I am considering a C350 with either a Pewter or Black exterior and a Stone interior. The black is nice, but seems an absolute nightmare to keep clean, especially here in the Northeast where we must deal with the evils of snow, ice, slush and mud. Pewter looks quite sharp as well, but seems less common.

For those with Pewter, how has it been to keep clean & maintain? I am quite fussy with my cars and like them clean, but really don't want to spend every waking moment buffing out swirls and the like.

For those with black I pose the same questions.

Thanks in advance--

Jim

 

I am very happy with the Pewter paint. It hides a fine layer of dust pretty well and the car looks decent even when it has not been washed for a week.

 

No color looks better when clean than black and none looks worse when dirty! Our weather is pretty mild here in 'Compton', so salt and snow are not concerns. Next time Im getting silver or some variation of it like pewter.

 

ive owned a black car and although it looks great when clean, they are very hard to keep clean. dust and swirl marks drove me crazy. never again will i own a black car.

 

I've always had black cars because I love the way they look when they are well maintained. If you can wash your car once per week, and you use decent products (polish, was, etc.), it's not really a problem.

 

mine has been staying clean for almost a week after i get it washed even with sand and salt on the road but if it snows forget about it. after it starts melting it gets all over everything. also crap from puddles gets sprayed all over your car if you're following too closely.

 

My new c230 ss is black opal looks kind of bluish during day and jet black at night. Hides dirt very well. Get it black opal very original color too

 

your biggest problem won't be the black exterior (which by the way i really prefered over the brilliant silver of my m-class) it will be the stone interior..........holy cow does it get dirty...just by looking @ it, i swear!!! my 05 c320 has 5000 miles on it and the interior is in need of a detailing already......the ash interior of the m doesn't show near the dirt even at 25,000 miles. just my 2 cents. if it were up to me to do over it would be ash and black. good luck

 

Yes, I know the stone is quite light and easily dirtied, but I really do not in the least care for grey or black interiors. IMO. grey is "cold" and black just too claustrophobic. Besides, this would pretty much be my "personal" car, with my wife only an occasional passenger. My 4 and 7 yr old daughters would also ride on occasion, but too too frequently. My worst problem would be dirty feet when the get in in the rain or snow. Black mats and the like should help as will regular cleaning. Those Mr Clean pads do a pretty good job.

 

Very hard to keep looking good, even in So. Ca. Looks great when just cleaned though. Here it's easy to QD every couple of days but where you are it would be a LOT of work. Same with the stone interior. Depends on how much of a clean freak you are and how much time you want to spend cleaning your car. I tend to spend too much time when the car is new and the first couple of years but once the chips and dings build up my interest starts to slow down.

 

My first black car was a metallic black Passat and I swore never to buy another black car... my next car was the black C Coupe which I still own and I swear never to buy another back car... I bought my wife a new GTI Golf and I missed out on the black ne by 20mins so I settled for Silver...

It's a love hate relationship...

 

Black isn't that bad. I told myself when I used to have a black truck I would never own another black car but it's not that bad if you can maintain it. I Wash once a week, wax once a month, and dust every couple days with the california car duster and it keeps the car looking great.

 

I heard the california car duster leaves swirl marks... is that true? thanks!

 

I haven't seen any from it yet and have been using it for over a month now. I have read about a lot of people that use it and don't think they would be if it were leaving marks.

 

i have black as well...... what's a good car wax in terms of brands??

 

most people will swear by zaino, but it's too much work for me (and kinda pricey). I use Meguiar's NXT and it seems to be good stuff... here's a pic of my car after a fresh coat:

 

black looks good when clean, but pain in the a$$ to take care of it. You can see stone chips everywhere and I'm not even that ****...

 

I concur, I see stone chips everywhere as well and I've only had my w203 since August. My old black w202 wasn't as taken care of in terms of wax, so it turned a little dull over the years and had swirls, so I'm trying to prevent it on this one by waxing it somewhat regularly. Also, for some reason the nano paint seems to get chipped a lot easier than the older black paint...

 

No this is not true, unlesss you are using it wrong. It is made to remove light dust from a clean car. If someone is using it to remove dirt, then they could end up with marks (although still not "swirl" marks).

 

Zaino has got to be one of the easiest products to use on the market. I can never understand comments like "too much work". Personally, I think NXT is more work than Zaino. It is a bit on the pricey side though.

 

they develope several months after use, but mainly when using it incorrectly.

I used to use one on my VW before shows (car was clean when used), and after 6 months I started seeing swirl like damage everywhere. So I stoped using it just to be safe.

Swirl effects are EASY to get when owning a car and not cleaning it right.

My black 190E was always washed at spray (no-touch) car washes, and I used a 'real' leather shammy to dry it... paint was incredible.

 

jws3

i see on mbusa.com that pewter is available with blue leather....interesting. i have never seen a mb with blue leather but i have seen an s2000 (honda) and it was quite nice. just a thought.

 

I have a Pewter C320 and live in Cleveland Ohio so basically am subject to all the snow/salt you mention in your area. It definitely hides accumulated dirt well and I know much better than black would have. During the extremely cold months I've taken it to a touchless car wash (I know gasp) but pretty much forced to in order to get rid of all the salt I know is on the undercarriage and wheel wells. Actually the touchless car wash I use is pretty good, they use a pre-soak before more high pressure water so I don't see any scratches from it. In the summer months I hand wash. Anyway, as for interior, I highly recommend the choice I got (charcoal). First it looks sharp with the pewter exterior. 2nd, the thing that really convinced me was when I was about to buy the car and debating whether getting stone interior was the salesperson took me outside and showed me a car with stone in which the owner accidently sat in it with somewhat wet blue jeans and now there was a blue stain over the majority of the seat (which they attempted but could not buff out). I was afraid of the interior heat on sunny days b/c of the dark interior but that really hasn't been an issue.

 

i 2nd that too... i have so many chips everywehre already... i really hate driving on the freeways.. the car is about 3 months old... swirl mark has starting to show.... if i wax the car? would the swirl marks go away?!
my last car was white.. and its pretty easy to hid the swril marks