Agreed.

If you want to liven it up, do a Designo upgrade with your local upholsterer and cover everything in leather. This thread is like us going to an Elantra forum.

 

It could be the roads that you drive on. I've noticed that on smooth roads, my car is completely quiet, but once I hit a rough patch of road or drive on roads that are bare concrete and not asphalt, I start to hear a tick, creak or rattle here and there. It could also be the heat. I live in a pretty warm climate with direct sunlight all the time. That may play an effect on my interior as the plastics expands or shrinks in the heat. Doesn't help also that when I sit in the car, I turn the AC on full so the interior cabin suddenly cools down as well. What build year is your car? Mine's the first batch of 07. I hear Benz made some updates (noise insulation wise) to the interior with the 08 and above models.

 

So...Walter, what is your impression now that you have this variety of responses? You certainly got a lot of interest with your question!

 

I agree with most everyone else..yeah there's some cheap plastics but i love the layout and the overall solidity of the interior. I have zero squeaks/rattles/etc.

 

Good question. Thanks guys for the respectful and thoughtful answers. I thought I may have been in trouble posting this one. My impression is that the interior is not quite what we all expected out of MB even though it is agreed that if you want something awesome you should pay for it, but this type of interior is in the new e too. I think that what everyone seems to agree on is that it is BORING in the cabin and something is just missing. When I had my w203, I still felt like I had a fair amount of luxory, but it was still clear I didn't have an S class. Now I think it is obvious. The w212 is no better. I went again to the dealer and sat in the E 63 AMG and it just is uninspiring, boring, and cheap-feeling. I tried to put my finger on it. Maybe just not enough contrast in there and the materials all seem RELATIVELY inferior than what we were used to I think. Ask youeself.....how would you like your old interior in this body?

 

I think it also depends on the color that your pick for interior. I had opportunity to drive in a loaner that was all tan inside and to me it seemed very boring and cheap looking. Its true that there is a lot of room for improvement, but I'm satisfied with what I have...

 

I live in Boston...there are no smooth roads haha! I have a 2008 which was one of the first batches that came to the US. I bought mine when living in Florida and apart from 1 problem with the fuel pump and 1 software issue with the sunroof, the car has caused me no problems whatsoever. It may be where you live but even living in Florida I had no issues either, so as much as i'd like to unfortunately I can't help you with that.

I love that car to bits and have not had any issues with it, including noise. If it was an all-wheel drive (which wasn't available at the time) I would keep this car for a very very long time.

 

+1 to your answer Sportstick. Couldn't have said it better myself.

I think that maybe the materials on the dash and doors isn't too great, but design-wise I like the simplicity - it is purposeful, clean and easy-to-use.

 

Agreed.

I drive I-5 daily and it's mostly smooth road. Sometimes it's loud concrete, but fairly smooth, no body noise, no creaks or suchlike.

But sometimes I drive I-90 over the mountains. That's no way a smooth road, plenty of rough stretches. Car makes lots of creaks and groans. Most irritating is the door fit by my ear. It creaks in the frame as the door moves "independently" of the body. Really poor fit there.

There are also some minor creaks, and when it's really cold out (15 F) there's a buzz near one of the speaker where the speaker is not quite properly seated in the plastic housing.

On better roads and warmer weather it's quite quiet.

On other roads I miss the quiet of my Accord. (Now that's a statement!)

 

One thing that is begining to bother me are the door pins. Didn't mind them as much in my '99 ML but seems out of place in my w204.

 

From my visits to the MB showroom(while my S55 is visiting the service dept), my opinion is that MB car interiors are pretty "crappy" until you get up to $100k+. For $60k+ for C63, the interior still looks like it's from $35k car(it is), and even the E63 for $95k was very disappointing in its interior...apparently you have to pay more for upgraded leather and suede roof. MBs and others "de-contented" everything to try to keep the MSRP lower, but I think longer-term it's a flawed strategy. It doesn't have to cost that much more to have quality interior(Audi's)...it's a matter of priority. Besides, MB can easily shift some of their HUGE advertising budget and sponsorship $'s toward creating a superior interior...if they wanted do.
PL

 

so-so interior quality and materials....'05-'07 interiors were better built. Also, my interior has quite a few creaks in the summer.

the ML/GL have nicely built interiors. My dad just got a 2010 ML350 and it feels top quality in materials and build, interesting since these are built in the US.

 

I've been over to Boston and yes, the roads over there can get pretty bad. But the roads you have there are nothing compared to the crappy roads I got to deal with in my neck of the woods! The Japanese built a main highway through our city and when it was first complete, it was smooth as silk. Now, many many years later, due to neglect and poor road maintenance, the Japanese classify the surface of the road as "off road"!

I love my car to bits as well. Despite the "snap, crackle and pop" interior. haha And aside from the noises, after almost 2 years of ownership and 30k km on the clock (we don't drive much here) the only other issues I had were a stuck rear seat belt and a leaking front shock absorber. Both were fixed under warranty. Not bad I would say. Much better than my BMW 335i in terms of reliability, which I sold for the C class.

 

I have the same problem with the sounds coming from the door frame. It's coming from the black plastic trim that covers the door frame. The dealer had mine replaced and the sound came back after a month or so. I then did a little DIY myself and I found that if I remove the trim myself and completely cover the inner side of the trim with felt, reinstall it (it will look a little puffy when reinstalled), the sound will go away. I only tested this out on the front passenger side and I've noticed that the sound went away. I still need to do it for the remaining doors where I still hear the sounds coming from. Also, I've noticed that the interior aluminum trim on the door makes a rattling sound on rough concrete roads.

Like you, this is when I miss my Toyota! (Now that's a statement as well!)

I've noticed that usually when the temperature cools down, my interior gets more quiet. Weird since you seem to be experiencing the opposite. Though we could be on opposite ends of the mercury. Usually the daily temp here is about 32 to 36 C. On a cooler day, where I experience less noises, the mercury would hit about 26 to 28 C. We've never had the temp drop below 21 C here so I wouldn't know how my car would cope with colder weather. How does this compare on your end?

There are a few more noises so next time I pay a visit to the dealership, I'll be sure to see if there's anything more they can do about it. I can pinpoint a noise coming from the dashboard where the speakers are and another sound from the rear, most likely somewhere near the umbrella shelf or rear ceiling. I'll be sure to post any conclusions if there are any. Here's hoping!

 

I am amazed, or perhaps ill informed. There is a solid list of options that make the cars anything you wish but cheap. Mine is made in Germany, has grained leather interior, black wood trim, plus all the amenities I wanted (except LED front and rear interior lights) and tech advances I chose.

The basic car has more plastic, which for the E German taxi fleets is more than adequate. It is the general trend of bottom line results more than traditional image given by luxury quality materials on standard models.

 

That 15F is about minus 9 C. quite a bit colder than your 21 C. Tonight it is about 2C and I just did an hour drive on rough roads. Didn't make much noise at all, rather quiet in fact. But my highest speed was about 50 mph (80 kph) so I wasn't really testing the car very much.

Coldest I've had the car is at about minus 13 C. Warmest I've had it is at about 37 C. That's a fairly large range, eh?

I'll have to take a gander at the plastic trim bits in the door frame. Are those attached to the frame, or the door? I suspect a thinner felt might help it be less "puffy." Thanks for the tip!

 

Indeed! You have quite a wide range of temps there. Makes my range look tiny though now that I think about it, when I park my car under the sun on a hot 37 C day, I'm sure the interior of the car get much hotter. How hot? I don't know but hot enough for me to turn the AC on full for a good 20 mins before the car gets cool. Though I'm not too convinced that temperature changes are the culprit for causing my car's interior to be noisy. I'm sure it's something else. Most likely just build quality and possibly fit and finish. Though if you compare the Toyota's interior and the C class' interior, there are just so many more components, wires, etc etc in the C class' interior. A perfect example would be the door. On the Toyota, the door panel is just one peice. When you look at the Ben'z panel, its actually a bunch of pieces together forming the door. The handle itself is also made of many plastic parts while on the Toyota, its just one peice. This could explain why that no matter how well you put stuff together, in time, all these little pieces will eventually losen up and start making all these noises. When driving on rough roads all the time, the losening up of these materails could be accelerated, hence could by why I'm experincing more problems. Or it could be that the 2008 model just had a better interior put into it as mine is a 2007 model. haha

The black trim I'm talking about is the one on the door itself that's inbetween the window frame and door seal. It's a black plastic trim which you can see even when the door is closed. Benz used this trim to cover the metal of the door that is commonly seen in other cars. I'll try and see if I can get a picture of it and post it here for you. I tried using the thinnest possible felt I could find but since there's not much space between the metal of door frame and the plastic trim, I think the "puffing" out is unavoidable. On the flip side of things, you can't really notice that it's "puffing" out unless you look at it very closely and the rubber door seal will most likely hide it already anyway.

 

This has turned out to be an interesting thread. I don't like plastic either, but the stuff in my car is well fitted and functional. I think the Avantgarde trim line has a bit less plastic (please tell me if I'm wrong). I also have the black maple trim, leather seats and leather door panels, etc. My impression of the interior is one of comfortable functionality. It's not super-luxury, but it's not billed as such, is it? I haven't noticed the squeaks or rattles that others have mentioned and I really like the pop-up MM screen.

Btw, she turns a lot of heads--the exterior styling is great. I really enjoy driving my C.

 

Most American models have been built down to a sticker price. This leaves them looking spartan with a perception of poor quality. I think, however, that the quality is OK. A fully loaded, leather upholstered car gives a vastly better impression. I agree with one of the posters that colour coordination & selection in this car is very important & you need the wood finishes to lift it. There are enough wood finishes available to suit almost any taste. All-black interiors in low spec'ed cars can look very ordinary. I like the greys & cognac with contrasted uppers. The base model door panels are very base! I don't like black head linings. It's like crawling into a cave. This is, of course, personal.

I hope they facelift the dash beyond just hooded gauges in the 2011/12 MY

My only real criticism on the quality side of things are some of the chromed plastic bits & the ceramic loaded PVA painted plastic parts. I have severe doubts about their long term durability & have seen some bad deterioration where cars are just used & not fussed over.

I think Audi is the class leader in the segment when it comes to interiors.

 

I agree, the Audi interior is really top notch but I personally find the new Audi's not to my liking in terms of design on the exterior. I personally find my C class' interior quite elegant and nice to be in. It's black leather with the gray headliner. Nothing special but it's surely very comfortable for me and I find it more interesting than the my previous black interior BMW. I also really like my aluminum trim though I've seen a few people mod their interior trims with carbon fiber and I find it quite nice too. Another trim that really temped me was the Cognac brown leather seats with the black dash. Though ultimately I chose the black leather since I figured the black would most likely age better and would require less maintenance over the cognac brown. I really love my car to bits and I wouldn't see myself in any other kind car for some time.

Though I do hope I get all the noises in my interior fixed soon though. It's a painful and slow process eliminating one sound at a time. I was able to eliminate quite a few already. So far here's what I got.

1. Creaking sound coming from the instrument cluster - I traced this to the plastic housing of the instrument cluster. The housing is essentially two pieces of plastic held together by a screw. This screw also is what secures the instrument cluster to the dashboard of the car. Due to a design flaw, in time, this screw that holds the cluster in place will loosen up and cause the two plastic housing parts to rub against each other causing the creaking sound. I removed the cluster, pulled apart the two housing pieces and literally super glued them together. The sound went away and never came back!

2. Creaking/ticking sound coming from the instrument cluster exterior plastic trim - this one really got me for a while since I couldn't tell if the sound was coming from the instrument cluster itself or from the plastic exterior trim that covers the corners of the instrument cluster. I only was able to finally figure out this was also a culprit of noises once I super glued the instrument cluster. Since the instrument cluster wasn't making any noises anymore, it was obvious that the noise was coming from the plastic cover trim. I then proceeded to strategically place felt on key places of the trim. I also placed felt on the inner portion of the dashboard where plastic trim and dashboard meet. I couldn't take a picture of it anymore since it was at such an odd angle but here are pictures of the felt on the trim.


I later found out that on the 2008 and up models of the C class, the trim already has felt placed by the factory. But I still seemed to have needed more felt for my car in order to stop the noise completely.


I then reinstalled the trim and the sound went away.

3. Ticking sound coming from the center console - I literally took everything in the center console out of the dashboard and by process of elimination, I was able to pinpoint the sound coming from behind the COMMAND screen.

I then proceeded to yank out the COMMAND screen and low and behold, behind it, I found a cable that moves up against it's plastic housing. I played around with it, moved it around and true enough, it made the exact same sound that I've been hearing.

I also was able to take pictures of this DIY so here's a shot of the cable that I'm talking about behind the COMMAND screen. I pulled it out of its housing but when reinstalled back in the the dash, the cable is supposed to be flush inside the housing.


I then proceeded to wrap the cable with felt tape (sorry I don't have a picture for this, was too excited to have discovered the source of the rattle) and put everything back together. I then took the car out for a spin and true enough, I couldn't hear the ticking anymore and I still don't hear it anymore.

Just for kicks, here's a shot of everything in the center dash removed.


There is also a creaking/ticking sound coming from the plastic housing of the COMMAND screen itself. Like the instrument cluster, the housing for the COMMAND screen is held together by two half pieces of plastic. This eventually will rub against each other when driving over rough roads and will start to make noises in time. I didn't bother fixing this anymore as it required for me to literally pull apart the screen's housing and most likely I'd have to super glue them together to prevent them from rubbing against each other. I'm afraid I might damage the screen and opted not to do it anymore. Plus the sound seems to go away when the screen is in the closed position.

4. Ticking sound coming from the A-pillar - stuffed foam inside the cover and sound went away.

5. Rattle coming from the center console where the gear shift is - I removed the trim surrounding the gear shifter and took the car for a spin. The sound was gone so I was able to narrow it down to the trim causing the sound. When I took a closer look at the trim, I notice that it's held in place inside the center console by friction by clips. The clips have come loose and were moving around. When you shake the trim on its own, you will hear the clips rattle around. I figured this might be causing the trim to loosen up when driving so I super glued the clips and for good measure, I placed felt all around the corners of the trim, to make sure it's a real snug fit when placed back in the center console. Reinstalled the trim and the sound went away. Sorry, I don't have any pictures for this one.

6. Ratting coming from interior trim surrounding the AC controls - this one was fairly simple. I removed the trim and placed felt all around the corners of the trim. Made the fitment real snug and the sound went away as well.

7. Rattle coming from interior trim on door - for this I removed the door trim, took out the side panel and inserted felt between the trim and door panel. I re-tightened up the screws holding the trim together and the sound went away. There is a inherent design flaw here where the screws Mercedes used to hold the trim in place doesn't secure it properly. Here's a shot of the screws.


I'm not to sure what kind of screws those are but they really don't work! They don't tighten at all. My theory is that they're designed to break off in an event of a side impact so the interior trim breaks off as once piece and doesn't splinter and kill you?

Here's a shot of the door panel with the felt placed in order to give the trim a snug fit.


I also put felt on the trim itself to make sure it stays.


8. Rattle coming from center speaker - I removed the center speaker and placed felt to push up against the speaker. Sound went away. Here's a picture of the felt in place.


9. Creaking sound coming from the black plastic trim on door, between the window and rubber seal for the door - this was solved by removing the black plastic trim and laying felt all over the inner portion of the plastic trim. Reinstalled the trim, looked a little puffy, but the sound went away. Sorry, I don't have pictures of this one either but I only did one door for my car and I will take pictures when I do the other three doors.

Now on to sounds I currently hear and I'm still working on trying to find out where they're coming from.

1. A series of ticking sounds coming from the rear interior of the car - Most likely from the rear ceiling or umbrella shelf. Seems to just happen randomly, when stopped or when moving. Happens intermittently so its hard to determine where its coming from.

2. Ticking sound coming from the rear view mirror area - Mostly happens when on rough roads. I believe it's coming from the base of the housing of the rear view mirror.

3. Creaking sound coming from the passenger front seat - I've read online that this could be a loose screw underneath the seat. I have yet to look into this and will do so the next time I get the chance work on my car.

4. Rattle coming from the left and right front speaker cover on the dashboard. This is the long thin cover on both corners of my dashboard. I belie

 

I know the Philippines roads are not great but I admire your fortitude. You should not have to do this to any MB other than maybe a truck. This reminds me of the 2000/2001 W203s - See sticky on that forum to shut them up. Thank god Benz fixed all the creaks, groans, ticks, squeeks, rattles & the like before my cars were built.

 

I think the W204 interior looks better than its predecessors, but I guess that's generally true for all cars. Keep in mind that it's a C-class not the E-class or the S-class. I enjoy my W209 over my W204 mainly because the seats are more comfortable and the W209 has wood trim.

 

I like the STYLE of my W204 interior better than that of my previous W203...BUT I definitely think the W204 interior looks and feels cheap compared to my previous W203

 

Well said!!

 

Indeed. I am honestly quite disappointed with the interior quality of my C class in terms of fit and finish. Though I've also noticed that other C's in my area have noisy interiors as well. I have a feeling it could be the roads.