First PROBLEM with C300
 

My GF has a C300 Sport.
A rock hit the mesh thats under the front license plate.
The mesh is plastic and kinda cheap and we got the new part.
60 bux from dealer.
So I go to install this sucker and ..it's not coming off.
I worked from the outside through the hole the rock left.
I thought it would pop right out, but it wont budge.
Anyone have the same problem and fix it?
Otherwise the car is pretty cool.

not too bad....
 

I had my first problem less than one hour after I bought it.....it is slow.

Well, at least you only have that problem with the grille. Come to my world.:X

:rolf:

Already posted about this a couple of other times ... hopefully they'll start putting out a part that's a little tougher.

Bad news is the entire bumpers has to come off. Grill only comes off and goes on from the back.

....did you not test drive the car before you bought it? Any seat time what so ever in a C300 and you find out very quickly that its slow. I'm going to say this problem was human error. :rolf:

OK, The C300 wins the worst design ward ever for that.

I mean, it should be a break off part almost

I don't think the C300 is slow, my wife can pull on me in the '88 Porsche 911 w/ 3.2L from a dead stop. It's just that average sedans now put out 250-300 hp and we've become conditioned to think we need muscle car power for a daily driver. In fact my wifes C300 sport (auto) feels quicker than my old 2000 Nissan Maxima SE that had 222 hp, that was considered a quick car and it's bigger and doesn't handle as well as our C300, our C300 also feels equal and arguably slightly quicker than the 2004 Acura TL (auto) we traded for it again not really a slow car by comparison. Also I find that using the manual feature makes the car feel 10-20% quicker in almost all situations, I'm used to driving manuals so I'm quite good at negotiating that feature.

-Ryan

I wouldn't call this "your first problem" with the car. That tends to make people think that there was a defect. You hit a rock, probably a big one, and it created a hole, can happen to any car. Statements like these are what put MBs way low on JD Power.

Slow? Not really.
 

<<I had my first problem less than one hour after I bought it.....it is slow.
Come to my world.>>

The perception that it is slow is due mostly to the transmission which locks up in all gears and requires too much throttle to downshift. It took me a while to see this and it's not just the W204.

I am driving a free service loaner today ('07 C230 Sport Sedan from Enterprise) and it's just the same with it's 7-speed. You call for more power and nothing happens and then suddenly a double-downshift. The old 5-speed locked up in 3/4/5 only and it responded much faster to the throttle.

Not that another 100HP or so would go to waste, of course.

Too many gears for such a small engine maybe? Its obvious the extra gears aren't helping gas mileage either so whats the benefit again? By the way..the C300 is slow, you can't dodge the fact...maybe we are used to cars with more power but thats just my point exactly. If I can get a Honda Civic Si that costs less..has less horse power..but will walk all over the C300..then somethings wrong. I can start naming off a list of imports and even a few domestics that best the C in shear numbers, but even compared to cars in its own class its dead last. Carry over engine is to blame, they had a perfect chance to put the direct injection engines in the new C but chose to exclude them in favor of a carry over engine thats low on go and high on petrol. I love the C and enjoy driving it around town, but its sometimes downright scary when trying to merge into highway traffic! Lol ok ok..this post was about someone trying to replace the lower mesh grill and I've gotten off topic lmao.

I guess you're not totally wrong, but I gotta say the salesguy in the seat next to me during the test drive wasn't exactly letting me do tranny drops to gauge the torque on this puppy. Plus, of course, how fast can I get when its Saturday afternoon rushour on busy streets near the dealer's downtown location? And, I never got to test drive the 4matic since I bought early on when cars were few and all they had on the lot was the RWD.

So totally off topic. :rolf:

I learned to drive in the 80's ... anything 0-60 under 8 sec is plenty quick for me.

Car still feels slow from a stop no matter what (it's been awhile since I drove an automatic daily, so my comparison is skewed), but once the gears start zinging it feels reasonably quick.

My biggest performance gripe isn't the acceleration, it's the brakes. They just don't feel like they've got enough stopping power to me. Well, that and the absolute laziness of the transmission in downshifting.

UM, if you guys are worried about power, why did you even bother with these cars, they look good but for the money I would go with a BMW in this class and I'm talking used E46 M or C55 all the way..
As for the mesh being a problem, I consider it one, it's a design issue, the mesh is so brittle and cheap. They should of made it allot easier to replace.
I hit a rock in my C32, I pulled off the Mesh, bent it back to shape, popped it in and took off, even the C230K Sports have the metal mesh that pops out.

I'm not sure if our C300 is gifted:nix: but it doesn't feel slow.. I've got a 996TT Porsche X50 sitting beside it in the garage and an '88 Carrera Cabriolet, I know what fast is. I've also got a 159 hp 4-cyl Toyota as a work truck and compared to the C300 the truck is slow, but doesn't feel scary when merging. I'm totally confused on why so many feel the car is slow. I also demo'd a C350 before we decided on the C300, IMO the C350 did not feel much quicker to justify stepping up in price point for more power per se. For us paying $3k more had us looking at a Volvo S80 V8 or Acura MDX but definitely not a C-Class. At $36K our C300 is a huge value and great car but honestly if our car cost even $1K more than what it did we would have been in something else... TL-S, G35 etc... Since the car is for my wife, and she thinks the C300 is fast LOL:rolf: speed wasn't a priority when we were shopping for cars last august that is. We like to say to ourselves when some @$$ goes flying by us in the C300 "If we were in the X50 he wouldn't have tried that":y no need to prove anything. I like to think about sometimes that if the C300 Sport was availible as a W204 in 1989 it would have easily been the fastest car in its segment, been worthy of the coveted "AMG" badge and been able to hang with cars like the '88 BMW E28 M5, and be faster than a Nissan Maxima SE of same vintage, a car that was known to be no slouch, I'm willing to bet a 228 hp W204 would have beat my first car in a drag race an '87 Camaro Iroc-Z with a 5.7L V8 slow by todays standard but fast in '87. So why this long winded dialog? because I think it's funny that you people find the W204 C300 slow because Infiniti makes a G with 306 hp.

-Ryan

That's what I said.

I remember in high school when we used to be like: "Ooooooooooooooh shaaaaat! That 1995 Maxima has 190 HP! Hella fast! TOO fast!" And it barely did something like 7.5 seconds to the 60 mph mark. Speed is relative.

In any case, where the hell are you going to run those "faster" cars at full power anyway, unless you live in Germany near an autobahn? I think driving the "slow" C300 at 100% will be much more satisfying than driving a new 911 GT2/3 at 25%.

I still wouldn't mind another 50~100 HP though. :naughty:

You totally summed it up, I tell you here in Nor Cal it's rare that I can open up the X50 and with gas nearing $4.00/ gallon I find myself needing to get a foot of it less and less. In some ways the C300 is entertaining to drive near 10/10 especially using the manual mode, I seriously have never felt like there was a time our C300 denied an acceleration attempt, merge, passing or spirited maneuver. I could very well be getting old, I just turned 30 last week:rolleyes: A few weeks ago some kid in a 1997 Circa Acura CL 3.0 the V6 one decided he wanted to run. I ignored him the first time then at the next light we went and I was able to keep a car length ahead of him the entire time. Weren't those car concidered fats in their day? heck the 3.0 was the upgraded powertrain for that car I think it came with a 2.2L 4-cyl standard, again not a slow motor.

-Ryan

I dogged out a Mustang GT (07 model) on the turnpike doing 75 mph. He kept pulling trying to get me to go. Got tired of it and hit it the same time he did. He wasn't too happy:zoom:. I finally pulled of the throttle around 95 and he caught up to me and kept going (idiot). I have also been told that the "pull" on this 228 hp V6 is incredible with smooth acceleration all the way through the power band. This came from a friend who is driving a ported and polished 93 RX-7 with a T-66 turbo and races SCCA. If you think this car is "slow" sell it and stop complaining.:wall:

First blood
 

Yesterday afternoon, in the rain, on the freeway at speed, I heard a "CLIIING" followed by a "tinkle, tinkle' ... Ugh. A rock put a hole right through the lower mesh grill, almost at the edge on the right side. Nice hole. Nice, BRITTLE, plastic.

It doesn't make it any easier that the car that threw up the rock was a Mercedes.

Okay, they said they built this car the way they did because they promised us a "MERCEDES-BENZ". I think I've got the imitation lower mesh grill. Anybody got the real thing?

Too bad! Heard that it is hard to replace too....

Not to mention they say they tested this car over 300 million miles...to bad it was all computer testing and no real world testing where there are things like..um I don't know...rocks.

It is NOT easy to replace, trust me..

I agree with u, the "pull" of the 3.0L engine is incredilbe, it may seems that this engine is slow from stand still. but after u are about 60km/h and do a kick down, the pulling factor do seems to be alot better.

^
+100

agreed.

I don't think i'll be using 100% of the horsepower anytime soon... OK, i lied. I most likely will not hit 228HP EVER.

I don't know of any freeway in the bay area where I can gun this baby to 155mph and not worry about CHP on my @$$.

I'll just cruise along KNOWING I got enough ponies under the hood to take on any ricer. :zoom:

+1, it's sort of slow from stand still but not too bad above 40mph. May be it has to do with the weight on this car. But again, coming from 06 BMW 330i (255hp vs 268hp on C350), this C is still a bit slow for me. Just my 2 cents.

Just parking those cars is funner than being in a c class lmoa
If you have endless power you respect your car allot more than knowing your limit, also if you have power and you get challenged, its fun to put the whoop on people. If you have no power you get killed and thats no fun at all.
People who own fast cars do things like race at tracks and top speed runs in the middle of nowhere.
Edit.
One more thing with power and high performance that comes with it, like brakes is.
You get to 150 in seconds when you are around 70..and you come back to 70 even quicker.
155 bursts can be done all day, where in a slow car you need to really get it going to get up to high speeds and then in turn w/o better brakes and and even bullet proof trans you can't get down to normal speed fast.
So it's easier to get busted or even crash in a slow car low end performance car like the C.