Enjoying my MY15 C300.

But sometimes it feels like it is applying brakes when I try to accelerate from a a stop. There is a little choked feeling, as if the car is holding me back.

Any idea what could be causing it? The car has so many self awareness features that I am hoping that it is one of those in action and not any real issue.

EDIT: Not sure if I am able to explain this right, but it also is similar to maybe slower gear changes maybe at those low speeds.

Sounds like you are talking about the shift between 2-3. There is threads around that talk about. I thought I read in one of them its a software update that is supposed to be out in a month or so, I could be wrong, I'm probably wrong. I mentioned it to my salesman when I picked up my ordered car and went on a test drive. He said it's normal, it was designed that way to sound like the AMG pop in the exhaust. I called BS and said that's the dumbest thing I have ever heard but what do I know. I guess we will see if they ever come out with something for it.

No, this happens at a much lower speed, just when you are pulling out of a parking lot kinds. Probably in the second gear then. It feels like the car is applying the brake for some reason, like you are driving with the parking brake on kind of a feeling. And suddenly everything gets better and you can freely accelerate if you just keep going.

Sounds like turbo lag...I have it too.

Could it not be the auto hold?

+1 My guess too.

Is that the feature where you have to press the brake to display the "hold" sign. We hardly use that feature.

Also, this is not a very frequent thing but happened twice yesterday. Once was in the parking lot and next was after a stop light. The gear change felt little more prominent than usual (not just the 2 to 3)

If the road is not completely flat it will activate automatically for a few seconds so the car wont roll back. If you press the brake strongly it will stay on till you accelerate. The later is so you dont have to stay on the brake on red lights.

Thanks. Will keep an eye out on the road gradient when I feel it next time.

Did you hear a beep? If the collision prevention senses that you are about to hit the car in front of you it applies the brakes. It's happened to me a couple of times and surprised me.

As far as I can remember there was no beep

Take your car in to the dealers, sounds like you need a software update, it fixed my gear issues anyway..

I found a display that pops up when I feel this "braking" feeling.

I am attaching a picture. It is that little "sensing an obstacle" (at least that is what I think it is) thing at the top. (P with radar waves hitting an obstacle)

When this pops up, it kind of restricts acceleration and feels heavy. But there is no immediate danger of any collision (but maybe the car knows better)


EDIT: Can someone confirm what it is.

That's the Parktronic icon. I've only seen it when I'm driving slowly, so I think it's saying Parktronic is active and there's a spot available. Manual makes this clear (NOT!!!)

Yes, it does happen only when I am driving slowly but I do get the feeling that the car is applying some braking pressure whenever the top one pops up.

If there is a parking spot available a "P" at the bottom with an arrow pops up.

I was not sure what the top one meant. This is the same display when I am pulling into a tight garage but it as some solid blocks on either side of P.

Could it be that it has sensed some cars around me but those are not close enough to warn me audibly? If someone can confirm that the car tends to brake if it senses something around it at slow speeds, then I will check this off as resolved.

Correction: I was partially right. That's the Parktronic readiness indicator. From the Online instructions: "PARKTRONIC is operational if operational readiness indicator (the icon you highlighted) lights up".

Parktronic is the bar of amber and red lights that displays when you get close to objects.

That is interesting. Wonder why I felt a co-relation between that icon showing up and car feeling heavy/braking pressure.