New Car Coming

After looking on the market for a car to replace my wife's Ford Focus, we finally plumped for a Mercedes Benz C Class saloon, C200 CDI.



The ideal car is of course never available and you always need to make a compromise within the budget you are working with. We were looking for a very safe, reliable 4-5 seater with a decent sized boot - and that would be a suitable replacement car for my company use when my wife needed my estate. So it would have to good on a motorway and not look too out of place on the school run or long haul run down to London.



We also had an eye on the value meter.. what cars were out in the market at a decent price, hold their value well and don't cost a bomb to tax and insure. We had considered Audi, though have already got one A4 meant the A3 was probably the right choice. However, we have had an A3 before, and even though we liked it.. it didn't feel particularly special for the price and would need to spend a bit on the options list which you never recover on resale. Additionally the Sport version had very large oversized wheels which looked a bit too blingy.



Additionally the Audi dealer isn't my favourite place to be.. very snobby. Though this time the salesperson was quite pleasant and helpful. On the way back home, I stopped off at Mercedes Benz. It hadn't been at the top of the list because the B Class is a bit of a funny car.. it seems like a stretched A Class rather than being a car in it's own right.

Having had an A Class before, I had thought Mercedes did a decent vehicle in terms of innovation, safety and economy. However this was 10 years ago, a lot has changed since then and I have heard there were quality issues with Mercedes.

The showroom had plenty of C Class examples, which in the Sport guise, looked very good. So having checked the costs which seemed reasonable considering the size of the car - I booked a 24 hour test drive of the 180 Kompressor version. This was meant to be the BlueEfficiency model within the range -though clearly non of the C Class currently is that good on Efficiency.

The test drive worked out well, but I wasn't massively impressed with the engine. With an auto box the car could shuffle along quite well, but it seemed to have to change gear more often than I would expect - as if there was something lacking in the low down torque department. I therefore asked to drive an C200 CDI, the lower powered diesel version of the same car - a Sport Auto. This was a bit noiser - as expected - but did have the lower down torque which I was looking for. Apparently the fuel consumption will be better.

So since we had to choose a car that was already imported into the UK, we checked what was available. Luckily the perfect vehicle was in the system, in the silver we wanted (several versions) - with factory fitted parking sensors. I didn't need or want any other options as the car is well equipped with Bluetooth etc.

Within a few days the car was already at the dealership - and delivery is planned for tomorrow. I was a bit suprised with Mercedes asking if we wanted the 60minute or the 90minute handover. I was thinking about - 5minutes.. chuck me the keys version.

Overall the experience with the dealership was very good, not a pushy sale.. very helpful. The only point it was a bit uncomfortable was when I was paying. This required me to listen to all the blurb on the other things they were trying to sell, the GAP insurance and the seat/paint protection. Both of course massively overpriced compared to what you can get elsewhere. The GAP insurance was particularly something which was on the edge of being a sharp practice. Since the car was valued above £25,000 - the GAP premium for 3 years was a staggering £750+... however with the special discount it was reduced to £550. This compares to approx £120 that is possible online. Since the GAP insurance was badged by Mercedes Benz, they were trying to give it some "premium" effect - which for insurance doesn't really apply.