CorradoJr

I'm currently driving a modified Audi S4, and looking for a new car within the next few months. I've decided I don't need boatloads of power and would rather enjoy a more plush ride than what I been driving for the past 7 years.

My priorities are now a comfortable ride, good fuel economy, and something with an automatic transmission. I reall would like to love the C300 with the Luxury package, but as a guy in my 30s, hate the Linden or Burl wood trim options. Why am I forced I to chose these two options when I'd be perfectly happy with Piano/gloss black, Open pore Ash, or even a nice brushed silver?

I like black exterior with a black or gray interior. Once again, the brown/black color clash inside will be on the (in my opinion) rather unsightly. I would again would spec the car with a black-toned wood to match, but that is not possible in the US.

If I decide I can't take the interior with the Lux package the way I want, I may just bite the bullet and go with the Sport or even Standard trim. How much difference is there in the Comfort suspension vs. the Sport suspension? And if I opted for airmatic on either, how would the ride be? I really do prefer 17" wheels over 18" as they will ride slightly better with a larger sidewall.

Thoughts? Would designo do anything for me?
My dealer also said Sport / Luxury ratio is about 80/20%. Why is there no love for a small, luxury type car?

gocal73

Because the grille looks out of proportion to the rest of the car? MB could have done a better job. Plus the sport Star grille looks great.

floridadriver

I like the big star/sport grill better on the coupes and roadsters. Not on their sedans like the C-class, but that's me. The sport packages look more youthful, but I'm a pretty young guy (30s) as it is and don't need that in my sedans.

I prefer the luxury trim on W205 AND the luxury suspension if you don't go with airmatic. The luxury trim C Class looks classier and fits the car's goal of a "smaller s-class cruiser". You'll get the softer ride on steel or air with it's larger sidewall wheels, a stitched dash, but as you point out, wood comes standard. You'd never mistake Luxury package C Class for a CLA. You might mistake it for an S-Class from a distance.

The 80/20 split is due to MBUSA assigning the car allocations unless there's a build request. The wait time for the luxury trim is longer, as they allocated fewer of them, and some dealers aren't discounting them quite as heavily, as fewer are made than the others. Supply:demand.

No matter what though, you should go test drive the different suspension and wheels, and get what pleases YOU and puts the smile on your face. To heck with any one's else's opinion.

emilryba

and I love my luxury trim !

Jaxwired

That does look very nice! Personally I love both versions of the exterior.

Glyn M Ruck

I love the Luxury/Exclusive trim with Distronic grill. It integrates better with the mini S Class look. Split is 50/50% in SA.

StanNH

One is more sporty, the other more traditionally Mercedes. They both look fine to my eye, but my own preference is the standard front end treatment.

No right or wrong ... it's just personal taste.

Glyn M Ruck

There is certainly no right or wrong. It's personal.

gfmohn

I was going to write that i couldn't help you, that I have no insight to this rejection, because I am expecting delivery of my C300 Luxury next week! (humor alert!) However, I can do better than that and perhaps change the minds of some prospective buyers who might otherwise accept the near-universal preference that commenters in MBWorld show for the Sport models.
No, because, when seen in person, it doesn't look out of proportion! One commenter in MBWorld said that in photographs, the grill looks like a "tumor." That hurt! But even that commenter conceded that the grill looks much better in person. The amateur photographers who post images to MBWorld use wide-angle lenses. All cell-phone cameras have wide-angle lenses, although some now have digital zooms. Wide-angle lenses exaggerate the proportions of objects nearer the camera, such as the nose of the Luxury model when photographed from the front. To avoid this distortion, you have to use at least the equivalent of a 55mm lens (a so-called "normal" lens). 55mm is probably the middle of the 3x zoom range of low-end compact cameras.

That 3x range is usually the equivalent of 35mm to 105mm. Back in the days of interchangeable, but non-zooming lens, professional portrait photographers called a 105mm lens their "portrait lens". To them, even a 55mm "normal" lens exaggerated the features of the subject (especially the nose!). A 105mm lens has always been considered to be in the telephoto range. On the other hand, a 35mm lens has always been considered to be in the wide-angle range. So a 35mm lens has always been considered to be even worse than a 55mm lens for portraiture. To compare a professional image taken with a telephoto lens to an amateur image taken close up with a wide-angle lens, see the two images below in the comments of Glyn M Ruck and emilryba, respectively.
I'm in my 70s, so youth is not an issue. I live in an elderly housing complex, where the most common auto make is Toyota. My church is the same, full of sensible, prudent people, who mostly drive Japanese sedans and compact SUVs. In both parking lots, my Luxury Mercedes is going to look like a UFO! Oddly, I consider the Luxury model to be the LESS conservative, more in-your-face styling. Perhaps because the front is higher and more vertical (with the old-fashioned, stand-up star on top), I see it as more "proud" (in the sense of imposing). Even the unflappable Consumer Reports said that the new C-class resembles a "baby S-class". Note that Consumer Reports is NOT part of the "enthusiast Press", that segmant of the automotive press that is happy to repeat manufacturer advertising themes.

Back in 2006, when I was buying my W203 C-Class (model years 2001–2007), a reviewer said that it looked like an E-class that had "shrunk in the wash". Well, when I see a Luxury model W203 on the road from the front, I often cannot tell it from the traditionally styled E-class W211 (model years 2003-2009). Often, after my German wife has seen me approach to pick her up, she tells me how much she likes this feature. I am hoping to repeat this illusion with my new C-class. Several press reviewers have commented that the W205 C-class is almost as large as the 1995-2002 E-Class (W210). To give this a push, I ordered my W205 with the model badges deleted! (The dealer does this.) Let them guess whether it is an E-class or a C-class or even an S-class!

I have indeed waited almost three months for my Luxury model. But with help of the timeline chart in TrueCar Price Trend, I identified when the price dropped after the initial excitement of model introduction. (It has since climbed back up substantially.) Then, with the help of Consumer Reports New Car Price Report, I made a great deal.
The significance of Glyn M Ruck's reference to "the Distronic grill" in the Luxury/Exclusive trim is that when the Distronic Plus (Driving Assistance Package Plus) option is taken, Airpanel is not available. Airpanel is an electrically-powered engine blind shutter. You can see it in closed position in the image below in the comments of emilryba. Airpanel is used to vastly improve the aerodynamics of the new C-Class and make the engine heat up faster when its vanes are closed. I think that when Airpanel is not installed or its vanes are open, the traditional grill looks functional and aggressive. When Airpanel is installed and its vanes are closed, the grill looks like a false grill.
Here you see a photo taken with a wide-angle lens. No doubt use of the wide-angle lens (or its zoom-lens equivalent) was necessary, because of the tight quarters in the garage. But such use still exaggerates the nose of the C300.

You can also see the vanes of the installed Airpanel in closed position. They are always in closed position when the engine is cold. Many owners will not care one way or the other about Airpanel. I am glad that my C300 Luxury will not have Airpanel (although I knew nothing about it when I ordered the C300). The new availability of the Distronic Plus option for the 2015 C-class was the only reason why I decided to replace my W203.

floridadriver

gfmohn, do you have a build date yet? Any knowledge if build date is final day or the start of a longer process? Good luck on a solid build!!! May the odds be in your favor!!!

PeteInGilroy

I have a "production" date of Jan 6th, with hopes of receiving the car the last week of Jan or 1st week of Feb.

Regarding the airpanels...after placing my order, my salesman was doing a new car delivery to someone in my neighborhood. It was a C300 Luxury with the airpanels. I had no idea what that was and he explained that was the Luxury Version. After he left I panicked because that was not something I wanted. After doing some research I was relieved to find out my C300 Luxury would not have the Airpanels, as I had ordered the Driver Asst Pkg.

mihaelb

I like the Luxury. Frankly, I'm not sure which one I'll be getting when I pull the trigger. For now, I'm just going to watch for some of each on the road and see what grows on me over time.
My only qualm with the Luxury was the wheels (they look classy, but not my cup of tea), but for $500 more, one can get the 18" wheels instead anyways.

I would probably lean towards the Sport if the open-pore interior was not available, as I really like that trim...but in Canada it is available on the Luxury, so it does not make the decision easier
I wonder who makes the decision of which interior, colors and engines to offer or not offer in a given market...

As for ride comfort, I believe there was a member who did test several different models with different suspensions a few weeks ago, and said that other than a car with the 19" wheels, he didn't really feel a difference between the models, and even with the 19" one, the difference wasn't very pronounced.

With regards to the louvres at the front, I was under the impression that all North-American cars have that distronic sensor, so no louvres here on Luxury models? Either way, I actually like them, and like the idea of better aerodynamics and improved fuel economy that results, as well as faster heat-up times in the winter.

As others have said it here, who cares about what people think...unless you're in sales or something, and need to make an impression on a customer, get what looks good to you and puts a smile on your face as you walk towards your car in the parking lot after a long day at work

gfmohn

Thank you for your best wishes. On 01/09, my salesman wrote me, "Your car has been produced and will arrive at the distribution center today. It will be surveyed by DOT and released to a car carrier in a few days. Thus we should see it here before the end of this month....10 days?"
On 01/15, he wrote, "George, I’m still watching the status of your car. It’s still at the distribution center waiting for shipment. I’m thinking the middle of next week."
That's all I know. I will look up the build date when I get back from church. I took my salesman's word "still" as indicating a little surprise that the car was "still" at the distribution center waiting for shipment and also indicating that It was spending a little more time there than usual. If so, perhaps the car is having some defect corrected. Better there than after I have accepted it.

Glyn M Ruck

Even my pic has some lens distortion. I think with Airpanel they should spray the louvres black!

BlackjackM

Agreed, that's what I would do if it were mine. I love the Luxury look, and if there were more range of interior and wheel options I would've definitely considered it. But my iridium over cranberry Sport should do just fine when it arrives

gfmohn

What kind of distortion do you see? The distortion that I see in your photo looks to me like foreshortening, the front-to-back compression characteristic of a telephoto lens.
I think spraying the louvers of Airpanel black would be a huge improvement. However, I would assume that this sort of aesthetic decision would be the subject of focus groups. But how does a global corporation do focus groups? Do they do a focus group in each major market and then weight the answers by the size of the market? Better would be to use the regional focus groups to adjust the choice by market. However, the best possible sales would seem to result from giving each owner his or her choice. How hard could that be?

gfmohn

I can't look up the build date, as I promised. I don't have the VIN yet. Duh!

Glyn M Ruck

No barreling etc. That shot is with 200mm+ lens IMO. You are correct on foreshortening. It is one of typical perspective. The part of the car closest to you looks larger than the rear. Typical of photography vs. the human eye & brain.

gfmohn

As used by you ("The part of the car closest to you looks larger than the rear."), foreshortening describes the "distortion" caused by wide-angle, not telephoto lenses. The grill of the car in your comment does not look enlarged. The grill of the car in the comment by emilryba does look enlarged. You are correct; that is the proper definition of foreshortening.

A quick Google search reveals that the term "foreshortening" is so often used incorrectly to describe the "distortion" caused by telephoto lenses that it is no wonder that I used the term incorrectly. Apparently, the best term to describe the "distortion" caused by telephoto lenses is "flattening". That is certainly what I meant.

Glyn M Ruck

No problem. We are on the same wavelength. We understand one another. Thats all that matters.

Semantics.

BeachBunny

The Airpanel feature was one of the reasons I skipped the C Luxury and went for an E Luxury. When it's closed, it looks CHEAP. I agree that if the vanes were black it might look a lot better. It may be there for functional reasons, but I'd prefer it remain open when the car is off. Otherwise, I do prefer the traditional Luxury-style grille on the sedans. They're doing the same thing with the Es, putting that gaudy overgrown star in the middle of the grille. Fortunately they're still making the Luxury grilles for them for special orders.

Also, by the time I spec'd out the C with the options I wanted, I could get an equivalent E for less once you put in discounts and incentives. YMMV. I was going with a fully loaded car.

Germancar1

The problem is the jacked up ride height and the absolutely goat-shyte ugly wheels. I don't see how MBUSA could have approved this look for the U.S. market.

M

mihaelb

Many people get Airmatic, so ride height is not an issue. And the half inch higher suspension, even without Airmatic is hardly "jacked up".

Wheels upgrade to 18" is just $500. The standard 17" wheels aren't that pretty either in my opinion, so I think many would upgrade those as well anyways.

Bottom line, "approved this look" requires minor spending to even someone who doesn't want it with the stock wheels.

pek

While I think the louvers are kind of slick (my salesman thought I'd go all gushy over them, for some reason, maybe because he wanted to sell me that one off the lot) i don't really like the other pieces of the luxury package (I like the laid-back star on the hood forex) and didn't want to pay for what would have limited me in the other options I wanted. I really don't like M-B's way of putting together their option packages. Or the way the order form doesn't match the M-B build-a-car pages have them listed.

pek

Germancar1

You shouldn't have to get airmatic and different wheels to make the car presentable imo.

M