristles). I think you might be happier with a sports version.

CJBROWN

Thanks!

I asked my dealer if I could get the sport 17" wheels with the luxo and he said "you can order the upgraded 18's". I guess that means 'no'. LOL.

At least they're silver this year instead of dark gray. Still, every photo I've seen they look awful. My dealer had four or five luxo models and I thought they looked terrific, but all had the 18" split-spoke wheels. And NONE had a roof! Dayumm!! In fact, they had a LOT of cars without roof - and this is southern CA. What are they thinking?

BTW, we drove a CLA just to compare, a 'sport' version with the 421 sport package - amg wheels, sport suspension, exhaust, etc. Fast and fun little car, but OMG talk about rough ride. And noisy too. That cinched the deal for us on a C-class.

True101

god, I dislike the silver wheels (2016 from pics), even though I'v ordered precisely those. I did see the darker ones, and to me they looked quite up-scale. I hope, I prove to be wrong and silver ones in real look good.

I did try CLA, but that was totally not my cup of tea (it sounded to me a teenager car). I loved the new S-class (but its 120K tag was beyond me). I felt the E350 ride satisfied my basic requirements, but I fell in love with the shape of c-class luxury.

If you have any actual photos of the silver wheels please share.

CJBROWN

Like this???



With the 2015 gray wheels...




Hideous...




I find absolutely nothing attractive about these wheels. Okay...I'm done. LOL

True101

The first pic, I actually like it, are those the grey ones or the silver ones? I think generally if your car's color is darker (like dark blue, Dakota brown, etc) they look elegant, though with a bright white (which is a great color) but with that they do look bit weird.

gfmohn

I have said my piece at length about the Luxury(?) suspension. I wouldn't even consider 18" or larger wheels. It's not just the ride. We have too many wheel-breaker poholes here.

We like the beige carpets. We had them in our 2007 C280. We had no trouble keeping them clean, and our cars are not garaged. However, we are an elderly couple, and the back seat was rarely used.

I think the grey wheels look best on light-colored cars. But they are still not great. See my Iridium Silver C300 below.
I also think a case can be made for a really dark color, like the dark blue or black. However, these finishes were not acceptable to me for other reasons. My purpose was to create the maximum possible contrast between the car and the wheels. Unlike the white finishes, the Iridium Silver also has a contrast between the metallic finish of the car and the non-metallic finish of the grey wheels.

CJBROWN

Love the grill...hate the wheels..
Seriously, your car looks great.

The LA basin has some of the worst pavement in the entire western US. There's just not enough $$ to keep up with the ten or more million cars driving around I guess. So anything that rides hard is just a chore. And my speed demon days are long past so we're happy to saunter along at a moderate clip and prefer a soft ride. If I had the $$ for a S-class that's what we would do. But alas, we're working class folks with a moderate budget.

I guess I'm going to have to go back and drive both before I order. A standard and luxury version, steel sprung. Then I'll know for sure. I would either plan to buy wheels (likely) or order the 18" upgrade (possibly). The staggered tire size thing gets really old too - why MBZ thinks that's appropriate for a road-car is baffling to me. We lived with that for 8 years on our 3-series 'vert, it would burn up a set of $700 tires every 15K miles. The C250 coupe is a little better, but they were pretty shot at 21.5K miles. Disappointing, plus the ride is horrible. We don't 'track' our cars.

Jinzen

Here's mine:





The luxury wheels look way better than the the 17 an 18 options for the C-Class.

CJBROWN

Nice weatha.... LOL

Jinzen

Took those in March ... pretty crappy NE winter we had.

True101

I am warming to the idea of silver wheels, not bad!