The dealer told me they have fixed that issue (they still have the car) but I noticed the first thing they did a few weeks ago when they took it in, was to put fuel in it (hope that's not the solution)! Thanks for the advice that there should be an outside temperature gauge, as I can add that to the list of faults.

On the plus side again, the Burmeister system sounds (and the speakers look) great but that does not make up for all the issues, together with the dealer's couldn't care less attitude.

 

You don't have an outside temp guage? Even a Kia has that. You sure? Maybe on the NAV package or something?

 

Does anyone have any idea on what the 0-60 of the c350e is on engine only? For both the Saloon and the Estate. I know it's something like 5.9 for the saloon and 6.2 for the estate but that'll be with electric in the mix right?

 

Previous poster had the same problem until an update was done by the dealer. Mine has had 2 software updates so far but no outside temp yet!

Incidentally, I just got a call with some important information FOR ALL USERS. YOU MUST RESET THE ELEC RANGE EVERY TIME YOU USE THE VEHICLE (using the trip reset). Although this did not work for me (hence why the vehicle is still in dealer), it is advised by MB Germany. Hope that helps others owners having range issues.

 

Based on some comparisons and calculations comparing bhp/tonne to the c200. I believe the c350e would have an engine only 0-62 time of around 7.7 seconds for the saloon and 7.9 seconds for the estate....does anyone else think this would be about right?

 

To be honest, this car seems like to much work.... for very little reward...(but I'll still probably buy one due to not having very good alternatives)

 

I note what you say about comfort mode, but I put on eco as soon as I get in the car. Why do you think that Comfort is better for range??

 

Could you please clarify

 

..

MB advises that you should press trip reset each use via the steering wheel buttons. Otherwise the range is set by previous 3 trips' driving style, rather than the 18-19 correct starting point. having said that, as you will see below, it makes no difference to my car.

Just got my car back after 3 weeks and still no outside temp gauge, plus I am told that the fuel range disappearing on reserve is correct (dealer flatly denied that my E class would show the range on reserve - I had to show them to convince them I was not lying). Connect still does not work (still shows 'connection temporarily not available', after 2 months, one of which has been in the dealer!)...and so the list goes on.

Re electric range, I drove the car home - 0.9 miles and it has reduced to 8 miles (55%)! Apparently, I am the first owner to report these issues but that doesn't seem to stack from reading this thread. Anyway, I had the heater on and lights are set to auto this AM but all the same, aren't we allowed a little luxury in a £49k vehicle!?

 

the manual states to use comfort, not eco for normal driving. I don't have it to hand but definitely correct, as I read it twice in slight disbelief!

A bit of an update since I got the vehicle back...Page 279 of the manual confirms that the fuel range will not display once petrol goes into reserve (about 60 miles to go). Page 292 confirms that the UK model does not have an outside temp gauge - instead it reads your speed (bottom left of dash) - unfortunately even this does not work correctly as it will not change from KM to miles, as it should.
Hope that helps

 

Well that's it then. You should have gotten a $18,000 economy car in order to get that feature.

 

So I know there are issues with this car, but let me tell you about this car on the Autobahn.

Did a London to Berlin trip last week and drove to it. Honestly, forgetting the MPG and battery range for a second, the car is seriously awesome. I had a C350 CDI before and this C350 is miles better.

Top speed no problems. I hit 246 km/h (152mph) with ease and the only reason why I didn't hit the max was traffic. I cruised at 220-230km/h (136-142mph) with ease and in sport+ mode and it was a joy to drive. So stable and even on the brakes, very very good. On the way back, it was raining and didn't do 240km/h but still cruised easily at 200km/h+ no problems on the A2. My old C350 V6 could barely do 135mph and when it did, it did not feel safe.

1289 miles journey with a good 60% going 200km/h+, I ended up with 33.6mpg. 350 miles on one tank through France/NL, about 285 miles a tank on the autobahn. Now I know that is not as good as diesel etc, but at the end of the day this is a petrol car and the tanks is only 45 litres (10 gallons) which is much smaller than normal C-class 63 litres (14.5gallons). I drove mainly on Comfort E-save mode when there were speed limits. I

In terms of acceleration, this is not a 7.7sec car. I can vouch for that because I had it timed. It comes out on sports+ mode for me at around 6.5 which is similar to my old C350 CDI. The torque is what pulls it fast at first and really picks up. At higher speeds, the battery power is so useful.

So all this driving made me think about the car design philosophy rather than what it is marketed. I honestly think that the marketers have done a dirty on the engineers. The battery although it can drive on electric etc, I think acts more like a supercharger more than a battery. The combination of this with the sports+ mode suspension makes this a performance car rather than eco-car. I know most of us are in the UK so can't enjoy the no speed limit but I am just giving my opinion here and not saying it is right or wrong.

Either way, the frustrations of the car disappeared honestly this trip. Yes it may not be the 134.5 mpg unless you have a charging point everywhere. Yes there are improvements to be made (wtf no outside temp gauge) but on a performance level, this car is fantastic.

 

Veegtec´s post sums up my experience.
Done different cars in Germany, it reminds me mostly the control I had in an M5.
The airmatic and weight gives the car a real suction down, and steering is so steady even in high speed. (I am in love with my c350e)

 

Anyone know when the USA e models are going to start being built? Are they still a 2016 model?

 

Hi Folks

I have had my C350e saloon since mid November after placing my order in April. Firstly you will see a lot of arguments about which is the best version of C class to go with if you are a company car driver doing a lot of miles, well I can tell you forget the diesel models and definitely choose the C350e if you have the budget as the tax breaks mean you pay a lot less tax than even the basic C220

I am averaging between 500 and 1000 miles per week and am achieving around 38-40 mpg mostly long haul miles.

Now the important stuff...last week I was driving very modestly when I had a warning light appear on the dash "Malfunction" ..."do not change gear and drive to workshop" pretty hard to do in an automatic. Luckily I was quite near my office so limped it there and called Mercedes!.....After 4 hours they eventually turn up and put the car on a low loader and arrange for a hire car for me...Great Service as you would expect from MB.

The disconcerting thing is I had a call from the MB dealer the car was recovered to the next day to say that the Hybrid system has water ingress.....and they were consulting the technical team in Germany as they couldn't understand how this had happened...I bet they couldn't as surely this would be the one thing you would of made sure never happened on a Electric Hybrid Vehicle...Anyway after another day I get a second call to say as the parts are restricted they will need the car for a week to sort it out.

Has anyone else out there had similar problems? I will post again when I have an explanation of what has happened fully from MB

B4E

 

ouch...

 

The external temp is not available in the UK as it is an EU law that cars have to have both Miles per hour and KM per Hour at all times. As the speedo only has Miles Per hour, the bottom left hand corner of display always displays KM per hour. In other countries, such as US, you can toggle this between speed and external Temp!

 

A colleague of mine has had the software update that allows the car to display external temperature, I understand that it is only visible when in the milometer screen.

 

I see that the so asked for temperature, is now in the right corner just above the time. That looks new to me too.
In my "Dutch" car i can only switch between miles and temperature in the lower left corner.

 

I have the temperature display in the same place as the pictures, that was as a result of the software update that I had applied last November. I was also told by someone at Mercedes that I couldn't have it in the UK so not joined up thinking.

 

Well, I have just completed around 6,000 miles since last November, around 1,000 miles was over a distance of 180 miles so used e-save function. My normal journey to work is around 23 miles each way and I charge at each location, home and work. Anyway I managed an average of 64mpg and that was during the winter months, the average was taken from the on-board computer. I have now reset it as we go into the summer months, I expect the mpg to get better as I have already noticed improvement as it gets lighter and warmer. I am driving normally, I don't go out of my way to improve mpg apart from may be slowing down a bit sooner, I have never tried to charge the battery using the car, don't see the point users to much fuel.


I am enjoying the car as well, I have used the sports + function a couple of times and it is quick, quicker than I expected that's for sure.


I used to have a diesel car which I was never a great fan of and I am still not, the engine noise is so much less with petrol, but then that is my view. Ironically around my way petrol is sometimes a higher price then diesel now, so mpg and cost is an interesting mix now.

 

Mercedes USA just put up the "build" page for the C350E.

 

Looks like it's $45490 (Airmatic and 18" wheels are standard) vs $41565 for a base C300 with Airmatic and 18" wheels, or a $3925 increment for the hybrid. Mileage is listed as XX/XX MPG. Local dealer says he has a May build slot.

 

My car is supposedly being built this week, but calling MBUSA, they say the April release was pushed back to July 15. So is my car going to sit in a storage facility for 3 months? I'm not sure what to think. They sure aren't very transparent on the BTO front. I know the 2017 model will start up late summer so the '16 only has a few short months to live. Seems very odd...

 

Contacted two dealers and both said that they can order the cars and have cars on order for the lot, but haven't gotten an invoice price or dates yet from MBUSA despite the MSRP being published on the website.

One of the dealers added that since the car is "limited production" it won't have the same discounts available as the C300, which means the actual price delta compared to an equivalently configured C300 will likely be greater than $4K.

I know this isn't the only reason for buying a C350e, but roughly speaking, if you drive 12,000 miles/year and assume $5000 more for the C350e, the payback period on gas price ranges from 6-17 years, depending on where in the $3.50-$5 range you guess for gas, and where in the 35-45 mpg range you guess for your combined mileage (I'm comparing against the C300's EPA 28 combined). With cheap $3.50 gas and only 35 mpg, it would take you 17 years to break even. With $5/gal gas and 45 mpg combined, it would only take 6 years. My bet is that gas will be cheap for a while and much more than 35 mpg is unlikely for most people, so $4 gas and 35 mpg gets you a payback of about 15 years. If you get 40mpg that goes down to 8 years.

I know people do this calculation all the time, and the bottom line is usually similar: you can't justify the expense of a hybrid on purely selfish economic terms, but the cost isn't ridiculous when you consider other motivations. If you subtract off the gas savings, you're left with a cost in the ballpark of the leather upholstery package or the panorama sunroof, depending on how long you keep the car.