ryanSTL

pulled the trigger on this stripped down C43 coupe on Saturday morning. $59.4k sticker, negotiated the car down to $52k and change. $54.4k all in, including 4 years / 40k pre-paid maintenance. Iridium silver coupe, 19" split 5-spoke wheels with summer Continental tires, night package, and AMG performance exhaust.

First Mercedes, coming from a 2015 435 M Sport Gran Coupe BMW. It was a great car, but not the blend of luxury & sport that I am looking for.




Three days later I'm fairly confident there was no other new car bang for the buck under $55k out the door including maintenance. 362 hp, 380 tq, all wheel drive, 9 speed, adaptive suspension, performance exhaust, LED lights front & back, 19" wheels, panoramic roof, rear cam, & blind spot assist. The MB Tex / alcantara with red stitching is excellent as standard.




What I am loving thus far: The dual personality of the car depending on throttle / steering, suspension, & exhaust settings. Depending on your mood, the car adapts to either be quiet & comfortable or loud & aggressive. I'm loving the standard interior, red stiched dash, thick flat bottom sport wheel, & alcantara inserts in the seats. The seating position is nice & low. Fit & finish is very tight everywhere. Storage options in the doors & console are good. The panoramic roof is really nice. I like the AMG menu simultaneously showing mph, gear, boost, RPM bar in manual mode, oil temp, & tranny temperature... changing color once warm. LED lights in the front & back look good in day & night. These 5 spoke wheels are a breeze to clean and hide brake dust nicely. The front brakes are impressive .. large & sporty but not obnoxious.


The engine and handling are excellent. The size of the car is nice. On backroads the car feels neutral to about 8.5/10th's. I'm excited to be back in an AWD car for those rainy & snowy patches of weather. The performance exhaust is a must. I love the sound & curious as to how it will break in.

What I don't care for or TBD: In an otherwise really great interior, .. the lcd screen stands out annoyingly. I turn if off frequently to enjoy a more pure driving experience. The standard Burmester stereo is adequate, but I'm hopeful it will break in and improve as most new systems do. Since I intentionally don't have navigation or multimedia, I'll be using my iPhone for navigation and music.




I'm excited to become more familiar with the car & MB brand / community over the summer & fall. My BMW broke in nicely, so I'm hoping for the same with the C43. I am really bummed that BlendMount doesn't make a mirror mount for this car, WTF...? I really need to figure out a good radar setup, tapped into the mirror power. Scheduling some time for window tint later in the week. Ordered the AMG door pins from JB speed. Going to keep researching wheel spacers for front & back stance improvement.

I'm looking forward to learning from people on the forum and enjoying my first Benz. cheers & Happy Fourth of July.

getmercd

What a gorgeous car! I completely agree with you on the fact that the C43 is a bang for the buck performance car. Stage 1 tune it and you have an AWD stock 63 powered coupe! You cannot get better than that.

Gidrow

Congratulations on the Beautiful car, silver looks fantastic. Was this your first color choice? Nice write up, I share similar sentiments after a month of ownership, coming from a BMW as well.

l3m

Congratulations on your new coupe.

Here are my coupe's settings for the Burmeister system. You may want to try these settings and adjust it to your liking.

Equalizer: Treble +2, Midtones -7, Bass +7
Surround: All Seats
Fader: -6

ryanSTL

thanks for the nice comments. Silver was not my specific first choice. I was much more picky about these specific options, rather than color. Color preference was probably black or graphite > silver > white > all else. Nothing wrong with a silver AMG with dark tint (coming soon).

I forgot to mention I am not crazy about the chrome silver on the door handles,.. although it took me a few days to even notice.

I will keep playing with the stereo and try those settings, thanks!

FirstMBAMG

Hi Ryan,

Happy 4th of July! It looks like you did yours in style. Congratulations on your new car. I am hoping to purchase my first c43 amg coupe (first mercedes too) this year and appreciate your comments and deal you were able to get. If you have any info as you learn about it, I'd love to hear your opinions.

Looks great, enioy!