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New C 300 owner's observations

I just bought my first Mercedes and got a 2010 C 300 Sport. It's almost the most basic car you can buy from Mercedes. The only option that I have is heated seats. Overall I like the car a lot. It feels very solid so far.

Driving Impressions...

I like the fact that it's very quiet on the inside when the radio is off and you are going any speed and over varied surfaces. The steering is very smooth and controlled. The clutch is something to get used to. I might have to figure out how to fabricate a clutch stop to make things a little easier on my left ankle. The shift knob is something to be changed out as well. It's very cheap feeling and rattles a bit. The all-season Pilots that came on the car are something to get used to but for what they are designed to do they are great. When I first drove the car on my test drive I missed 3rd gear alltogether and hit 5th. This threw me off a little but since I have been driving her for about a couple of days I haven't done it again. The 1-2 shift is a little rough so I might have to get that checked out. Brake feel is good and consistant which I like. I hate when you hit the brakes and the bite all of a sudden.
I traded in my 08 BMW Z4 3.0i Sport for this car so the driving experience is MUCH different. It has taken me a little bit to get used to the handling and shift points but overall I am really enjoying ownership of a sport sedan versus a roadster. The extra room is great and I love the exhaust note when you have the windows down and are in the upper RPM range. I still haven't found the perfect driving position yet but I'm sure if I just take some time I can without too much difficulty.

Fit and finish......

I have had some time to go over the car with a fine tooth comb now and am very impressed with the way everything is built. It's a very solid car. Everything shuts with authority and precision....even the glove box. The cup holders in the center console are a little wierd when you have the manual because if you have anything in there larger than a 12 ounce soda can your arm feels cramped to the left of the holes when you are shifting. I was wiping the car down after washing it yesterday and noticed that the grill was pushed in a little on the drivers side. I popped the hood and checked it out. I was expecting it to be secured a little more because it was surprising that it just kind of popped out and up with the exception of the center top point. At least when I go to take it out to paint it I know how easy it is to get out already.

Things to upgrade....

Rims and tires...I will eventually get a summer set of sticky rubber with some wider rims and lower profile tires.

Coil overs....I am still looking at all the options since I would like to get as much adjustability as I can. I don't know if KW make a V3 for the C300 yet. I may just end of up getting Koni's with the Eibach springs and sways.

Exhaust...still reading and watching YouTube vids but from what I gather getting an X-Pipe and a more free flowing exhaust is a must.

Tint....gotta have it.

Exterior.... Definiately love the look already but I'm leaning toward the carbon front lip, rear diffuser, Brabus style trunk spoiler, and roof spoiler. I'm going to black out the grill or get the carbon one. I found a carbon interior set as well but I don't know about that since I really like the aluminum that's in there now. It goes well with the gray and black inside.

Audio....gotta upgrade the speakers. They sound good but the range isn't very wide. I don't want something massive but I want it to have a little nicer SQ than it currently does. Since the bluetooth is integrated into the head unit how are you audio guys dealing with using an aftermarket unit?

That's about it. I look forward to getting to know more about my car and the Mercedes brand in general. Cheers.

Steve

Congratulations and welcome...certainly sounds like you have quite a plan laid out for mods!

I also took a while to get accustomed to the manual trans...it's still more fun than any automatic, but not quite up to BMW levels, from my earlier experience. I found two key areas where I had to most adjust technique.....first, in order to smoothly launch without driveline shudder, I've raised the engine speed for engaging first. In other cars, I've been successful below roughly 1,300 rpm, but this car seems to like somewhere around 1,500+/- to launch smoothly. I also am still a "work in progress" on the 1-2 upshift, the only other smoothness challenge. I've found that speed wins here, as the shift and clutch engagement has to occur rapidly to catch the falling revs, as this car is very sensitive and will transmit a significant lurch if the rev drops even slightly more than the equivalent road speed once the clutch is released. Try it a few times as fast as you can and you will catch a couple of shifts which are surprisingly silken. The rest of the box's behavior is fairly predictable.

Good luck and many years and miles of happy and safe driving!

I did notice that when you are on it the car likes to shift a lot smoother from 1 to 2. I actually got a chirp for the first time yesterday trying to merge into rush hour traffic. If I'm just putting around I will usually go from 1-3-5-6 since the engine is so torquey.

Congrats on the C300 and thanks for your comments.

Speaker upgrade thread is HERE:

https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...r-upgrade.html

welcome and i myself have a 6 spd and i experience no problems with it.

I didn't really mean there was much wrong with my shifter but it's just not as tight or short as I am used to. I have had short shift kits and weighted shift knobs in all my manual cars and they just feel a lot different. I'm trying to get TWM Performance to make a short shifter kit for the W204. They make really top quality stuff. The shift knob I want from them is 1.38lbs of solid metal.

As far as car audio, I have had some pretty complicated systems that I have installed myself to save the time and labor cost. Plus if something goes wrong I know where to look. I am a big fan of JL and Kicker components. Although the last set I had was on off brand that I just happened to run into and they sounded really clean. I have to remember what the name of them were and try to find them again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stevedotmil (Post 4663442)

I'm trying to get TWM Performance to make a short shifter kit for the W204. They make really top quality stuff. The shift knob I want from them is 1.38lbs of solid metal.

Keep us apprised of any progress...very interesting!!

http://www.twmshiftknobs.com/

Check out the Desert Eagle....600 grams....sorry 1.32lbs of billet steel.

I just tinted the front orange reflectors so they sort of blend in with the front. I also Plati-coated the grill too. I left the chrome strips though since it adds a little accent to the front. I haven't seen any other C's around that have been modded beyond window tint except for my friend Mario's who did the same mods as me today on his 08.

Now I have to change my sig.

Looking good and welcome. :)

So after having my C for a while I thought I should update this thread so you guys can see what sort of "progress" I have made. I haven't done much really but it's the little things that make the difference I think.

First thing is I changed the grill again. I used Plasti-Dip again since it's like a 6 dollar mod and works rather well.

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...47237169_n.jpg

I also blacked out the fog light rings as you can see in the pic above as well. I think it makes the front a little less busy and definately cleaner. I used gloss black rattle can paint.

I finally broke down and splurged for the good stuff when I got my windows tinted. I got the 3M film but it's the Carbon film instead of the regular metalic. The look is totally different than without it, especially since I have the gray two tone interior. It's just dark enough during the day and looks a lot darker at night but still allows you to see out while you are driving with ease.

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._5498171_n.jpg

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...2_755072_n.jpg

In the above picture you can also see how dark the front side markers are tinted. At some point I will take some night pics so you can see what they look like once they are lit. I made the decision to nix the chrome stip from the lower part on the sides. It changed the looks a lot more to my liking. I like things simple and combined with the tint it turned out great.

Parting shot from 4th of July this year.
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._5429515_n.jpg
All pics taken, edited, and uploaded with my Droid X Ver1. Keep your iPhones.

I think one of the first mods that have to do with the performance of my car will have to be tires. I absofreakinlutely HATE the stock Mich's that came on my car. When it rains, like it did yesterday, I teld to spend a whole lot of time sliding around and feeling like I'm tip toeing around and it's just annoying. The only good thing that comes from rain and these tires is that I get to practice my drift angles in the empty parking lot near my house without making a whole lot of noise. I see some Conti DWS's in my future. I might even spring for some super lightweight staggered 17's and spacers. I would much rather have a great driving car that's still nice to look at than a car that has huge rims on it with a whole lot of unwanted unsprung weight. These tires are definately the weak link right now.

That's it for the latest updates so until I get some more done stay tuned.

Steve

So I went driving around the Blue Ridge Parkway up in North Carolina this weekend with some Euro owners from another board. Most of us met up in Charlotte and then headed north via I-40 and then 321 and I-85 and then 221. This is where we met some more of the group and then all got directions of the route and checked all the two way radios for the cruise. I had the slowest car there. The other two slow cars were an S2000 and an Acura RSX Type S. I wouldn't say slow really but not fast by comparison. The rest were 3 Pontiac G8 GT's one was a GXP with a blower on it, 3 5 series BMW's, 3 M5's, 1 330CI, the rest were M3's of various years and models, and 1 1M (orange of course). We headed out and hit 226A around the Lake Norman route of the BlackDiamond and portions of the Parkway. I quickly made my way to the back and stayed there pretty much the whole day. I very rarely got out of 4th and stayed in either 2nd or 3rd pretty much the whole time. The speed limit except for the Parkway was 45 or 55 of which I couldn't stay at because of the limitations of the all seasons and my stock suspension. Nice cruise but got left out because of the performance differences. We ate lunch at the bottom of the loop to Little Switzerland, NC and then did the loop. We then headed down 221 and back. It was nice to be up there this time of year. Here's a pic from the stop at Heffner's Gap.

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...76835823_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...53984275_n.jpg

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...25708485_n.jpg

I launch all my cars smoothly under 1000 RPM, most of time near idle, w/o lagging the traffic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hmc (Post 4878532)

I launch all my cars smoothly under 1000 RPM, most of time near idle, w/o lagging the traffic.

Could you please go further on this? I always used to do the same with various BMW, VW, Honda, Saab, etc. vehicles. My C Class will not cooperate. I can creep it forward, such as at a light or when parking, with no throttle and just slipping the clutch. But, to get underway with full engagement, more revs have been needed since the car was new. Full launch at anything near 1000 rpm results in a driveline shudder. I need 1500 rpm for a smooth launch, but I have had other comments that this is typical of MB and their somewhat out of date manual boxes. Is your C Class able to launch as smoothly as your BMWs?

You just need more practice. Don't give up. You do need to give a little throttle while clutch is being engaged. The trick is to just give this little, at the right time, smoothly enough, to not have driveline shudder. Without throttle, RPM will drop below idle on engagement and easily cause the car to stall.

Yes, I can launch as smoothly as BMW. Its engagement point sometimes is not as clean but it's ok.

I don't really have many problems with launching as much as I do just losing traction with my crappy tires. I do with the shifter was more solid though. It's rather sloppy. I wish there was a way to order a spare set of bushings and then have some urethane ones made or even solid aluminum ones would be great. One of these days I'm going to take that shifter apart and figure all of this out.

I know BMW has www.realoem.com that you can go to when you are trying to find blow ups of all the parts and the numbers but does Mercedes have something like this somewhere on the net. It would be super helpful.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hmc (Post 4878641)

Thanks for the response and I appreciate the encouragement. However, after 40 years of driving stick and 3 years with this car, and lots of experimentation, I am tempted to rule out lack of familiarity as the root cause. As you find your car is comparable to others with which I've had success, I suspect there may be a defect in the friction material or some other issue causing the lower rev slippage. Thanks again!:D

I get that now and then too. I think it may just be a defect. I have been scouring the net trying to find a clutch to no avail.

Steve Pare did you get a chance to replace your shift knob?

No I still haven't. I have had bigger fish to fry lately. I wish though. I hate that it feels like the cheapest part of the whole car and I touch it every time I drive it. The chrome surround on my cup holders are flaking off too now.

Got the cup surround replaced under warranty. Had the Service B minus done. That was a stealership experience. The good news is that I won't have to deal with that for a while. I'm taking my car back to the "Motherland" at the end of the year. Germany here I come!!! I will be picking up as many Euro Only things for my car as I can while I'm there. Maybe even a C63 Estate. Who knows. I do know that I won't be paying a ton for maintenance any more for a good while. I will be making a journal in pictures of the whole experience while I'm there. I plan to travel as much as possible while I'm there so it should be good times. Cheers.