theraj2

Has anyone driven tonight? After taking deliever on Sat, I really got to see what the c300 is capable of. Drove 36 miles from li to queens. The car kept in line for the most part of the ride, the only time is actually gave way a litte(keyword being a little) was when i would go through thick patches of snow/ice/other stuff. You can feel the front tires try to maintain stability when your speeding up. There was actually an Envoy maybe '04 a few ft infront of me at 30 miles and hr. He breaked a little, and his car did a 360 right infront of me, the c300 did a great job at avoiding him. Ofcourse, i slid on a few turns (intentionally) FOR FUN, but even then the car picked up really fast . There was a bring yellow light flashing on the dash. I think there might had been a few beeping noises too. The only bad part was when i would gradually hit the brake, as i went down, you can feel a strong vibration( i dint slam the break) . It happened everytime.
Anyone know whats thats about? Is it the pads Grinding on the rotor?(b/c it sure dint feel like that, If felt like there was ice on the pads and the the vibration was being sent through the pads.)

Overall: it did a great job. I give is a 95/100 (breaks problem being the -5)

P.S.-average speed was 35-40

syrAMG

Ha! I was planning to post something similar tonight!

you DO feel the 4Matic kick in especially when you accelerate or brake.
the car is very trusty when driving.

a few weeks back I head out to Jones Beach at night (NEVER DO THAT IN THIS WEATHER) to drive down the route to Robert Moses. never felt more comfortable driving in those conditions.

as for the vibration; maybe thats due to the snow being stuck in the rim and brake area. and/or the 4matic adjusting the wheel spin.

I think you get a stronger response when you set the car to "C" mode.

ColoradoDriver

The brake peddle vibration is normal. Those were the ABS pulsations. All is well.

sou98

My only issues are that I cannot get up the hill on my street in Toronto after 15 cm of snow even with snow tires Pirelli sotto zeros 225/45/17.
I sometimes do not have any traction at all in icy rain....i guess this happen to my other car...subaru
Other than that...pretty good and the brake vibration should not happen other than ABS. You better check it and bring this back to dealer.
Mine is RWD.

theraj2

I figuring the no traction part being that maybe the car is too light? maybe idk

chilledbenz

The bright triangle lighting up was for the ESP..thats normal when you lose traction it lights up to let you know. As for the slight vibration, were your windshield wipers on? If so the system automatically applies the brakes to keep the rotors dry, could have been the slight vibration you felt. If it was a huge vibration then the ABS was probably at fault, if it keeps up bring it in and have them look at it, I would rather look stupid for having them check something than to have it go out and cause an accident or damage to the car.

jstaneff

I've also felt the ABS kick in. In Tacoma, going downhill on ice when I touched the brakes. Very sensitive, and kept me in a straight line.

My C isn't 4M, so I'm a bit concerned about how it does on ice. Twice now I've felt it start to slide and then the ESP kicks in and stabilizes the car.

Yesterday I noticed something else, maybe the reason we have staggered tires on the car. I was doing about 70 in Tacoma with some wind and some rain-slick pavement. I got a slight side-shift (rear moving left) and the car kicked in immediately and held its ground. I don't think that was ESP, but the wider rear tires providing more traction surface.

Not quite ready for deep snow, but its still fun to try to break loose!

JohnGjolaj1

What a horrible night it was to drive. I was driving first up the FDR in my C350 (non-4matic!) and boy!, was it bad. I couldnt go faster than 15-23mph. Later around 8:00pm when there was at least a half inch to an inch of snow on the road, went down the West Side Highway; i put my hazards on and slowly managed to make it home. C350 Owners! Don't drive in the Snow! It's horrible.

omgitselaine

Not for nothing yesterday afternoon on my commute from work here in the NYC tri-state area i was surprised that my 4matic slipped a few times once right in front of my house when i was slowly turning at about 10 miles per hour? The snow wasnt thick at all ...perhaps less than an inch of really fluffy snow so im thinking it was more so because of this?? I had driven in snow about 3 inches before and was fine thus the reason why i was surprised also?

AsianML

What tires do you have?

AsianML

Narrow tires are better in the snow.

blastit

thanks for the info. i was really looking forward to trying this car in the snow too. since we got dumped on this year up in british columbia. by the time i take posession it will be all sun for a few months. the only comparisson i can give is in my fathers e500 4 matic. when i drove this in the snow i seemed to get around with ease. and this was with anywhere from 4-6 inches on the road. the only time i slid was if i intentionally gassed it around the corner.

JohnGjolaj1

stock tires. I believe they're continental

RLE

<<stock tires. I believe they're continental>.

There's your answer. Blue light specials.

theraj2

omgitselaine: Mine did slip a few times but not very much, this being mostly b/c they hadnt salted the roads at all... every car that i saw slipped at some point. There is only so much 4wd can do in such bad conditions, but I also factored in that the car was light, and it was almost like ON WATER (not rain, but like the ocean) so I concluded with the C300 doing a pretty good job at keeping it down to the ground. BUt if you had made some quick turns and maybe some quick braking, of course the cars gana slip, anycars gana slip.. but as my dad would say... then why did i spend all that money... my one answer is... it feels really nice!

QQQ

Does your car come with summer tires? Change to winter tires and it is a different story.

omgitselaine

Im pretty sure the 4matic is very good that i do not doubt. Its more than likely that the tires suuck and yes it would make more sense to switch them out depending on the season but its succh a pain in the *** if im switching out tires and i have 4matic then why did i spend the extra $$$. I couldve gotten a c300 without the 4matic and just switched out winters come november then summers come may ???

AsianML

AWD is not a substitute for proper snow driving equipment (tires). Period.

Krytech

I'm in MN not NYC, but we get a lot of snow & icy rain here as well and I've been VERY impressed with my non-4matic C350. Granted I do have a set of Blizzak tires installed. My ESP light flashes a lot but the car does a surprising job on turns and braking. Getting going can be fun, but just give it some gas, the ESP light will come on and the car will do what it needs to do to get you going. No need to back off the throttle to accelerate. Kind of nice.

BTW, my other vehicle is an AWD so I'm used to good traction/control.

That reminds me, I was driving home the other day on a 40MPH road and I was driving next to a new Maxima. The roads were crap and the light in front of us turned yellow and both of us applied the brakes about the same time. Long story short, he slid half was thru the intersection while I stopped with plenty of distance and my ABS only need to kick in for a second.

theraj2

^Im taking mine up to MN in May... to attend the U... Hope to see you on the road!

Krytech

Right on. Great school!

Hopefully it'll be done snowing by then...

tanktube67