I attended the “C-Drive” event in San Francisco today, sponsored by MBUSA to promote the W204.

The Event Overall
The event was held at the Left Space Studio, a chic, trendy spot in a funky SF neighborhood. Thousands of square feet of “fancy industrial warehouse” space packed with hundreds of people.

Very high budget affair with free valet parking, lots of free food, drink and giveaways, fancy “auto show-style” displays of all models of C, & dozens of worker bees scurrying around. Advertisers of everything from haircare products to water were giving away their wares.

The Driving
After listening through a live presentation of the new C, you walked out back to choose between two different kinds of test drives: the 12 minute street drive or the 30 minute street drive + closed course. I chose the closed course. The wait for each test drive was long – I stood around for about 70 minutes because, despite there being 25 cars, turnout was strong. MB has a following, a great mailing list and is willing to spend marketing dollars to bring people out.

People took the cars out five at a time in caravan. This approach got loads of attention from passersby and others on the road.

You didn’t really have a choice of cars, as the rep pointed everyone to the next one in line. I got a sand beige C300 Luxury. The MB rep took the lead car and everyone in my group followed him as he instructed people via walkie talkies.

After almost 15 minutes of just normal city driving, we got to the deserted parking lot of AT&T Park (where the Giants play – no, we did not do donuts in the outfield later) where there was a brief autocross-type course where you could play with the acceleration, handling and braking. The first part involved accelerating as quickly as possible from a sand-covered start and then slamming on the brakes a few seconds later. As (not after) the leader demonstrated, the genius right behind him immediately followed, not giving the leader more than a few feet of space the whole way. Luckily, disaster was avoided as this guy stopped before slamming into the MB rep. The session came to a halt as the leader had to explain to everyone that this drill was one at a time!

Our time on the course was short – less than two minutes. A brief drive back to the warehouse and then off to fill out a survey before being given more free shampoo.

The Car
The car looks better in person than in the many spy photos I have seen. I particularly like the front end of the Sport models. Yes, it is larger, those side mirrors are huge, I’m undecided on the back and the car has some Bangle influences. But, overall, I think it works – looks modern and sporty. I personally thought the white and dark blue colors looked best.

The interior has great fit and finish. The Luxury model was a bit too conservative for my taste though – would have preferred a darker wood or aluminum trim. Loved the NAV, seating position, controls and feel of the leather though.

The drive is tight yet comfortable and the brakes extremely responsive. I actually would have appreciated a bit more travel on the brake. The car handles nimbly and goes where you point it. Throttle response on the 3 liter is sluggish but acceleration reasonable once you get going with a nice exhaust note.

People seemed confused by the pricing, which also seems influenced by the BMW mantra of “what’s standard on TL/IS is optional here.” One could pony up $45k for a well equipped C300 with less than 230 hp that takes over 7 seconds to get to 60. Sorry, just didn’t see this as a good value new and others were struggling with the math as well.

Overall, MB knows how to throw a party. The cars will no doubt sell but there is so much competition in this segment it remains to be seen whether the W204 is enough of a home run to dominate it.

 

Thanks for the write-up and the pics. I think the middle car in the second pic is Tenorite Grey/Steel Grey. Can you confirm? It is too dark to be Palladium Silver and too light for Black. If it is Ternorite...that is my color.

 

I'm sorry, I don't know, I'm not very familiar with the color names. There was a "bluish-grey" and a more charcoal grey. I think the one pictured was the bluish.

Good luck with the purchase!

 

thanks for the pics. I am sooooooo tirn between steel gray and palladuim silver because I have never seen steel gray in person. But you are right if that one in the pic is steel gray I am getting that color.

 

after driving the C myself its pretty much a cruiser. the design is the definition of luxury. all it needs it 20's and lowered and you're good to go around town/city

 

that's what I'm talkin about.. some Dubs.. but I think the sport cars are already lowered.. don't know how far u can go.. and get 20 on it.. I checked out the Glendale.. Demo.. well they said cars will be here in LA.. Tuesday.

 

do you have any more pictures from the event?

 

i took plenty of pics. i posted them here
https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...=1#post2357028

some quality 20 inch 3-piece wheels hre, iforged, jline, kinesis, dpe, etc etc etc.......you can still slam it on coilovers or springs.