patrick_y

I am extremely comfortable in my small car, and since I rarely carry passengers, I have no need to acquire a larger vehicle. I have no plans of acquiring a larger vehicle unless I tire of driving and decide to hire a chauffeur. In Europe, the C-Class is considered a mid-size vehicle there.

If I constantly had passengers in my vehicle, I would consider acquiring an E-Class or BMW 5 series.

zergcerebrates

Perhaps the memory seat buttons for US customers are located on the bottom side of the seat like some other manufacturers.

MB-JIM

I didn't feel any memory buttons and the salesman said it didn't have memory. Also, with memory you normally also get a power operated steering position. This car had the manual adjustment. It's just me, but without this feture I will not buy the car. I may have to go back to an E350 to go along with my great 06 C350. My wife prefers the
E Class for her car.

cc4469

Hi,
I was just following this thread, it was very interesting for me.
To let you know, driver's and co-driver's memory seats are available as an option for any US W204, Luxury and Sport.
The reason I know: I had a look at the option list, which is authoritative for development and manufacturing.
Seems the US dealers were not properly informed by MB sales...

GPI

That's great! Do you know the price for that option?

cc4469

Sorry, no official pricing available for U.S.. Not yet...

cracker123

That is awesome news, but the price list I got from the dealer did not have the memory seats as an option, I checked under P2 and even under other options.
I think is MBUSA giving dealers wrong crap. That is a great thing to hear.

The price list was printed from the dealer guide page, so it is an MBUSA updated page. Good lord one of the biggest MB launch in a long time and the marketing is so messed up.

MB-JIM

I was talking to the general manager at my dealer and he said they had no information on seat and steering wheel memory. He did say they might learn something more in a couple weeks when the luxury models arrive. Unfortunately, if you look at the small brochure they gave me that shows the Luxury model you see a plain walnut panel where the seat controls should be.
This lack of memory in the US may come from the dealers not wanting options that have been creating service problems. My otherwise perfect 06 C350 does have an intermittint problem where the steering wheel doesn't always come back to the correct position as well as the right side mirror that doesn't always come back up.
I don't believe they care at Montvale, but without the memory for the seats and steering I positively will not buy this new car.

QQQ

That is absolutely wrong. Memory controls on the door side. Seat side controls are standard 8-way electric with no memory.

MBTex

I wish memory seats were an option in the C300, but I have yet to see any real evidence of it. Maybe in the 350, but I doubt it for 2008. They need to give us some incentive to buy an E Class.

Maybe next year...

GDawgC220

The ML had memory seat buttons on the seat itself at the bottom.

MB-JIM

This is what the seat memory looks like on the W204's

patrick_y

I'll give Mercedes-Benz a bit of credit. They did one thing right, they lit the door handles on the W204, something the W203 was left without.

I wished I had lit footwells and door handles for night-time driving as I do on the E-Class. It truly makes a difference!

MB-JIM

I failed to point out is that photo with the buttons is the memory system that the rest of the world gets. We get a blank panel or should I put it more crudely.

pmb600

I posted two pics above that are definately US editions and have memory seats. Do you think these were just early pre-production models and therefore not indicative of us options?

pmb600

Also I seriously think that everyone should write to MBUSA and direct it to the C-Class product manager. They don't know what we want unless we tell them. I plan on writing about the lack of memory seats (if this is in fact acurate), the lack of retractable head rests (I realize this is worldwide), and lack of Keyless Go availability in the US.

MB-JIM

If you have a copy of the small brochure like I got from my salesman, the Luxury model clearly shows a solid walnut panel where the memory seat controls should be.

MB-JIM

How about adding a request for the 350 engine in the Luxury model? It is ridiculous that it isn't offered since it's available in the Sport.

Does anyone have the correct name of the product manager and how we can get our letters read so we won't get our letters thrown into a basket?

pmb600

Yeah good point. I never felt like the C280 was underpowerd, but in the C300 it just feels slower, so I would like to see a C350 luxury sedan as well. Oh and what about a 4Matic C350? Why is this so difficult to comprehend. In Germany they have like 10 different C-Class models available in 3 trims (Classic, Elegance, and Avantguarde). The second largest market in the world gets two??

pmb600

One other thing... I really wanted to get a C300 4Matic sport and then change the grille and add a hood star, but stupidly I forgot when you have the sport grille that little flat hood badge does not conceal a hole so you cannot add a hood star.

MB-JIM

I don't like to get picky but with the Luxury model we only get one choice. From a marketing standpoint that is simply foolish when the 350's are going to be available in the Sport. If they had dropped the 350's it would be a different story.
How about this? The 300 and 350 engines are essentially identical except for bore and stroke. What would the factory cost difference be between the two engines? Do you think maybe $100? Based on this, if the goal is to make the maximum profit simply offer the 350 engine for around $2,000 difference and pocket most all of that as profit. At that price point they would sell an awful lot of 350's. I paid nealy $5,000 extra to get my 06 C350 but I wanted the performance. It's easy to see with that kind of pricing that the 350's were essentially unsaleable except to a few people like me.
With the competitor's cars available today with up to 300 hp, why not at least give us the best that MB has?
This holding back on sensible options like seat memory and engines is really getting to me. I have owned over 40 MB's and am a very loyal customer but right now I'm feeling betrayed.

patrick_y

It's not as simple as that. The 350 engine does require much more expensive parts (made from costly materials such as magnesium etc.) and does cost the manufacture much more than $100 US more than the 300 engine to produce.

Additionally, what we do not see are other taxes the importer must pay to the US government for engines of a certain size.

Lastly, pollution taxes in other countries that this car is sold in would go up based on engine displacement, carbon dioxide ratings, etc. If they eliminated the 300 engine, there'd be a big gap between the 230 engine and the 350 engine, especially in other markets.

It's really not that simple. If it were that simple, then Mercedes-Benz would be stupid if they didn't just offer one engine for the entire US market. They're not stupid, at least the accountants running the company aren't.

MB-JIM

You may be right about special parts other than pistons in the 350 but my real issue is since that engine is available on the Sport model why limit the Luxury model to the 300?

pmb600

Where did anyone say they should get rid of the 300 engine? I think the argument is that the C 350 should be available in luxury trim as well as sport. And I see no reason that they should not have 4Matic available on the C 350 models as well.

MB-JIM

I don't know about what parts would be more expensive in the 350 engine but the number of parts and labor cost would be identical.
As far as taxes go, the US doesn't tax based on engine size like many other countries. The import duty is based solely on the value of the car when imported.
Since the 350 engines are in the US lineup for the same model car what is the problem in offering it to both models? Are they trying to tell the Luxury model buyer that If they want more opeions they should buy the E Class? I have been there and done that. I have had 5 ea W210's and 3 ea W211's which were fine cars but I simply prefer the size of the C Class. Maybe in the US they are only interest in the C Class as an "entry level" car so those of us who look at it as a "destination car" are of no interest to them.