For those of you that have the Advanced Agility Package (Sport Button), can you feel the suspension stiffen up when it is engaged?

The manual states that is the most important feature of the car and I cant really feel all that much difference. I know the shifts points for the transmission change dramatically, and the car starts in first gear. I dont notice much else.

Thoughts?

 

Absolutely - makes quite a significant difference. Try taking a hard corner with the sport button on or off and you will definitely notice.

The steering is also much tighter - noticeable immediately.

 

I've only just started to fiddle a little with mine (BTW it's an Aust. C250-CDI) and like you mention the most obvious differences is it'll start in 1st instead of 2nd and holds the gears longer even on part throttle.

Once up and running in a straight line it does not seem to go quicker than if it were not in sport mode, however I've noticed a difference when switching off ECO only, ie. not selecting sport as well - there is a difference with steering feel and response, selecting sport as well dosn't seem to add much except as mentioned above.

I've yet to try a proper spirited run in the twisty stuff in sport and sport with manual shift, I've only done a run of that nature in normal mode with ECO turned off and was more than satisfied at the way it handled and accelerated, I'll wait to see if sport adds more handling and steering finesse in twisty conditions

 

I drove my C250 CDI through our alpine ranges a couple of weeks ago and definitely noticed a big difference with sport mode on compared to it off, the car definitely does a better job of holding its line through faster sweepers. Energybiz, maybe go find a nice high-speed sweeper, drive your car through it in Eco and then go again in Sport and see how it goes

Slightly OT but the other thing I noticed that ended up driving me mad was that the car wouldn't hold gears in sport mode, it kept moving up or down, it has more than enough torque to be driven in third and fourth most of the time through the twisties but it kept continually changing on me. I ended up putting it into full manual which was better but it would still occasionally change up and down on its own.

 

Interesting dfa176, I'll try sport and sport with manual mode next time I'm driving through one of the mountain ranges I went through last time in normal mode with ECO off

Not sure where your from but that previous drive I mentioned was up Arthurs Seat in Dromana (Vic) which is quite steep and has very tight 180 hairpain turns and even without sport mode the car handled brilliantly and climbed up the hills like a sling shot !!! so happy to have chosen the diesel it has more than enough power and performance and so far it's giving me twice the range/edurance of any of my other 4 pot petrol cars as well

 

Hey AV1, I used to drive my evo 9 (pre MB) up arthurs seat every now and then, haven't done it in the MB yet might give it a try. I wish I had a chance to compare them back to back through something like that as you're right, the MB is definitely no slouch!

The drive I mentioned above was Melbourne to Canberra but the long way so Melbourne to Bairnsdale (boring and straight), then Bairnsdale to Bright along the great alpine road (getting fun but too much traffic) and then across Thredbo/Jindabine to Cooma via Alpine Way (amazing, no traffic and fantastic scenery). Anyone from the east coast with a free couple of days should give it a go, it ended up being a really good drive split over a couple of days