c4004matic

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/au...av=bottom-well#

vols1

Very positive comments, but I wonder if the author actually drove the cars.

gfmohn

Thank you. A review of the review follows. The New York Times is America's Paper of Record, so this review will reflect modern American intellectual sensibilities. Just don't expect them to have any real interest in dying fossil fuel technologies. So 20th century! The reviewer didn't have time to drive either the C300 or the C400, but he did have time to take the obligatory PC tour through the Third Reich. (Can't let anyone forget! "Mercedes-Benz has always had its particular mojo. Made up of precise engineering, often impressive quality, an epic racing history and a few **** parade cars, ..." You can almost hear the tramping feet!)

There is no indication that the reviewer did more than start the engines. He said nothing about handling, road and wind noise, or the operation of the new MB safety features. He didn't say how comfortable the seats are. If he had driven the C300, he wouldn't have written, "The C300’s 4-cylinder engine is virtually silent." The C300 may be silent at idle in the showroom, but it is definitely not silent on even moderate acceleration

It's good news when MB gets good publicity, wherever it comes from. But for any analysis of the good features and defects of the c300 and C400, don't bother reading.

floridadriver

You mean...there's still NEWSPAPERS??!!??

patrick_y

Wow. Such a disappointing review.

The New York Times is truly an amazing and well written newspaper. But in this review, I have to say, I am extremely disappointed.

As others have commented, there is little mentioned about the actual driving experience. It's like the reviewer lives in Manhattan and doesn't believe in cars nor driving them. But understands them enough to review them and mention the car in question has a longitudinal engine (maybe that's what was emphasized by Mercedes-Benz when they sent over a PR person with the press car).

Most newspaper reviewers relish in the thought of driving a new car, especially one as important and mainstream as the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class, an editorial that will be widely read. Most press people in fact love the fancy parties that are thrown for them by car companies who want good PR and the press on their side. Seems like this writer went to too many of those parties, drank too much alcoholic beverages from the open bar at these parties, couldn't drive the car, and ended being driven in it or hailing a taxi home.

This shaming article reminds me of the disputed Tesla article that garnered unprecedented attention a couple years ago.

Quadcammer

not my america

gfmohn

My mistake. Anything that needs a sarcasm alert doesn't belong in a literally nuts-and-bolts blog like this one. I would be be the first to object if anyone dragged something political into this blog, and here I've done it myself.

coladin

Top Gear also gave an excellent review, giving it a 9/10.


http://www.topgear.com/uk/mercedes-b...uetec-amg-line

gfmohn

There are two Top Gear reviews of 2015 C-Class Mercedes. (I do not say this to you, coladin, but to others who have not seen these reviews.] Your link is to a review back in 04/14. That review gave a 9/10 to a C250 BlueTEC AMG Line. (I question whether "AMG Line" means anything more a trim package. Are there really AMG-modified diesel engines?)

A much more recent Top Gear review in 12/14 gave an 8/10 to a C220 Estate (also a diesel). In the U.S., we are not presently getting any diesels, and we won't be getting a C-Class estate model (station wagon) at all.

I noted that a side-bar to the C250 BlueTEC review listed "The Competition" as the Audi A4 Avant (station wagon) and the Honda Accord(!). The ratings here seem to be composite ratings of all current models reviewed in that category. The Audi A4 Avant got only a 7/10.

coladin

So, let's average the Top Gear reviews to 8.5/10

gfmohn

Sounds good to me. That's pretty much what I had in mind. However we figure them, MB's grades are better than AUDI, MB's competition. (I looked up some other AUDI models reviewed by Top Gear. The ones reviewed in the last couple years were mostly in the sevens, too.) Always good to see MB outscore the competition. If you can get diesel engines and estate models in Canada, the information about the cars themselves will interest you and your fellow Canadian customers of MB.

DerekACS

According to several automotive sources, the C250BT sedan is slated for MY2016.
In early 2016, Canada apparently will be getting the C250BT estate. If the wagon is coming to Canada, I would be very surprised to not also see it coming to the US.

c4004matic

Oh one of those that lives in the America invented by the Australian Rupert Murdoch. Yep Rupert as american as Apple pie!

gfmohn

No! No! No politics! Cars only! This blog will be destroyed! I've seen it happen to other blogs. I know I unwittingly started it, and I'm sorry. (No sarcasm.)

c4004matic

Peace