The saga ends. My new C300 Sport is home.
The final straw for me was getting the car back from the MB-Tex repair and finding parts of my rear seat covered with that mess again the next day. Apparently, MB-USA did not send all the parts needed for the repair and told my dealer they weren’t needed. That’s when I called my dealer and said I’ve had it with the car. They asked me to order a new car, and said they would come up with an acceptable deal for me when it arrived. It has arrived.
The C300 Sport I ordered to replace my C300 base has an MSRP over $4,000 more than the previous car. I knew I would be responsible for that. Because of factory incentives and greater discounts now being offered, the depreciation on my old C300 was pretty bad. I took a $5,000 hit on that. To help, MB-USA is giving me their two year/75,000 mile warranty extension, as well as a $250 service credit. That’s worth $2,500, so it does help mitigate the depreciation. Good or bad, it’s the best deal I was able to work out after many weeks of working with both MB-USA and my dealer. The car never came close to qualifying for Lemon Law status, which here requires 3 failed attempts at a warranty repair and/or 30 cumulative business days out of service. In any case ….
I now have my new C300 Sport Palladium, with Premium and Multimedia, BLIS, and the Interior Package with black leather seats and the open pore Black Ash trim.. I did not want to go another round with MB-Tex, as good as it may actually be. So, the big question for me going into this is; “How do the two cars compare?”
My C300 had the base suspension with the 18” 5 spoke wheels. I’ve read complaints about how harsh the sport suspension was, and only had a chance to test drive one several months ago for a short time, so I was a bit concerned about ride quality. Some claim that the sport without Airmatic is very uncomfortable, but I did not want to order Airmatic. Well, to be honest, I can’t feel much difference between the base with 18’s and the sport with 18’s. The ride is certainly firm, but there’s enough compliance to make it comfortable on anything but the worst road surfaces. Both setups thump over pavement breaks but that, I think, is more a function of the RFT tires than anything else. So, for me anyway, the sport suspension is just fine as it is … firm but reasonably comfortable. The surprise is that it really is not much firmer than the base with the same rubber. I have not yet pushed it as far as handling, but I do expect it to feel more planted when hustling through corners.
One of the few things I really did not like about my original C300 was the steering feel. It may have just been that car, but the steering felt very light … too light. I was hoping that the Sport model improved the steering weighting, and it did. The steering on my C300 Sport is significantly heavier than what I had before … and right in the range that I consider ideal. I can feel more through the wheel, and it is just a better steering system. Interestingly, the steering on a C300 Luxury loaner that I had felt heavier than my C300, so that may have just been a quirk of that car.
The leather seats feel really good and, with the Sport Package, offer improved side bolsters. These seats do keep you in place; much more than the standard seats. The drawback is that they can feel restrictive, especially for the more robust amongst us. I never had ventilated seats before and, I must admit, they do feel good and are effective. With the Interior Package, you also get memory for the passenger’s seat … which includes a working power headrest. No more dummy button on the door … it now works.
I was really bothered by the loose and sagging sunroof shade on my first C300. It looked awful and had developed many obvious wrinkles. There is no fix that my dealer knew of. The shade on the new car is taut, and shows no looseness at all. That was a relief. The fuel filler door on my first car stuck way out when I first got it; and poorly fit fuel covers were a problem on many early builds. This one fits perfectly. Rear bumper covers … we all know about the issues there. The new car is not perfect here, and there is still a small step where the cover meets the panels. It’s not nearly as bad as I’ve seen, but it is not a perfect fit. The alignment of the brake lights to the covers is perfect, so I told my dealer to just leave it alone. It’s a slight misalignment, so I’m not sure I’ll even ask them to shim it when it’s in for service.
Now to the dreaded wind noise problem. My first C300 did not have a wind noise issue, but I was worried about it. On the trip home, I had the car up to 80 mph and at no time heard any wind noise at all. Some road and tire noise, but nothing out of the ordinary. Road noise was very dependent on the road surface, with some stretches of seemingly smooth roads sounding loud, while other surfaces were whisper quiet. Even over rough pavement, there was not a single rattle or squeak.
I was surprised to hear a dramatic difference in the sound of the Burmester sound system. This system has much more bass than my old one. I had used +2 to +3 as a bass setting before. Now, that range is unacceptable and I had to drop it into the -2 to -4 range to get bass response that wasn’t painfully loud. Weird.
All else is good. In general, the car feels very tight and appears to be a big step up in quality control. I did notice a small straight line pressed into the Ash trim on the console, about an inch long, that looks like it was put there during installation. No one else would ever notice it, but that’s about the only assembly defect I could find … and it’s too small to bother with. The interior trim pieces line up very well, and exterior fit and finish are spot on ... with the continuing exception of that minor bumper cover fit problem.
The car does sit lower with the Sport suspension. I didn’t think I would really notice it, but it is apparent and it looks better. I also noticed that the Auto Start/Stop button has moved from the right side of the console to the left side. I have no idea why.
I’ll add to this thread as I put more miles on and have a chance to take some pictures. Right now, my wife took off with the car and will be gone all day. I should be able to post some pictures by Sunday or Monday … assuming it’s not raining or snowing.
The final straw for me was getting the car back from the MB-Tex repair and finding parts of my rear seat covered with that mess again the next day. Apparently, MB-USA did not send all the parts needed for the repair and told my dealer they weren’t needed. That’s when I called my dealer and said I’ve had it with the car. They asked me to order a new car, and said they would come up with an acceptable deal for me when it arrived. It has arrived.
The C300 Sport I ordered to replace my C300 base has an MSRP over $4,000 more than the previous car. I knew I would be responsible for that. Because of factory incentives and greater discounts now being offered, the depreciation on my old C300 was pretty bad. I took a $5,000 hit on that. To help, MB-USA is giving me their two year/75,000 mile warranty extension, as well as a $250 service credit. That’s worth $2,500, so it does help mitigate the depreciation. Good or bad, it’s the best deal I was able to work out after many weeks of working with both MB-USA and my dealer. The car never came close to qualifying for Lemon Law status, which here requires 3 failed attempts at a warranty repair and/or 30 cumulative business days out of service. In any case ….
I now have my new C300 Sport Palladium, with Premium and Multimedia, BLIS, and the Interior Package with black leather seats and the open pore Black Ash trim.. I did not want to go another round with MB-Tex, as good as it may actually be. So, the big question for me going into this is; “How do the two cars compare?”
My C300 had the base suspension with the 18” 5 spoke wheels. I’ve read complaints about how harsh the sport suspension was, and only had a chance to test drive one several months ago for a short time, so I was a bit concerned about ride quality. Some claim that the sport without Airmatic is very uncomfortable, but I did not want to order Airmatic. Well, to be honest, I can’t feel much difference between the base with 18’s and the sport with 18’s. The ride is certainly firm, but there’s enough compliance to make it comfortable on anything but the worst road surfaces. Both setups thump over pavement breaks but that, I think, is more a function of the RFT tires than anything else. So, for me anyway, the sport suspension is just fine as it is … firm but reasonably comfortable. The surprise is that it really is not much firmer than the base with the same rubber. I have not yet pushed it as far as handling, but I do expect it to feel more planted when hustling through corners.
One of the few things I really did not like about my original C300 was the steering feel. It may have just been that car, but the steering felt very light … too light. I was hoping that the Sport model improved the steering weighting, and it did. The steering on my C300 Sport is significantly heavier than what I had before … and right in the range that I consider ideal. I can feel more through the wheel, and it is just a better steering system. Interestingly, the steering on a C300 Luxury loaner that I had felt heavier than my C300, so that may have just been a quirk of that car.
The leather seats feel really good and, with the Sport Package, offer improved side bolsters. These seats do keep you in place; much more than the standard seats. The drawback is that they can feel restrictive, especially for the more robust amongst us. I never had ventilated seats before and, I must admit, they do feel good and are effective. With the Interior Package, you also get memory for the passenger’s seat … which includes a working power headrest. No more dummy button on the door … it now works.
I was really bothered by the loose and sagging sunroof shade on my first C300. It looked awful and had developed many obvious wrinkles. There is no fix that my dealer knew of. The shade on the new car is taut, and shows no looseness at all. That was a relief. The fuel filler door on my first car stuck way out when I first got it; and poorly fit fuel covers were a problem on many early builds. This one fits perfectly. Rear bumper covers … we all know about the issues there. The new car is not perfect here, and there is still a small step where the cover meets the panels. It’s not nearly as bad as I’ve seen, but it is not a perfect fit. The alignment of the brake lights to the covers is perfect, so I told my dealer to just leave it alone. It’s a slight misalignment, so I’m not sure I’ll even ask them to shim it when it’s in for service.
Now to the dreaded wind noise problem. My first C300 did not have a wind noise issue, but I was worried about it. On the trip home, I had the car up to 80 mph and at no time heard any wind noise at all. Some road and tire noise, but nothing out of the ordinary. Road noise was very dependent on the road surface, with some stretches of seemingly smooth roads sounding loud, while other surfaces were whisper quiet. Even over rough pavement, there was not a single rattle or squeak.
I was surprised to hear a dramatic difference in the sound of the Burmester sound system. This system has much more bass than my old one. I had used +2 to +3 as a bass setting before. Now, that range is unacceptable and I had to drop it into the -2 to -4 range to get bass response that wasn’t painfully loud. Weird.
All else is good. In general, the car feels very tight and appears to be a big step up in quality control. I did notice a small straight line pressed into the Ash trim on the console, about an inch long, that looks like it was put there during installation. No one else would ever notice it, but that’s about the only assembly defect I could find … and it’s too small to bother with. The interior trim pieces line up very well, and exterior fit and finish are spot on ... with the continuing exception of that minor bumper cover fit problem.
The car does sit lower with the Sport suspension. I didn’t think I would really notice it, but it is apparent and it looks better. I also noticed that the Auto Start/Stop button has moved from the right side of the console to the left side. I have no idea why.
I’ll add to this thread as I put more miles on and have a chance to take some pictures. Right now, my wife took off with the car and will be gone all day. I should be able to post some pictures by Sunday or Monday … assuming it’s not raining or snowing.
To me, it looks like the QC at Vance is tightening up. I could see it, and I could feel it in the new car. Everything looks right, and everything feels right ... and I went over every square inch of this car looking for defects. Aside from that minor bumper alignment issue, it's about as close to perfect as any car I've owned. Things should only get better for the 2016 model year, so you should wind up with a really good car.
I just hope my positive reaction to the new C300 continues for a long time. I like the folks at my dealer's service department, but I've seen enough of them for now.
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This is what a correct fit looks like for the fuel filler door. My previous car's fuel door was so bad it had to be replaced.

The open pore Black Ash looks great, and the grain lines up perfectly.

The rear bumper is a good fit, but there is still a slight step at the joints. The lights fit well, so I plan on leaving it alone.


The more heavily bolstered leather sport seats.

The car sits a bit lower than the base or luxury versions.

The interior layout, with flat bottom steering wheel and stitching.

The Sport Package door panel ... showing the ventilated seat controls next to heated seat controls.

These aren't my "artsy" shots, just a few pictures to show some details. So far, I have only positive things to say about the build quality and the features of the Sport Package.
Last edited by StanNH; Apr 12, 2015 at 01:28 PM.
Interesting little change.








....... Not bad at all


