Just wanted to write a thread for those planning to buy a E-Coupe C238.
I bought mine back in 2020, Black exterior and brown interior with Ash wood trim ( for new buyers consider picking this trim since it reduces the scratch happy Piano black in the interior).
After 2 years of owership I want to focus on the main issues I had and little details that you probably would want to hear :
1. Since almost all new mercedes are mild hybrids with a 48v system, Mine had a faulty 48V battery which was responsible for starting up the car amongst other things. The car broke down after 7KM and took over 6 months to replace the faulty 48V battery which was a very common fault in the time.
2. Since the car is hybrid, it tries to capture the breaking energy to recharge the 48V battery, meaning each time you lift your foot off the gas pedal while driving in the city the car will break slightly even when you don't want it to, making for a jerky ride when in traffic.
3. The gearbox is not the smoothest, I might have had a bad unit but even without looking at the gear indicator I can feel almost every gearshift, the lower gears are especially jerky in traffic. I am rather used to this from the old W213 but it's not a smooth drive at all at low speed.
4. The door is too heavy and long for the hinges, meaning if you are parked in even the slightest of sloped roads, the door will swing back at you and you will be fighting to get out as it's not a light door.
5. The abscence of the B pillar makes the wind and noise insulation less effective, in cold days I can feel cold air coming through the windows even though they are fully shut which is very inconvenient, you will also have a lot of noise roid inside the cabine.
6. The car sensors are super sensitive and they frequently freak out and engage all breaks when I am trying to park into my tight garage.

With time I accepted these flaws and consider them as part of the daily experience. I am still overall happy with my car but wish many of these flaws didn't exist.
I am writing this to get more honest reviews from owners and to give a realistic idea to potential buyers.

PS: I got the car PPF wrapped and ceramic coated

 

​​​​​​​RE: PARKTRONIC sensors
You could adjust the sensitivity of them in MBUX just how you could too in the old COMAND you had in the W213.

 

I have the exact color combination on a 2020 E450 Coupe. I have staggered tires, so that may account for the different wheels. Of the items you mentioned, the only one that I have experienced is the heavy door. The run flat tires will be exiting the vehicle soon due to poor thread life, especially on the rear tires. I just reached 20,000 miles and the second set of rear tires are very close to the wear bars. Other than those two items I am extremely happy with the car.

 

I have them on the lowest settings if I remember correctly and they still freak out daily. I will have to check again. Do you have a photo of the specific setting menu please ?
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I think its the best color combo ever ! Yeah the door is a real problem when I have an elderly member with me in the car.

I am curious about the EQ boost braking and clunky gear shifts. Do you not feel it any kind of breaking when you lift your foot off in the city and then the gearbox confused for a second when you press the gas pedal ? Its really disruptive in my car especially after driving mon EQ boost cars where the drive is much cleaner without the braking regeneration. I am curious if there is a setting or a software update that affects this.

I really didnt want runflat tires too but there were no options besides them for the rims I wanted so I am stuck with them ....

 

I have the same colour combo on my MY 2018 Cabriolet. Luckily no 48v option that year- I can relate to what you said regarding the doors! I almost lost a leg once trying to egress on a hill. 😂

 

This was the best looking version ever of the E coupe/cabrio. And didn't have that annoying hybrid stuff too. Lucky man ! And that door is no joke !

 

Thank you! I have a soft spot for the Coupe… that roof line on your car (especially from the rear and rear 3/4 shot) is to die for!!! 🥵🔥

 

The car does not apply the brakes when you lift off the accelerator unless you have cruise control on (Distronic) and there is a car in front of you. I suspect the sensation that you are feeling is some mild engine braking - the wheels through the transmission are spinning faster than your engine - this also will generate electricity but applying the brakes will generate more. Do you normally drive in sport or sport+ mode? If so, this affect will be more noticeable as the transmission won't upshift when you lift off. If not, put it in sport+ and get her going and then lift off and you will see what I mean. This will still happen in comfort mode but it will be much less noticeable. The intent in C is to recover some energy as you coast but in S or S+ it is trying to keep the engine spinning in the power band while also generating.

If you switch the right gauge in your instrument cluster to read consumption you will see that when you lift off the mpg/kmpg will increase dramatically, but if you apply the brakes it will max out. On my e450 lifting off sends it to 60+mpg, but applying the brakes it goes to 999 because of the regenerative braking - not sure what this will show in a diesel but I suspect it will be similar.

Not sure what you are feeling in terms of the transmission searching for a gear, mine is probably the smoothest shifting car that I have driven (and I have driven a few). Unless of course you are in S or S+ then it will try to keep your rpms in the power band and it will feel a bit jerky. I don't use the eco setting so I can't give any details on how that feels in my car.

 

Mine has been great.

 

I’m partial to red.

 

Me too!

 

There are a few issues with my car that are similar. The doors ARE heavy but speaking as someone who's had two-door cars all his life, most are. If you'd like to talk heavy doors, try opening one of the steel doors from an original Dodge Charger or Challenger from the early 70's. Or 2nd, 3rd and 4th Generation Camaros. Gym membership required! So, while I see your point, I personally don't find the weight of the door the problem. What I do have a problem with is that the stops don't do a very good job of keeping the door open. I haven't noticed a problem with other things. In fact, I find this car extremely quiet. The transmission shifts smoothly, but I'm normally in comfort mode. When I switch to S or S+, it's a very different car.

With regard to the sensors, yes, they are a bit touchy, but I suspect that is by design where Mercedes wants to err on the side of caution. We also tend to forget that these vehicles are extremely computer-centric. If you get the driver assistance package, you're given a smorgasbord of electronic nannies that control the car. Calculations are made at thousands of times per second, and sometimes...as with regular computers...signals are going to get crossed up and the car will go "Huh?" This is why there are several warnings in the owner's manual saying that the driver is ultimately in control of the car.

I've had my car almost 4 months and I'm just thrilled with it. It's great looking in a subdued kind of way, does everything I want it to do and is very comfortable. I took it on a small road trip to South Texas and it was fabulous. The only things I would have liked better is if Mercedes had made a few more sporty options for the car available to order. A performance exhaust and carbon fiber interior as in the E53 would have been nice, as well as the ability to order a Designo interior and a bigger selection of wheels. But I suppose that this is the "luxury model" so I'll have to get my own wheels. All that said, I'm very happy with the car and I'm glad I got the E-Class before the redesign next year.

 

Glad to see so many love this car despite a few quirks. I'm in an '18 cab and absolutely love it. Same black/brown combo as above but with the AMG 19 wheels. The heavy door on a hill kills you! Agreed the stops at the notches are useless on almost any slight incline. I didn't realize the hybrid mode went in in 19+ years. Sounds less than ideal.

 

I’ve had mine 3 1/2 years now. I get thrills every time I drive it. Look forward to driving with top down when weather warms up. Love the sound of the exhaust.
The issues you mention are Trophy Wife problems, be happy and enjoy the reasons you were attracted to her in the first place.

 

I have a 2022 E450C4, Green with Machiatto interior. about 13000 miles now. I love the car. The 48V system has been no trouble at all. I do not notice any drag when I take my foot off the gas.

I do get lots of warning beeps as I'm pulling in the garage, but it doesn't brake at all. I just go slow and ease myself in (or out).

The doors are heavy, but it has made me more of a gentleman as I constantly run around the car now to help my wife in and out. Also because I don't want her to throw the door open into someone else's door panel. The door stops could be much better. They are entirely inadequate for the weight of the door.

One quirk of mine is that if I use the remote start, when I get in and start it again and put it in gear ALL the sensors go off and it wails at me for a second. Even if I'm in the middle of an empty parking lot. But only after using remote start.

I haven't noticed any extra road noise with the pillarless design. Of course my daily commuter mobile is a Mazda 3, which is a lot noisier all around. So by comparison this is very quiet.

The automatic braking has saved me twice now from fender benders. One my fault, one not so much.

I keep a close eye out for weirdness because when the lease is up at the end of three years I'm going to have to decide if I want to drop it or sign up for the long haul.

My only real complaints are;
1) The Lane Keeping Assist is useless because if you don't constantly jerk the wheel, it thinks you fell asleep and starts throwing up warnings on the screen.I had to shut it off.
2) The touchpad is actually not an optimal way to control the interface while driving. For instance zooming in or out on the map is just a pain.
3) I wish the warning level from being over the posted speed limit could be set higher than 5MPH. At least it can be silenced to just flashing the speed limit on the dash
4) Hey Mercedes hates the Mamas and the Papas. "Hey Mercedes, play album Kitsugi" - it starts playing album Kitsugi by Death Cab for Cutie. "Hey Mercedes, play album If you can believe your eyes and ears". "Please specify an album to play". Play album Deliver. "Please specify an album to play"

 

Just as an aside...when I was at the dealership the other day, I asked the service manager how many computers the car has. He said that the new S-Class has over 70 computer modules in it, so my E-Class probably has at least half as many.

 

Like others here I've had a mostly fantastic experience with mine and going on 2 years now! MY 18 Polar White with Macchiato Beige / Yacht Blue interior and love driving it daily. I have the Weistec VTA BOV adapters and I think it adds a nice pep to the sound and more unique overall. Plan to do downpipe and tune in the near future as my extended warranty is up in a little over a year!

I also have the EU features of the headlights unlocked so it can turn on/off the individual LED's to not blind cars and keep the high-beams on I think it is pretty amazing and money well spent, just a shame US regulations don't allow this as standard. It's pretty wild watching the dark squares follow passing cars as you drive by.

For the cold air seeping through I'd check the seals to make sure there's no gaps because I drive mine in frigid temperatures in MA regularly and never have any issues with air coming in. I agree with the increase in wind noise due to the pillar-less design, but you can't really beat the look when the windows are down.

Only issues that have bugged me so far is the RF tires don't stand much of a chance even against the tiniest of potholes. I have gone through a few when I accidentally hit them, but that's more a tire issue than the car. There is more road noise from them so I am contemplating going back to standard tires as well. The sensors also disable fairly quickly if you drive somewhere where it snows; like 5 minutes into a lot of drives the system just goes disabled, which isn't a big deal not having it but the beeping is annoying.

The door is definitely heavy, and you may scuff the bottom door panel trying to stop the door with your foot if it swings back quickly.

Overall a fantastic car that I plan to have for a very long time. Will definitely be a future classic.

 

Glad to hear you are enjoying your vehicle, is not having RF a deal breaker? Otherwise I would get rid of those run-flats, as you mentioned they are so delicate and susceptible to road hazard damage, traditional tires also help with ride quality. If you want or need to keep the run-flats you could also consider getting smaller wheels and therefore downsizing the tire size.

 

Definitely not a deal breaker, I was considering traditional tires as well and just grabbing a donut to keep in the trunk.

I have been grateful for the RFT when I got a flat out in the mountains in NH and could drive a while on it but I’d much rather just stop and throw on a donut and have better ride quality for sure!

 

Agree with the donut plus the fact that the run-flat is more prone to damage, maybe you wouldn't have got a flat if it was traditional tires? Just a thought really.

 

Most likely a true statement!

 

I went with non-run flat tires and the MB compact spare. Be aware, it takes up a LOT of trunk space. I have mine secured under the trunk net. Jack kit in the space below the floor board.

 

I was looking at the one called Modern Spare, they do look pretty similar but the modern spare kit holds the jack and everything in the case. Luckily I don't put much in my trunk so I have the extra room. How have you liked having the traditional tires on the car?

 

I have the 19" AMG wheels and steel suspension. I went with Continental DWS 06 Plus tires. Ride quality is not much different. Tire noise did go down a fair amount. I was hoping for more ride comfort, but not having to replace tires nearly as often ($$$) or feeling like I hit a curb when going over a pot hole is a plus for sure.