Tom318

I've had an RSX for 3 years and its time to move on lease is about to expire. So I want to buy my next car because leasing is not for me.

04 Artic Blue Pearl/ Black Interior Acura TSX with navigation for 29K 6 speed 4.9%/60 months APR
Pros: Handles better, great navi, 6 speed is smoother, much better acceleration,
Cons: Bigger Steering wheel, FWD, has a lot of wheel gap
or

05 Orion blue ext/ ash interior MB C230 Sedan sunroof/lighting packages 6spd 32K 2.89%/60 months APR - $1,500 C spot coupon
Pros: Sleeker body, bling status, low profile, RWD, more torque on paper, better HIDs. Insurance 200 bucks less per year.
Cons: Have to wait 2 months for it to arrive cuz its a special order, sloppy suspension...felt like a camry, lack of acceleration, couldn't feel the torque...TSX felt more torquer, gay blue tints



So give me pros/cons of each and why should I pick one over the next...yes I realize the opinions maybe biased and I'll account for that when I make my decision.

Tom318

question how much will it cost for service and oil change at the dealer? I pay 32 bucks for an oil change at my acura dealer. Reason I'm asking is cuz for 05+ benzes there is no longer free maintance

Sincity

I forget what Service A costs. But I think the dealer charges about $100 or a little more. They use Mobil 1. I change my own oil using one of those extraction devices and it costs me about $50 incl Mobil 1 and filter.

I have owned (outright purchases) 2 C-Classes (W202 and W203) and a ML. It is in my opinon that you get more for your money buying a Japenese car. I plan on replacing my ML with an FX35. Have you looked at the G35? When I went to the Acura dealer to look at a MDX, they had a TL and I think the overall content is much better than a C-Class.

Guest0001

Benz is ALOT more luxurious and Better looking then the TSX. So it gets my vote. Yeah benz sport suspension sucks ***. You can pay about 200 bucks for some H&R springs. Other than handling MB wins pretty much every other category.

Oil change is about 80 bucks. I cange my mine very 7,000-9,000 miles.

Service A is about 300-400 bucks
Service B is about 600-800 bucks

I Wouldnt take it to the dealer if its not free.

mick1

if money is a concern, don't buy german cars.

every time i bring my bmw to the dealer, they would charge me close to a grand. one time my sunroof wasn't working, they charged me 3 grand.

a friend of mine has a lexus and according to her, the maintenance cost is much less.

i don't have money to burn but i don't care about money

Guest0001

Wow are you serious 3,000 for a sunroof?

Tom318

Do german cars not come with warranty?

Tom318

how many quarts does it take?

Guest0001

I think hes talking about after warranty expires

Yes they do 4years/50,000 miles.

mick1

Yep siree. they didn't fix it, they replaced the whole thing.

oh yeah, BMW and Mercedes (C230 SS) would use low profile tires. I don't recall the exact amount per tire but I know on mine it's a bit more than $200, so figure that in to the total cost of ownership.

Sincity

The following are dealer labor rates for Las Vegas:

Mercedes $100/hr
Jaguar $90/hr
Porsche $90/hr
BMW $86/hr
Lexus $85/hr
Acura $72/hr
Infiniti $70/hr

Gee...you need $$$ to repair a Benz post warranty!

Guest0001

And thats ONLY labor. imagine the parts...

cracker123

Not to offend you TOM, but TSX is not exactly comparable to a Benz, I guess might be comparable to a A-Class benz on very few cases. I guess TSX can be compared to a Honda Accord LX fully loaded.

cracker123

german cars fell wierd on the test drive, but they really show their engineering detail after you have them for a month or so. Every little thing is taken care of in the car. The list is too big for me to even talk about. I love mercedes becuase of the level of detail in the design. Well the only problem is the quality but for me that is nothing compared to what the car has to offer.

inFiniTE LooP

i too was faced with the dilemma of the TSX vs. the C230, i personally went with the C230 simply because of Mercedes-Benz reputation. to me being inside the Mercedes just felt a lot more solid than the acura, i personally liked all of the interior surfacing much better as well as features such as automatic lights and windshield wipers that the acura didn't have. i'm also very fond of mercedes service department, i've got 2 friends that have acuras (an mdx and a TL) both have gone to service departments and have gotten nothing but grief and problems from them including no loaner cars! (for some reason, i'm not sure if acura allows this or not). but mercedes will not only give you a loaner car, but when they are done doing whatever maintenance was scheduled, they will actually come out and drop your car off and pick up the loaner car for you. this is the kind of service i am willing to pay extra for as it would be a huge inconvenience for me had i not had this service. it all boils down to what you're willing to sacrifice and accept i suppose, going with the tsx you are getting more for your money (in terms of the actual automobile) but with mercedes you get more than just a car, you get their entire quality service department (not to mention a great car with stunning good looks
just my thoughts, keep us posted on what you're leaning toward or what you've decided on

inFiniTE LooP

LaZyC230K

in my opinion, its really depend on how u want ur car to be. if u want performance, i would go for the tsx, but if u want comfort and decent speed, i would go for the mbz c230. get the car you want, thanks

fasteddie

Where are you getting your services done? My last A service was $214 CDN, and Last B Service was $320. Did you have other stuff done as well?

Ed

fasteddie

If you have to ask ...go for the Honda.

Ed.

tommy

Well, that's good, 'cause you're probably going to get pretty familiar with them.

I'd much rather not be on a first-name basis with the service techs at my dealership, but I haven't had much choice in the matter. Speaking of that, my car's going in for the 7th or 8th time on Monday for the panorama roof, and the IR receiver in the door's getting replaced. I still love my car, but would like to drive it more, and have it repaired less.

IMHO, the TSX is sufficiently different from the C230 for anyone to easily tell which they'd be happier with. If not, a simple 5-minute test drive would.

inFiniTE LooP

this may be your experience which i'm sorry to hear , but from my own experience with mercedes (my family has always driven mercedes since as far back as i can remember) we have never had any kind of experience like that, sure things go wrong sometimes as in all cars, at which point mercedes takes excellent care of you, but 7th or 8th time in 3 years? i'm glad you're sharing this as it is another perspective to view from, but mine is that of consistently excellent build quality and minimum problems

prodigy1387

keep in mind that the 2002 c230 was the first model year for the coupe. first year models always have bugs/problems. i personally have no problems with my c320 coupe, and it's a year old with 14,000 miles.

tommy

Actually, that would only be true of the interior trim, and rear third of the car. The rest was taken from the MB parts bin; hell, the engine was developed YEARS ago. I do agree about that for the sunroof, so that's why I'm not totally whiney about it, and why i cut them a little slack on it, as it was a brand-new thing for MB, and from all accounts, is much more reliable. Though it is getting really tired to have them "fix" the blinds every 3-6 months.

Don't delude yourself and say that these are very reliable cars, though, because they're worse than average, no matter how you slice it. Of course, some here seem to want to ignore facts, but that's their issue, not mine.

Tom318

well I decided to go with the TSX. Didn't want to buy an inferior car for a 5K more money that feels like a camry. Honestly felt like 5K for that was placed into the badge. Because suspension/performance/shifting are more important to me than status symbol...and lets face it even with a C230 you don't have much status...like a 318 BMW ...it exists but most people don't think it deserves the BMW name

Guest0001

Congrats. hopefully next time around you will make the right decision.