c350 lust
 

To those who own a 2012 c350 coupe I congratulate and envy you to the bone! My local dealer gave me a decked-out c350 coupe as a loaner while my car is being serviced to compare to my 2009 c300 for 5 days and I am wishing I have a time machine to keep the clock rolling back to the day they gave me the car. I do not think I would like my c300 anymore after spending 5 days on a very lustful car:naughty:....damn I still have 2 more days before I return her. I feel that car is a very sexy mistress now LOL!

I guess after this adventure I will definitely be thinking of parting with my c300. Mercedes Benz really has a good way of marketing and it is really working as this happened before when I serviced my GLK and they in return gave me a c350 as a loaner and that planted a seed in buying one (well ended up with a c300 for a deal that I cannot pass).

One thing I am curious though is there a real difference if I press the sport button? I don't really notice anything different except the throttle response is in slight steriods. Does that change the handling of the car? I think the car has the dynamic handling package but everytime I press the button the throttle is the only different thing I notice AND the gas needle deeps faster LOL!

This car really enticed me to go to my favorite sub-urb, no-mans land, and try it in the corners and it does have something very special. The color also reminds me of my previous blue coupe car (honda accord v6).

Also is it really that rough for the engine while in idle? like a clank-clank-clank sound?

If the sport mode is the button near the shifter then all you are changing is the transmission shift points and starting in 1st vs 2nd gear. Not sure if it changes the traction ontrol or not.

If he button is near the radio on he dash thn that is dynamic handling option and changes the suspension as well as th transmission.

I have a 2012 c350 coupe w/o the dynamic handling. I find it o be vey agile on the street, no real need for improvement. But the rear end is light and the traction control is intrusive. A 4matic may be better.

Also, that clank-clank-clank sound is the direct injection working. The sound is a sacrifice made to get better fuel economy. Good thing is that you can hardly hear it when inside the car.

For what its worth, the 2013 C300's actually have the C350 engine that has been "dummed down". :y

My guess is that it is to simplify the assembly line process, cutting costs. Which technically means that we can finally get a "C350" 4Matic sedan in the United States. But you'd still have to wait for an aftermarket tuner to unlock all that power. I wonder if anyone has had success in porting over the stock C350 ECU settings on a 2013 C300?

It is not just microchip limiting power, it is most likely larger pistons and L's as results (3.5L vs 3.0). They are very different to me. As opposite to OP I got C300 loaner no a while ago until my C350 coupe was on service. Difference is just huge to me, not towards C300 is anyhow better. Besides performance and suspension differences I hate sedan top body, roof is much taller and not panoramic, it was most likely 2010-11 sedan not the latest one. I don't like stock AWD as well after driving RWD on good bit wider summer tires. Sorry but also don't like 4 doors in general ... :)

Yeah at first I thought it was dumb to have 2 buttons to have manual control of the transmission but I tried both buttons and the revs are the only thing that I noticed that changed but nothing on the handling part...maybe I'm just numb to feel anything lol!

yup noticed the fuel consumption is at par with my c300 on city driving but the c300 is still better during highway driving...getting 10.1 L/100km on my c300 on highway and the 2012 c350 is getting 11.5 L/100km

That was true with prior generation C300's. However for 2013 model year, they have a 3.5L engine in the C300's. My guess is that since they offer the coupe in the C350 4Matic, they also offer the C300 4Matic with the 3.5L engine so that, like I mentioned early, keeps costs down and simplifies the installation process.

As far as the complete internals being 100% identical I am not positive. However, Mercedes-Benz has been known to "dumb-down" identical engines to offer an advantage or reason to upgrade. IE: C63 vs E63 before the Performance Package came out (when the e63 still had the 6.3L engine). A simple ECU upgrade on the C63 unlocked all the horses the engine was meant to put down to the ground.

As far as the sedan goes, everyone is entitled to their own preferences. However, you can get a sedan with panoramic roof, suspension is largely identical, although handling feel will be different due to change in weight distribution and center of gravity.

As far as RWD vs 4Matic goes - I wish Mercedes-Benz had a "soft" awd system like Infiniti. That would allow me to drive in RWD most of the time (heck, even do some burnouts or donuts). But in inclement weather such as rain or snow - get some nice AWD traction. I really miss being able to "get on it" from a red light in the rain without tremendous wheel slip or traction control (switched from a C300 4Matic to a C250 Coupe).