pnirenstein

I recently had the chance to get behind the wheel of the '09 c350. Here were my thoughts. Any feedback appreciated!

snowmuch

Fair review. The poor throttle response and gear shift cam be helped with a ecu tune

pnirenstein

Thanks for the reply snowmuch. Good to know about the tune!

Go Navy

I think a late model used C350 is one of the great buys in the market currently. Of course I put my money where my mouth is when I recently bought my 2012 C350. I did a lot of research on this car. My short list ended up including the 3-series BMW (I've owned BMWs before), the Mustang GT, a used Corvette, and maybe a newer Acura of some type (I had a 2006 Acura RL AWD).

That's arguably a weird list I know, but I was looking for performance without spending a fortune. In the end, I realized I needed an auto I could live with and use on a daily basis and on rare occasions, carry four people with, plus performance and bells and whistles.

So far, after about 4 months, I'm very happy with the C350 and can recommend it. The tech side of it is a learning curve which I'm still climbing, mainly because I haven't spent enough down time reading the manual while sitting in the auto. The bits that I have learned are not too complicated and are pretty useful. I wish the car wouldn't default to Eco mode (or whatever it's called) every time you shut it down and start it up again, but at least mine doesn't have the ridiculous engine stop feature, which I WILL NOT ever buy in any car unless the Greens force it on all of us by government fiat.

edgalang

I guess it all depends if you were considering a fully loaded 250 to begin with. If you were going with a base 250, then the answer might be a no...but a fully loaded 250 is only 2-3k less than a 350, where many features come already standard. Similar to Go Navy, I've put my money where my mouth is and ordered a custom build 350 (2nd to last year you can get it from Germany...although mine experienced an unusually long wait/build time due to natural disasters in Japan).

When cross-shopping, my shortlist didn't include any FWD vehicles mainly because I just came out of one (Acura TL-S). In the end, the C350 won in value compared to the new BMW 328 (dealer would not negotiate on asking price)...Infiniti G37 (interior fit & finish was lacking) and Audi A4 (less power and less MPG). I didn't consider the Lexus IS series because too many of my friends already have them and the Cadillac ATS was not out yet (however I doubt it would of made a difference with my wife).

fireline43

I love my fully loaded c250, but I do wish I thought more about the c350. The problem I had was that the dealership only had one new c350 and it was the base compared to my fully loaded c250. The c350 seems more like a car you need to order to get something decent.

fireline43

I'm happy to see people who went through the same process by comparing the cars like me. It seems some of the people here just buy the car and didn't research. It is funny how the ATS is not brought up at all really around here though. I never test drove it, but looked at it at a car show. I just don't like it's looks. Exterior is awkward, interior is very bland looking. I was actually more impressed by the buick GS. That car almost won me over, but I couldn't get over owning a buick.

edgalang

Too bad GM neutered it from it's original configuration or it would of DEFINITELY made my short list. BTW...in case anyone is not familiar, look up Buick REGAL GS. It is the FWD ONLY version of the European Audi S4 competitor "Opel Insignia OPC".