merlin3008

Now that a bunch of you guys have your cars, let's hear your impressions? How is the drive? Likes and dislikes?

AMG C43 3LV6

I love my car. I actually never test drove my car before purchasing it, I did go for a drive in a C43 sedan though. However, I watched so many reviews of the car and its comparisons with other cars. For the price I paid and the fact that I wanted a coupe, sports car, fast car, beautiful shape exterior and luxurious interior. Wanted a car that was easier to get around and had a tonne of safety features.

It was fairly easy purchase and decision I reached. There was no other car IMO that could fulfill all the criteria that I wanted at that price. I should add in Australia my C43 comes loaded with all the options bar the perfume dispenser. lol.

Im still running it in. I havent let it rip yet. Ive done around 1200kms and I need to get to 1650KMS (1000 miles). So thats when I will get the full idea of how powerful this car truly is in Sports+ mode.

Given I wanted the C43 coupe, I think it is comfortably a better car than all its rivals. If the Cayman had all the features and options and was the same price as the C43 I would have taken that.

If I went for a C63s option price wise IMO I would have taken a Cayman GTS instead or maybe BMW M4. There is a big difference between a C300 and AMG C43, but IMO the difference between a AMG C43 and AMG C63s is a lot lot smaller but the difference in cost is massive. In Australia, your essentially paying an extra $60k for an extra 2 cylinders and going from a an AWD to rear wheel drive. To me thats just stupid. I would actually rather go for the Cayman GTS. Massive difference between Cayman base and Cayman GTS.

MarcusDubya77

I think he means the 2019s

Mayur999

Picked up a 2019 C43 coupe on Dec 1st.

Loving the car thus far. The tech is absolutely amazing and finishes are great as well.

Startup sound is really good and has a nice growl even in comfort.

The drive is smooth and has a great response. Car is quick.

Really hard to give more info as still in break in period - only driven 370km so far. Ive yet to put it in sport + so Ive not heard the sound of the drive in that mode. Itching to do so to hear that exhaust better!

Hope your vehicle pick up arrives soon!

RichardCranium3

This

ckay

Just put it in Sport + and give it a romp. You will not break the car. I don't see how the occasional roll onto full throttle and going through a few gears on an open highway will hurt it.

Mayur999

To each their own. I know I will not "break the car", but Im comfortable enough waiting a bit.

evoi19

How are the shifts at low speed? Are they jerky or fairly smooth? My 2016 C450 is the older transmission and low speed shifts are annoying where you can really feel the car jerk from 1-2 and 2-3. I'm hoping the 9-speed fixed those issues.

Lachoufe

I have the 2017 with the new trany and unless your in sports+ you dont feel any jerk. Almost feel like a double cluth system. I was debating between cla45 and c43 because of the doubld cluth and dont regret. New trany feels great and when you switch gear on half and more throttle your hear a nice noise when shifting.

Love this car so far

munis

You are completely right. A little bit of patience for 1500km and you will end up with a much stronger engine. Do not listen to people who tells you to go WOT before the break in period is over. That patience goes a long way.

Mr. J

Agreed but you can still play with S+ during the break in period. The reason the manual advises to not use S+ is to keep the engine RPMs below 4k during break in since S+ will allow the engine to tap redline before shifting. So just run S+ and upshift with the paddles before the rpms get too high. You won't get the crackles but you will still get the burbles and pops on the overrun.

Bueller178

You can load the engine without wringing it's neck all the time.

ckay

Yes, that is what I was getting at. I'm not saying bang redline all day, but you can definitely stretch its legs through a few gears.

merlin3008

When I picked up my BMW at the Performance Center, they told me the same thing. It's ok the exercise the car a bit, but don't crush it. They suggested keeping it under 4000 rpm, but almost as important, they wanted me to vary the rpms. So drive in different gears, and even give it some gas now and then.

noah phatt

When I picked up my new CLA45 it had 16 miles on the odometer and I would bet not all of those were driven below 4500 rpms.

KyleSmith

I tried it in sport plus for a quick second. The exhaust really surprised me actually. I saw videos with the 18 and 19, and I thought I would be disappointed when I heard the 19 in real life. I was so wrong....
I came from a Porshe Panamera Turbo, Exhaust is complete different, no surprise there, but I did drive the GLE43 for a while, the pops you would get with that car are more sharp, and less burbling I felt than the 19 c43

synergize

Did you like the Panamera Turbo, how will the C43 be better the Porsche?

Thanks

KyleSmith

You cannot really compare the two. Porsche feels so much better when driving, and of course faster in every way. I didn't like the style of it, nor the exhaust note.
The Porsche was basically in a different league. but I had to switch cars.

tmoneyC450amg

As a C450 owner here since launch, I have only noticed jerky gear 1-2-3 shifting only if you're in S+ AND trying to accelerate on bumpy, uneven roads where 1 or more of your wheels are not making direct contact with the pavement. Otherwise, shifting on the 7sp+ is overall very smooth. I do wish I had the 9spd only because the shifts are so much more frequent and thus more farts and burbles!

Malar

The Facelift shifts buttersmooth till now, still breaking it in but it just works in Comfort and in Sport+. Never gave it more than 30% Throttle just yet tho.

stockbmw

My 2018 c43 is smooth upshift from 1-2 2-3 in eco or sport+.
​​​​​​
What I find annoying is when you are stopping from 3-2, you feel the transmission engine brake ever slowly and jerks specially on eco mode. On sport+, it's changes gear faster so you don't notice the jerks from 3-2 and 2-1. Already got transmission software updated last week.

If anyone else have a solution, chime in.

evoi19

good to know the new tranny is smoother than the old original one! That was my MAIN annoyance but from what the crowd says it has improved. ! Patiently waiting for mine to come in...grrr

Mayur999

At 1046km..... 450km to go!

munis

Take a trip!

sieglo

I've had my 2019 C43 coupe for about two weeks now and thought I'd post my review. I had the opportunity to drive a 2018 for several months earlier this year, so I have some unique perspective comparing pre-facelift vs. new model.

Exterior:
I think there are definite pros and cons to the exterior updates. I am a big fan of the original starburst grill -- the entire front fascia was very beautiful and refined. The updates to the 2019 front end give the car a much more aggressive, sporting character -- it really is a very different feel, and tough to compare. I have the 18" wheels and I was surprised when I picked up the car that they were different -- and much better -- than the 2018 version. And of course the rear of the car is a big upgrade with the quad exhaust and big diffuser. Very nice. I went with the standard LEDs. Their look is growing on me... Lighting performance seems about the same as the previous model.

Interior:
Not a lot of changes here. I miss the silver start button on the 2018 model. It just felt more solid and more integrated into the interior design than the current glowing turbo start button. Oddly, the garage door opener is a massive upgrade over the previous version, which for some odd reason I found almost impossible to program (got it to work with one of my doors, but couldn't for the other three no matter how hard I tried). The new steering wheel is very cool, and far more functional, but I also can appreciate the steering wheel on the older model, which was thicker and really felt great. The elimination of the cruise control stalk is a nice bonus of the new wheel. Shift paddles are also more beefy and feel great.

Infotainment:
I went with the good old analog dials (yes, I'm sure you think I'm nuts) so big difference for me there. I do find the graphic design on all the screens to be an upgrade over the older model, which looked a bit dated. The bigger, wider center screen is great, looks great, and is more usable than the previous model. One nice feature is that Mercedes allows you to split it 30-70 and display other content in the right 30% of the screen. The problem is that they have REALLY limited content choices for display. Right now you're choosing basically between a fuel consumption table, a clock and a nav map. Really wish more options were provided for this secondary display.

I find the lack of a CD player a bit odd -- but thinking about it, I realize I haven't put a CD in a car in about 2 years, so who cares.

I specced my car with the inductive charger and NFC pairing, which has been pretty useless with my iPhone. Carplay is cool as hell and it's great to have Waze, Google Maps, Spotify, etc. on the big center screen, but for most drives it's not worth the effort of plugging a cable into my phone every time I drive and dealing with the clutter of wires. I was hoping you could connect with Carplay using NFC, but that's not the case. So the easiest thing to do is just drop my phone into a ProClip holder and connect via Bluetooth. My SA seemed pretty confident that the audio system was improved in the refresh, but with my terrible ear for music I can't really tell.

Distronic:
Very cool, although I've only played with the full autonomous driving a few times (didn't have time to eat lunch one day, so on my commute home pulled into BK, bought a whopper, and let the car drive 80% of my commute for me -- it's really cool when the car stops itself at a stoplight, everything shuts down, and then 20 seconds later on green the engine fires back up and the car takes off, all without any input from the driver). Lane keep feature is just annoying though.

Ok, now on to the good stuff.... Performance, handling, and exhaust. I've been pretty careful about keeping the engine under 4000 RPM, as the manual suggests. So my perspective here is a bit limited. But I do have a few thoughts and observations.

Handling:
Definite improvements here. The 2019 seems to corner flatter. I prefer its steering, just seems a bit sharper. Overall ride is smoother over bumps. Mercedes/AMG did some good work in this area.

Modes:
Naturally I have the performance exhaust, and it's great to be able to program that into the Individual setting. But what Mercedes giveth in optionality for exhaust, it taketh away in optionality for auto engine stop/start. In the older model you could turn this off in the individual setting. Now you can't -- so you still are stuck manually toggling a switch on the center console. Sail mode is also only available from the Individual setting, and it's linked to the auto engine start/stop feature. Toggle it off, you no longer sail.

Exhaust:
This is a tough one. On startup, the car sounds almost identical. Driving...like I said, I've kept the RPMs low and generally driven conservatively. But compared to exercising a similar driving style in the 2018, I will say that the 2019 exhaust seems a bit muted. The upshift bangs are a bit deeper, but more muffled. Crackles and pops don't seem to happen as much. One thing I used to like to do in the 2018 was pop it into Sport+ coming off the highway. As you decelerated, the car would downshift, give you a nice manual transmission-feeling jolt as the engine braked the car, and you'd get some great crackles and pops -- really terrific stuff. I've tried this in Sport+ with the 2019 a couple times and it's just not the same. The 2019 transmission shifts more smoothly (probably thanks to all the snowflakes out there who have never driven a manual in their lives, complaining about the jerky transmission in the pre-facelift) and the awesome pops and bangs just don't happen. It also seems like those effects aren't as forthcoming in the overrun in Sport+ as with the pre-facelift, and when they materialize they are more muted. Maybe my perspective here will change as the car breaks in and I push it a bit harder -- I can hope!

Overall:
I love this car. The combination of build quality, performance, fun, practicality, and style is killer at this price point. I think it absolutely destroys the (boring) competition -- 440 and S5. Can't wait to drive it every day.