Took delivery of my C63S...One week impressions
 

Well I am happy to say that I took delivery of my ordered C63S on April 21! I ordered the car December 26 from MB of Plano in the Dallas area and had a first rate experience from start to finish! Car looks even better in person than I imagined as I had not seen a Steel Gray C63S in person before. Add to that the Black/Red Pepper interior and IMHO it is a stunner!

This is my FIRST MB as I have mostly had BMW M cars, as well as a few P-cars and Audis. Some initial thoughts after about one week and 300 miles on the car:

1. The interior is a great place to be. I believe the overall look and feel of the interior is vastly superior to that of the M3/M4.

2. As far as the ICE, I find the Mercedes Command system to be inferior to both BMW iDrive and Audi MMI. It just feels a bit clunky to use, not as intuitive, and I don't see the need for BOTH the touchpad and the rotary knob underneath. You can pretty much do everything with either one, and so far it seems it is quicker to use the rotary knob than the touch pad in a lot of instances.

3. The Burmeister stereo sounds pretty darn good to me. I do believe it starts to lose some of the bass at higher volume. I believe it is what 630W? It doesn't seem to be able to play as loud as other systems with similar power specs. Overall I would say it compares pretty well with the H/K systems in the BMW's, with perhaps better mids but not as much bass. It also sucks that there is not any indicator for the volume...no 0-30, low to high etc.

4. I hate that there is not a forward and back button for the stereo system to change songs, radio stations, etc. You have to use the touch pad, rotary knob, or select it in the instrument cluster using the steering wheel controls. Actual buttons would have been nice. Feel free to chime in.

5. I have the standard seats and find them to be very comfortable with great support. Since it is a daily driver for me I passed on the performance seats and am glad I stuck with the IMHO superb standard seats.

6. I ordered mine with the performance exhaust and love the way it sounds. I am always driving with the valves open lol. But my wife doesn't like that V8 burble so she likes it with the valves closed. Win win. I should add that it sounds like a kitten compared to my R8 lol.

7. Can't say much yet about handling. Seems to handle well for a car that weighs 3900+ lbs, but then again I have been just driving around town so haven't tested that yet (and letting the tires and car in general break in).

8. Ride quality. It rides very stiff even in comfort mode. My car feels more stiff than the one I test drove at the (other) dealership. This I would say has been my biggest gripe with the car, that it rides a bit too much on the stiff side. It also has a fair bit of road noise. Now I am thinking perhaps it is because my car came with the Dunlop tires and not the PSS. I have read that the Dunlop have excessive road noise, but I have no idea on how stiff they ride compared to the PSS. I have PSS on my R8 and it rides considerably better than the MB (actually it rides pretty much better than almost any sports/sporty car I have driven). I am wondering which car has a stiffer ride between the C63S and M3/M4. My last M3 was the e92 and from what I recall that car had a much more compliant ride in comfort mode than my new C63S. I guess I shall see what a tire change does later this summer.

That is all I can think of for now. Overall have been enjoying the car as a daily and have been driving as much as I can to get through the break in as promptly as possible. :)

Check tire pressure. .....

That's the first thing I did when I got home and let the tires cool down. Fronts were only about 1PSI too high and rears were about 5psi too high. What cold pressures are others using?

There is a bit of break in for the Suspension

I agree that the suspension is surprisingly ultra stiff, and the COMAND interface is not the easiest to use (although very visually pretty).

I would have to disagree with you on the Burmeister Sound system though, I think it's really just a normal system that's slightly upgraded and branded. Compared to Lexus's Mark Levinson branded sound systems it falls a bit short in my opinion.

But good thing the exhaust sounds joyous. I don't listen to music much anymore because of it.

Oh I agree with you on Mark Levinson in Lexus sounding better. I would say the optional Mark Levinson on the Lexus is more on par with the optional B&O systems on BMW and MB and definitely a grade or two better than the Burmeister in the C63 and HK in the BMW.

Congrats on your new ride! Might I add you have excellent taste in cars. I am slowly working my way up to an R8! ;)

Don't use the tire pressure numbers in door frame. They are for CAFE numbers and the correct ones are behind the fuel door.


I use 38 front and 33 rear cold

Thanks for the input. I did indeed use the numbers behind the fuel door and that is what I set them to when I got home.:y

Of course, It won't be able to handle all the high bass punjabi bhangra songs you play at full blast. they didnt have the punjabi clientele in mind when they designed the audio system :p:

Congrats and post some pics

+1

38 F and 33 R is perfect... I was driving around for months with the door frame numbers, the ride was so stiff and the traction wasn't the best.

Congrats on the new pick up. Going to agree that your garage sounds like a nice powerful place. Any plans for the AMG?

Congrats on the ride! With regards to the radio presents; set all of your presents in Radio Preset Menu. You can set FM, AM, and Sat in one giant list. Then just leave your "Preset" list up so when you change screens from Navi or Media to Radio your presets are there.

No plans for the AMG yet since it is my daily and I am out of town for work half the week every week anyhow. The fact that the engine needs to be pulled to access the ECU doesn't make a tune or DP very attractive to me. Warranty reigns supreme for me for this car. I may end up doing coil-overs and some wheels next year depending on if I still am enjoying the car or not.

Having said that, for now the next big thing is I will be either doing a TT setup on my R8 or may just add an already built GTR to the garage for some casual runway racing events. More than likely a TT on my R8 sounds more appealing to me given 6MT (more fun!) and that way I can add another more desirable car (no offense to the GTR lol) to the garage (tough to decide on what however).:D

Excellent feed back/first impressions and good one being done not too long after delivery, as it is the case with all vehicles as time passes both you and the car settle in and you then adjust or become accustomed with certain things that once stood out don't seem to stand out so much anymore :)

Agree with the comment by obbob re the Burmeister and I suppose it's a case of individual taste and sound perception but to me it also sounds bland and does not deliver at all as the OEM hype would suggest, to my ears the previous models Harmon Kardon sounds better.

Re suspension harshness yes lots of comments by lots of owners and reviewers as being too harsh even in comfort mode, I'm sure there's going to be an adjustment there as there are also numerous reviews commenting on how the new coupe rides much better in the comfort mode than the sedan so maybe those revisions will follow through to latter production sedans :)

Congrats on the new ride. I have the Michelins and it is still loud and the ride is overly firm as you point out. I live off of a road that has wide gap expansion joints in the road and even though I go over them at 20 mph, it still feels and sounds like the dash is falling apart. As you said, a bit too firm in comfort mode.

I came from Audi and thought the same thing initially. I've turned off the touchpad and don't use it at all. I have since become familiar with the MB ICE and it find it comparable to the Audi, it just took some time get used to. Each have their own quirks.

I'm curious as to how many owners use the touchpad versus using the rotary knob underneath. It doesn't seem like I will be missing much by disabling the touchpad. Any input on this from others?

OK, how can we disable the trackpad?

It is in the settings menu I believe.

where did you see this?

A lot of the reviews for the coupe have pointed out that the ride quality is an improvement over the sedan and Tobias Moers has said the revised suspension setup will make its way onto future AMG's starting with the next E63 (don't see why it wouldn't make its way to the C63 saloon and estate pre/post facelift either).

You forgot to mention the no steering feel at all. 0 feedback. I hate it.

Yes I saw that too, but they were talking about performance aspect, not so much about how comfortable the car was.. unless i missed it.

+1