HRPOWER

What a load of rubbish.

Having had three Mercedes Benz cars and several other German vehicles which we do not mention, I am furious and dissapointed with my CLK and Mercedes and felt that as I have spent £43k on a car, I am entitled to gripe to a. See if anyone agrees. b. Get some reasurring advice from those MB passionadas. It was brand new and was supposed to be my LOVE for the next 2 years.

So whats right with the CLK AMG 220 CDI ?

1. Looks ok when its clean, sometimes can look lovely.
2. Not many on the roads.
3. Nice sound system standard.
4. "looks expensive" inside

So what's wrong with it. Right!

1. CLK220 deisal engine delivers appalling economy no where near what the book suggests. Yes granted never believe the books but 37 average mpg is just not good enough.

2. Gutless - The car is far too heavy for its engine. I cannot believe how someone thinks this AMG lookalike concept was going to work. It just doesn't go anywhere. You need so much momentum to get any speed up its hilarious.

3. Steering is heavy but one consolation is that I now have biceps like Conan

4. Seats - Yes those brilliantly useless manual air pump seats, feel like cardboard. And why oh why would I want to pump air in my back that feels no more exciting than moving. Sitting on these seats is like sitting on a wooden dining room chair round your nans house. Spending 2 hours in them is horrific I have had more comfort from an easyjet plane on route to malaga.

5. Manual Seats fwd and back. Whats that all about..... Imagine a girl getting in the car... "Oh how do you move the seat fwd" - "oh yeh just pull the lever inbetween your legs and convulse yourself like a cretin until you are sitting forward"

6. Command is USELESS! I have been lost more times than if I didnt have it. Three times I have been late for work and meetings as a result of this useless rubbish, I may aswell have bought a map and learned how to use it... And why would I want to do that if I can spend 2k on a ridiculous system. It simply cannot handle London, nor postcodes, and I think the CD map was from 1911. When you can buy sat nav for 20p from TOM TOM which is 25 times more effective, I am slightely offended MB are charging 2k for something that only works if you want to go from Manchester to Leeds city centre or a road that was built before the first world war.

5. Loud.. Jesus I know its a diesal but I dont expect to wake up the next county and advertise to everyone in the works car park that I am too poor to afford a decent engine. Besides the C200d and the C220D are both quieter.

6. Round the corner lights. Now I cant believe I paid for this rubbish. What a waste of money. The only time you get a buzz from them is when you are on a country road and its foggy so you can see your beam. But even then you cant see F*&^ all so whats the point of being able to see round corners.

7. The heater... Well someone came up with a digital heater thing, brilliant! so you can point he heat at your feet and get nice heat right? NO? You cant feel the heat on your feet period!

8. Residual Heat option - What ! Useless who ever thought of this ought to be shot in the face. Firstly you need a degree to figure out what it does and then you realise it serves no purpose whatsoever.

9. The drive - Well this just takes the biscuit. What a wobbly heavy cumbersome clumsy embarrassment. My friend has started calling the car the oil rig...!!! Thing is I think an oil rig might be more nimble round bends.

This has to be the single most huge embarrassment for MB ever. A real discredit to the brand repute, a real dissapointing waste of space. If I didnt have such a HUGE ego I would have binned this the moment I realised what a waste of 43K of my hard earned car loving cash. Thing is when you buy something for the badge and prestige you are accustomed to being the daddy of the car park...and its hard to let go... but boy am I close.

Please help me love this car...


The Moral....

I am a dick.

The end

Discuss.

ItalianStallion

Thats why you're supposed to take the car out for a test drive before you buy it

clkwork

37mpg? Wow I think I only get 15

Chi500

I would take the complaints to the dealer and have them fix it.

37 mpg is pretty good compared to what we get with the 500's. I get 11-12 mpg in the city.

you can't expect much out of a 2.2 diesel. the torque might be halfway decent, but it is pulling a 3500 lb car.

the steering might indicate a problem. maybe tire pressure is too low? you did mention that it was shaking a lot as well. otherwise it might be a more serious problem, have the dealer check it out.

i can't say much for the seats, because the ones in my car are incredibly comfortable.

the comand nav is a pain in the *** sometimes. using it sends me in circles.

the heater and residual heat works great in my car. where i live temperatures go down to below zero sometimes and the residual heat does help, but not if you're gone for more than half an hour.

if you can't get the car fixed or made to your liking, you might just be better off selling it and getting something else, maybe even a gasoline CLK. I love my CLK.

eddietr

I don't know why you don't like the REST heat option. I don't know (yet) how well it works in a Mercedes, but we use that feature all the time in my wife's Touareg. Like whenever we stop for gas in the winter, for instance. We also used it a lot on the old 740 we used to have.

And were power seats not an available option on your car?

HRPOWER

Good point guys and thanks for being understanding and not shout at me....

1. Your right about the test drive its really my fault but coming from a c220 i figured it would be nice.

2. The rest option... tell me like a monkey what you do with it?

3. Yes the petrol models are great as are the 6 cyl models..

I guess I wont have much redress with the dealer, although yes its bumpy and shaky like a cheaper car....I coudl try I suppose. But it is likely they will say "you bought it" A great lesson a true lesson, but I have been put off a bit to be honest ... I might look at an E 280 cdi or a CLS 320cdi but lots of money after I have lost all that on mine...!!! I have now done 47 k in one year!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you feel sick for me yet?

Chi500

You put up with for 47k km? If I were that dissatisfied that would've been gone a lot sooner. But, I guess since you've driven it the depreciation for the vehicle would be more acceptable than the depreciation loss you would have taken if you got rid of it when it was brand new.

As for the rest option, you turn it on after you turn the car off. Usually a car won't have heat when you turn the ignition off and leave the vehicle, but hit the rest button and it will leave the heater on for half an hour.

I've heard good things about the E320 CDI, you might consider looking at that.

GMBALL

I just dont get it, if you can afford a damn CLK, why the hell in the world cant you get at least CLK 280 or 320CDI, why 220 CDI, not only the engine is just bad, it doesnt even give you Mercedes power or feeling.
I agree with you, the car you've bought actually is a rubbish!

HRPOWER

I appreciate your comments very much and feel very warmed by them

Yes I wanted rid when I got it, and your right I was waiting for the devaluation to balance out.

And Yes confirmation of rubbish was helpful, And your right it does not feel like a proper mercedes.

A great lesson learned not only for myself but how crap sales people can be....

They knew I do about 40k per year miles at least so why didnt they tell me how stupid I would be buying new... Not only has that dealer now lost the subesquent sales, but has cost the dealership the subsequent service revenue.

A lesson learned. Never ever ever ever buy a car on brand value alone, Always drive it and never ever buy a brand new car over 30k unless you are dumb or do very low mileage.

Thanks guys, you really are very very kind , Thank you for the love x

Howard

GMBALL

Well, at least post some pics of your "rubbish"

GMBALL

Well, at least post some pics of your "rubbish"

zee

I hope your next car experience will be much better than this one. I 'd suggest keep this car for a year and sell it to get some petrol engine car. However your mileage per year is pretty impressive. I have driven my CLK500 about 26,000 km (16,000 miles) per year for the last two years and I was feeling that I was driving a lot.

Chi, your mileage looks very low; maybe because the right foot stays depressed a lot farther than mine . I am averaging around 20 mpg on my 500 for about 60-40 city/highway driving.

Chi500

I was talking about in the city. As in stop and go driving, stopping every 5 seconds. Not really much room to but down the right foot For highway driving I do see as much as 20 mpg, but not usually.