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C43 Suspension - Sedan vs Coupe vs Cabriolet

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Old Jul 13, 2020 | 09:29 PM
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C43 Suspension - Sedan vs Coupe vs Cabriolet

I recently test drove all 3 body styles of the C43s.

C43 cab with 18s drove the smoothest. Continentals MOEs
C43 sedan with 18s drove like the wheels were made out cement. Continentals MOEs... same tires as the cab
C43 coupe with 19s drove pretty darn rough, but the roads neary by that dealership was pretty bad to begin with...Continentals summer MOEs.

has anyone driven different c43s and notice how different they were, almost like they are 3 different cars lol ? These are all brand new vehicles at 3 different dealerships. I am just surprised how different the cab and the sedan drove... if anything I would think the sedan would drive the smoothest...?

I would think they are all built from the same factory/location? These days I feel like you can order 10 of the same exact spec/cars but some are just built differently lol.

Last edited by jhpmbusa; Jul 13, 2020 at 09:29 PM. Reason: typo
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Old Jul 13, 2020 | 11:28 PM
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A couple of points here. What was the tire pressure of each? That's one of the biggest factors in ride comfort. Unfortunately, dealerships are known for improperly adjusting the tire pressure. It's not unusual for them to be way too high, because the cars sit around, so they overinflate the tires to avoid flat spotting of the tires and are then supposed to lower the pressure for test drives and before delivering a car to a customer. That doesn't always happen especially if the sales person just goes and grabs the car from the lot.

Secondly, no these cars are not even remotely built in the same factory/location. The C Class sedans are built in Alabama, USA and East London, South Africa. MB is actually moving the sedan production out of the USA and it seems the C43 sedans as of late are all coming from South Africa. The C63 sedan appears to be still built in Alabama. The coupes and cabs on the other hand are built in Bremen, Germany exclusively. You can always decode the VIN to see where the car was built.

Aside from all that and where the car is built doesn't really have any bearing on ride quality, but the different body styles are certainly tuned differently for different purposes. The coupe is intended to be more sporty for example and also more of a GT. The cab has to deal with the extra weight, so the suspension has to be tuned for that, and the sedan is whatever they intended it to be. Don't expect them to ride the same. I don't know specifically for the C43, but the C63 coupe was known to ride better and more comfortable than the sedan for example. AMG did this on purpose as the coupe is meant to be the classic 2+2 GT and provide more long distance comfort. This was for sure the case up and including MY2018. For the FL 2019+ the suspension and AMG Ride Control got revised and is overall more comfortable than before, but I don't know for sure if the coupe is still even more comfortable than the sedan. I would expect the C43 to have similar differences in suspension tuning, but I haven't specifically researched what the differences are.

But really, before drawing any conclusion you have to really compare apples to apples, and that means checking the tire pressure beforehand and make sure it's properly set to the recommended normal load pressure, which is lower than what you find on the B-pillar sticker.

Last edited by superswiss; Jul 13, 2020 at 11:33 PM.
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Old Jul 14, 2020 | 12:07 AM
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good points, my tire pressure is set at 45 to 46 in the rear and 49 for the fronts. I think that's way too high in my opinion. Possibly this is the cause for all the "blowouts" and rims getting bent on the FB post. About a dozen people chimed in saying they've had blow outs from the sidewall, and some multiple times.
Regardless, I'm changing out the ****ty RF tires and trying out the new Yokohama Apex V601.
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Old Jul 14, 2020 | 07:18 AM
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Originally Posted by c43PDX
good points, my tire pressure is set at 45 to 46 in the rear and 49 for the fronts. I think that's way too high in my opinion. Possibly this is the cause for all the "blowouts" and rims getting bent on the FB post. About a dozen people chimed in saying they've had blow outs from the sidewall, and some multiple times.
Regardless, I'm changing out the ****ty RF tires and trying out the new Yokohama Apex V601.
That sounds extremely high? where did you get those recommendations from?
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