CzchMex

Ok so I'm a recently new MB owner as I've only owned my 2010 C300 P2 for a couple of weeks now. I had my car serviced and was given a loaner. I hate to say it but it feels cheaper then my car. The AC, COMAND knob, and buttons feel of a cheaper material plastic (not as heavy feeling). The steering wheel looked good but seemed smaller. The whole car felt smaller (is it the same size as mine).

I liked the screen resolution but enjoy the ability to hide mine. The acceleration on the C250 was tremendously more peppy than my C300. I could easily kick down the gears with a slight throttle control then my C300.

Overall I was disappointed in the C250. I will say I was happy to get back into my "older" MB.

Anyone else feel this too?

AkaSigFreak

Nope! I went from a 2008 C300 to the 2013 C250 Coupe and realize everything i was missing. I feel the opposite regarding the materials of the controls. I think they are more fluid and flow with the modern styling of the new interior.

cleankutazn

nope here too went from a 2011 c300 sedan to 2013 c250 coupe and the c250 is way better interior wise. The only negative is that the c300 engine felt smoother but not faster.

bringtherain

I feel the same way about the interior. Thought I would love it until I finally sat in one. However I LOVE the new screen and system. What clean says about the throttle response is spot on. That's the trade off for a acceleration heavy car tho I guess.

Cillys

Love my '11 C300

C300Sport

I've had a C250 loaner a few times and while the 1.8 turbo is pretty solid while at fuil boil, it's pretty weak stepping off the line. It left me hanging pretty bad a few times and especially while taking a left across traffic while pulling back into the dealership...
if there was a manual option, you could bring the revs up enough to keep it responsive off the line.

LILBENZ230

I have a 2011 C300 and right now am in a 2013 C250 sedan loaner. I think the facelift interior is a big step up. The materials quality seems better, not worse, than the 08-11. Also, the C250 does feel very peppy and much lighter than the C300. I like the linear power delivery of the V6 but the M271 has a very strong midrange.

The thing that bothers me most seems to be the transmission and engine calibration. They don't seem well adapted to each other a lot of the time. And holy throttle lag, batman. Press the gas.. you literally have time to think "go!" before any response.. then there is a surge of power. It's very peaky, not smooth. It is, however, very quiet.

The gauges and steering wheel in the 2013 are my favorite parts. The stupid hooded gauges in the 09-11 Sport annoy me. And since my C300 has a tan interior, I have the thinner 4-spoke wheel. The 2013 Sport wheel is very thick and sporty, I love it. Another thing is the surround lighting. My 11 uses the low beam headlights as the surround lighting which I do not like. The 2013 uses the LED DRL like the older Mercedes cars use the fogs. It's a small thing but it made me happy to see they'd gone back to that.

All things considered I can definitely see myself picking up a facelifted W204 in 2-3 years.

MDMercedesGuy

After having a C250 for a little over a year, but also having quite a bit of seat time in W204 C300s - I'm still very happy with my choice of powertrain. I do have to do a throttle reset every month or so because it will revert to being hesitant to downshift when I really want to move (which will hopefully be solved when I get the accelerator pedal replaced for a broken kickdown switch...). I love the way you get a surge of power when it comes on full boil - it makes up for the tepid off-boost response. I care more about midrange power for merging and passing than off the line grunt, so it is a good match for my driving style (but it's still got enough grunt off-line to not be easily embarrassed).

The E/S switch makes such a difference in this car - I keep mine in E most of the time, but switch to S if I know I am going to have to make a left turn against a lot of traffic or if I need to get up and go from a stop quickly. The boost comes up much faster if you have a 1st gear start.

CzchMex

After reading the posts and taking a seconds thought maybe it was just my initial thoughts. Since I only had about 3 hours in the loaner and own my c300 I could be over looking a few things. I agree with the dash. Love the improvement in the c250. I also agree with the acceleration. While it may be more perky from 0-30 it does take some time for it to figure out what to do. But I still think my c300 has more hesitation.

I still think the buttons feels cheaper but the overall plastic might have been better. It could also be that it was a loaner and only had 4k miles on it but was in worse condition then my 37k MB.

Although I'm still curious. Is the C250 a smaller lighter car than the C300? Or is the power band in the car stronger so it feels lighter?

MDMercedesGuy

The C250 has slightly more torque than the pre-2013 C300, and I believe it is a flatter torque curve and comes on a bit earlier (trying to find stock torque curves for these cars is an exercise in futility).

Any weight reduction would be from a physically smaller engine and single exhaust system - there's nothing special that they have done to prune down the weight of the C250.

There were a few changes made on the facelift cars to reduce weight (aluminum hood being one) - but these are still somewhat heavy cars.

LILBENZ230

There is no size difference and I don't know what the papers say about weight comparisons, but my C300 feels a good bit weightier than the C250 loaner. Whether that is a positive or a negative is subjective, I like both just fine.

The 7G in this C250 seems more confused than in my C300, but this loaner has 7500 miles and it could be adaptations. I dunno. I'll have to try it in S mode. It seems to average about 3-4mpg more than my C300. But the C300 seems unusually thirsty.

I like the Bluetooth audio feature a lot. I thought the quality would be FM-transmitter bad for some reason but it is actually very good. I mean, you know, as good as something like that can be. Have they changed the base radio? Neither my car nor this loaner has the HK7 system but the loaner sounds better and seems more powerful.

I buy 2-3 year old slightly used (great deals on C-class cars off lease) so that's what I'll likely do with a facelift W204 in the future.