Vehicle: 1987 560SEL; 2005 C230 Sport Sedan; 1999 Toyota 4Runner; 2004 Porsche Carrera 911 4S
Location: Mission Viejo, CA
Posts: 84
Thouroughly Disgusted...
Excuse me as there may be another thread similar to this one, but...
Well, I love my '05 C230 Kompressor, yet I'd been kinda jealous... I thought maybe I'd try out the new W204... so I borrowed one, and wow, am I no longer jealous.
Really, I found the 2008 C300 god awful. It felt like I was sitting in a Chevy, full of plastic and cheap materials. The steering wheel was hard and plastic feeling, the door panels were hideously made, they looked like hard Styrofoam, everything... was just so poor. Things jiggled, the air knob moved back and forth when it wasn't supposed to, the car itself was wobbly in sport and comfort modes, overall just disgusting. I could not believe the horrible position of the wheel, I could not get comfortable no matter what I did with the seat or how much I adjusted the wheel.
The radio was a bit better to use with the knob, but the clicking and the stupid low resolution screen that you need to manually uncover and cover was horrid. Only good thing... it was now capable of MP3 CD's which my W203 is not. It seems like so much space was wasted with the dash of this car.
Does anyone else think similarly? Why does my 3 year old car make it's successor look like shit?
Partly due to the fact that this new one was made in South Africa...
Either way, anyone else experience this?
I have had multiple Mercedes Benz's... all of which, when I saw that emblem, I felt happy... going from the sheer greatness and superiority of my R107's and W126's to my W203, still seeing that same glorious emblem even though the cars were 18 years apart... then when in the W204... I was (for the first time in my entire life) ashamed to have that ornament that always symbolized the king of the road placed square on the hood of my car.
The main thing I thought was any better than the other: The extra controls on the wheel was nicer... but not worth my comfortable, leather wrapped sport wheel.
Now I see why people always criticized new MB's... at least (I hope to god) that this is the only Benz like this...
Who else has tried the new W204? What are your opinions? I am going to stick with my '05 C230.
Vehicle: 1987 560SEL; 2005 C230 Sport Sedan; 1999 Toyota 4Runner; 2004 Porsche Carrera 911 4S
Location: Mission Viejo, CA
Posts: 84
Quote:
Originally Posted by mystery905
I just noticed the w204 in your pictures has the sport grille AND the stand-up star ????
Yeah.. I really don't know why that is... I wish I could show you how unconventional to Mercedes the dash and doors are, but I don't think the pictures do justice.
Here's a try...
*10 minutes later*
While I went to take some pics, I just had a problem where every time I'd shut the door, the stupid radio would come on...
Really don't know about that one... I had to stop it by leaving the window down and then hitting the "off" button and roll the window up with the transponder key...
it's all personal opinion. I'm not that disgusted when i'm driving my C350 vs my C32 which is currently in the shop.
i will agree that the dash board material now looks like shit and too shiny like all the new BMWs. I have the black/gray interior btw. two tone door panel and dash. looks much better than all black.
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2002 M112K with lots of mods
2008 M272 with some mods
That dash is horrible, now I know why everyone raves about the MM package. I wouldn't survive with that setup. My old WRX had at least a in-dash 6 cd changer.
Wow are the C300's that bad I luv the body design of it. I have not had the chance to take one out for a test drive but I did plan on upgrading to either the 300 or 350. Looking closely at the pics it does remind me of the GMC's button/control types.
Some things are better and some things worse. My only regret with my 204 is that I didn't spring for the leather upgrade. I really didn't even look at the cars, just went to the dealer on a Friday, picked a car and paid. Took 3 hours total.
Now, I see some things that disappoint me but I have to say, the folding mirrors, the 7 speed transmission, the suspension and the extra space are vast improvements over the 203.
I like the hidden radio display. You can set your gauge cluster to Audio and never have to open the center display if you don't want to.
OH !! And did I mention the Free Bluetooth ??? Aha!
That dash is horrible, now I know why everyone raves about the MM package. I wouldn't survive with that setup. My old WRX had at least a in-dash 6 cd changer.
it's hard and shiny and look like shit, but it's not made from shitty material if you inspect it. but it could've used a softer grain.
mine doesn't have the MM package. all I needed was the NAV and wasn't about to spent $3k on extra options that i don't need. found a portable 7" touch screen NAV online. I'll probably just get that. most importantly is the bluetooth is standard which is the nice plus. only single CD, but it does read MP3, so a standard CD can give you 100 songs at least way better than CD. also the AUX is standard, so I don't even use the indash CD. I just uses my ipod on the AUX like in my 203.
I luv the body design of it. I have not had the chance to take one out for a test drive but I did plan on upgrading to either the 300 or 350. Looking closely at the pics it does remind me of the GMC's button/control types.
Linear Mode
