aeggroup

Hey...take it easy...pick up your car and enjoy..
You asking for opinion - we are saying ours. N oneed to spit all over the internet... Good luck and don't forget to stick your finger in right spot next time )

K-A

I agree with that myself. If I was going brand new, I'd probably Lease, however considering I'll probably never buy brand new, I'll stick with 1-2 MY old, with the extended CPO Warranty and all that jazz.

Congrats to O/P for getting the problem fixed. I very well agree that it's something that should have been taken care of. Hey, if they'll fix it, and if it's something that's not right, why not get it done.

LaicepsYdobon

220S nailed it. It doesn't matter what kind of car it is, you just want to feel you got your moneys worth.

MichaelB.

The day I picked up my wife's 212 350 I looked under the hood just for giggles. After a quick scan I shut it - then put the wife in the drivers seat and we went towards home - right from the showroom floor. About 1/2 way home I looked in the mirror and saw the 350 hood was slightly misaligned (passenger side was not fully latched)... I called the wife and pulled over. She released the hood and I shut it with some minor effort. Guess what? Hood shut and the gaps were now perfect.

No call to dealer. No obsessing. No thought of walking. No issue. That's just me though...

I guess MB better design an electronic closer for the hood that matches the electronic trunk closer or fear retribution from the masses.

gaazmon

[QUOTE=aeggroup;3752286]my dashboard is like Christmas tree.QUOTE]

ya, that happened to my friend once when he was driving the 1st day when he bought a brand new CLK430 cabriolet back when the car first came out. He was at an intersection after getting off the freeway, lights all came on, steering wheel locked one way all the way and the car started the accelerator and spinning on its own. When it stopped, there were two cops in a cruiser and they drew they're guns on him. He said it was the car and they came over and saw all the lights. He took it back to the dealer the next day and never found out what caused it.

gaazmon

Ya, funny you should say that as when I got out of my hotel today in Taipei, Taiwan, I saw an S class with cloth interior. Ya, the status thing is well played in the US (go to europe, all the taxis are E classes). The cops here in Taipei use BMWs (saw mostly 5 and some 3 serieses).

All I have to say is, lol, cars look so much better without those sh*ty orange side markers.

K-A

Ugh, S-Class with cloth would just ruin the whole thing for me. An E-Class with cloth would even hurt my image of the car.

aeggroup

Go to Europe - you will see many of them like that

451/443=EW

[QUOTE=aeggroup;3752286F*k…is it taking so long ? What…those sensors swimming over the ocean by itself ? [/QUOTE]



Also true!

Some say these are not luxury cars, well the truth is, to many they are. Few people can afford one of these cars and fewer can afford even higher calliber of car. Now as for the hood, well this is an issue to me. Here in Canada the car is $62,900 plus plus plus. All said and done most E's will total $75K. For this kind of money I dont think its unreasonable to take issue with a mis alienment. Now all this said... there are always better ways to relay your concerns. You can go in yelling or you can very calmly say no! Im not happy find anther solution for me. Keep saying this until a reasonable agreement can be made. The service guys have pressures too, they are people just like you and most cant afford the car the service. With a little understanding of others, they intern want to help you back for being so nice. Try it, you'll live longer too. lol

mm9351

I also had the passenger side / hood alignment issue on my new W212. Upon discovery, I was mighty upset and brought it to the dealer's attention on a Sunday. He convinced me to leave my car overnight, gave me a new loaner C-class, and promised it would be completely resolved, next day. As it turns out, they readjusted the latches and it is now perfect.

I kept second guessing myself: how could I have missed this on delivery? Now I realize that it was probably closed / latched properly at that time, and when I popped the hood when I got home, I was reluctant to apply too much force when closing the hood.

Appears I was not the only one to experience this problem...

MBStar

I am totally shocked by the complacency on this forum. I too have all kinds of
quality issues with my new C207, and I am really upset. I agree, I pay real
money not candy wrappers for the car and I expect a Mercedes and not some
Chrysler. Apparently they have spent billions to improve the build quality but
that does not show. The software is full of bugs, the Navigation system is
actually worse than the previous E class, and the Linguatronic is retrogressive
too. Furthermore, the feel of the materials is cheap, like the C class.

I am really disappointed with my car, but seeing how their customers care less
about the product they drive, I am not surprised they have little incetive to do better....

K-A

Your last line is spot on. Modern M-B have been cost cutting and leaving out some of the little details that the past models had a lot of attention to, more and more with each passing gen/F.L. This is due to the fact that SO many M-B owners don't care or pay attention, they just want a Star on the hood and "Benz" bragging rights. M-B gets the picture and figures why put R&D and $$ into areas that non-enthusiasts/masses don't pay attention to.

Sucks to hear about your car. What are the problems you're having?

The W204 C-Class has a horridly cheap interior, for any M-B, or really any car in its class, the C207's is better of course, but yeah, unfortunately the car being truly a C underneath it all, is a bit too akin to the 204 inside IMO as well.

ipp

I think cloth is way better than the standard plastic leather you have as standard in the US. That's just for show IMHO, it doesn't breath and gets warm and sweaty. All the taxis have it here, I guess it's has good durability and is easy to wipe off.

K-A

I couldn't do an all MB-Tex interior actually, I hate sitting on the vinyl, however it does look better than cloth of course, and I have an '06 when they still gave you genuine leather inserts to sit your butt and back on. IMO that's the best of both worlds, easy maintenance and durable, and all your body knows is the real Leather.

MBNUT1

Have been around these cars for nearly 50 years my ownership experience of the W211 reflects this statement. From brief drive of the W212 I think that it moves back toward the traditional values.

ESIX3POWER

I would have to agree with you. My E550 is rock solid. Love the 30% more rigid factor. The car is well planted and feels sturdy all the while driving buttery smoothe. The seats are firm yet very comfortable. Impressed by the power on this car, I have yet to surpass the 3000RPM mark but i can certainly feel the car effortlessly pulling, love it. No comlaints so far, Knock on wood.

K-A

I think there's a give and take. The 212 does strive to bring back the rock-solid days of M-B.

I was more-so talking about refinement, materials, etc., on the subject of interior. Which no doubt the 212 is a step down in my view, sure maybe it'll hold up better in time due to the more durable/hard/plastic, etc. surfaces, but a lot of the nice touches and attention to detail/nice materials of the 211 are gone. As well, the face-lifted 211 got some cost cutting inside, but the new steering wheel, shift-knob (not higher quality per-se, just "new") got the attention. My point basically is that people don't pay attention to the little details, and that's where M-B has been cutting in the last decade or so more and more.

Solidity, crash worthiness, strength of steels, etc. is another story, and no doubt M-B is trying to bring back their "tough" side, as the 220/211 generations were more about softer, elegant, blah blah.

Different people have different opinions, lots of people have agreed that the 212's interior has lost some of the refinement, and lots like the new direction, as the durability is what is "quality" to them. To me durability isn't my #1 priority when sitting in a Benz. To each their own.

K-A

To go even further.

If you spill a drink in a 211, you're SCREWED, as all the soft carpeting inside can get stained. If a mechanic digs his dirty fingers on my fuzzy-wool/cotton-y A-Pillars, I'm screwed as it won't be easy to clean without damaging the overall look, in the 212, the A-Pillars are lined with a hard, basic-material that can clean off easily. If something spills out of your cup-holder in a 211, the carpeting all along the bottom of the center console (next to your waist) will get damaged, in a 212, it's plastic, just wipe. Same goes for the window lining/weather stripping, the 211's can be hard to clean dirt off of as it's all cloth, the 212- hard plastic, easy to clean, the bottom of the doors of the 211 are all soft fuzzy-material, stain-able, 212, harder surface (all plastic?), etc., etc.

It's clear M-B's direction with both cars (the designs tell the story, 211- smooth elegant, cascading/curvy, 212- hard edges, purposely no "flowing design", "big", masculine).

For me, my M-B isn't my DD, so I'm fine with "babying" it, one of the reasons I don't drive it on my 600 mile work trips is because I don't want to damage it or wear the interior down. However when I get in it, a nit-picky fellow like myself enjoys all the details.

The 212's plus points in that sense don't really do much for me. However if I had a 212, I WOULD take it on my work trips, as I feel the cars "begs" you to drive the hell out of it, and assures you that it, and all it's little materials, are ready and designed for it. As well I wouldn't treat the car the same way I do mine aesthetically, my opinions of the cars looks aside, curvy/smooth cars get more "babying" from me, and hard-edged cars inspire me to treat them more durably, this is also well-thought-out by the designers, as Wagener & co WANT people to get that image from the 212.

I'm not trying to offend the 212 or its faithful here, and yes we all have our opinions of what's "quality", but I'm just saying it like I see it is.

220S

So what are you implying K-A? That the W212 is intentionally now more appliance-like for slovenly people (e.g., Americans) who must eat, drink and try to be merry while driving?

On the other hand, molded plastic bits are certainly less expensive to mass produce.

So, what is the reality behind the lowered MSRP of the W212?

Is it all about much lower production costs (including a reduced labor force) with even better profitability?

And so the pricing is lowered to get sales moving, return to a decent market share, and then increase pricing when the economy changes? Is that the plan? How many more W212 units does MB need to produce and sell to cover the lowered price by year's end?

Is this also a strategic marketing plan to hopefully entice new MB customers instead of banking on previous owners? I don't see the other Germans reducing MSRP, however. The other 2010 MB models are not reduced in price, either.

Anyway all of this is certainly tied into the current parts bin costs. I'd love to see a cost per car analysis of the W212 and past models. I'm willing to bet the W212 is much cheaper to build primarily do to a reduced labor force and C Class parts bin sharing. In fact, a Daimler press release from last month even eluded to that....

ipp

Hallelujah! Why didn't MB just continue to produce the W211 for another 6 years? Simple answer it was too good!

ESIX3POWER

It is mind boggling to hear this guy explain how the W211 interior is better than the W212. I swear it is just comical to me, I cant for the life of me see what this man is seeing..

its no coincidence that you're in the minority and seeing how passionate and crazy ? youre about your car im not surprised.

Here are some shots of the W212.. The craftmanship,wood,feel,ambiance is top notch and beautiful to look at.

ESIX3POWER

And now some shots of the old W211..
The interior looks so dated and Stale compared to the new. Im sorry it is what it is.. Im glad I dont share your feelings.. As for the touches and feel of the keys, there is no difference, Im coming from an E63 and I can tell you that other than the AMG seats and the Alcantara head liner, the old interior has absolutley nothing on the new. Its a joke to even compare, it really is. Its not even close.

DieselNY

I hate to say it (compared to my original commets about the W211 over the summer) but the damn car just grows on me. Love the inside and the outisde and the trunk lip spoiler really helped me feel better about the rear and of course being that my car is black it helps even more. Black makes every car look good. I had a few people comment on my car and they keep saying "wow what a SHARP car". I saw the ol W211 the other day and man in a week that I have had the W212 I already would never go back. Just really miss the center stick shift but oh well what can ya do.

DieselNY

You know just today I noticed water in the fog lights and it did NOT look normal, 4 hrs later after I finished washing my car it dried up but I have never seen that before, it looked like someone sprayed a hose INSIDE the fog lights. I am using a regular hose not pressure washer. Also before I read this post when washing the car today I noticed some serious gaps from where the hood meets the headlamp so I now went down to look and snapped a photo you can see below. The space is the same on both sides but I just find that to be a lot of space. There are a lot of little things like this on the car that I can't make out why its like that and I noticed it took me twice as long to blow the water out of all the nooks and crannys of the damn car, like 20 minutes as opposed to the W211 that took me 1/2 as long..hmm...

BTW that is lint not scratches on my paint.

220S

The reality is that those who like it bought one. Understandable.

Those who decided not to buy one have reservations. Understandable.

And those who bought one will defend their choice of car. Understandable.

And those who didn't are disappointed about the car. Understandable.

It's pretty straightforward. One either likes the car, or one is not sure if they like it, or one does not like it.

It's not about being in a minority. You have to admit that it is a controversial design. It was not a model that was universally praised and 100% embraced when released. It was not unanimous.

It will grow on the people who have reservations as it ages (i.e., in a year or two when it's more visible and recognizable.) By the time the first facelift comes it will be simply the E Class and not the new W212.

In the meantime, this is a car forum. And the W212 will be talked about. For better or for worse. I'm guessing you weren't a BMW owner when the Bangle design controversy hit the fan. This is nothing in comparison.

Don't worry, you made a good choice. Why? Because you like what you bought and that's all that actually matters. Don't let those who decided not (yet) to buy one get you down. And you won't convince them otherwise. Just like they won't convince you.