Steve dropped by the office today to ride shotgun during a quick squirt of this new Benz.
It’s a typical Mercedes in that, despite being quite large outside, it’s not what you’d call spacious once you park yourself in the (comfortable) front seats. Steve described it as ‘cozy’, but I’d go so far as to say it’s cramped. I guess that those old enough to comfortably afford a $92k Mercedes are diametrically shrinking in opposition to their wallets.
I hadn’t looked up specs on the car before firing it up, but I had presumed it was a modest 6-cylinder engine pushing this car along. Turns out it’s a turbocharged 1.8L 4-pot under the hood, which would explain the uninspiring noise that accompanied a healthy dose of right foot. Despite the lack of pomp and ceremony, as long as I kept the auto transmission in the manual shifting mode the Benz certainly hustled along surprisingly well. 150kW isn’t a monstrous amount of power, but the car is relatively light for a modern luxury 2+2 coupé.
Things I liked: General fit and finish – well up to the standards I’m becoming accustomed to from the German manufacturers. The seats are really very nice indeed, as is visibility. Of course, I love the sunroof as well. I’m a sucker for those things.
Things I wasn’t so crash-hot on: Headroom was a real issue for me, I would prefer a 3D sat-nav display instead of 2D (especially as the 2D display was zoomed out so far that no street names were displayed, but I suspect more time with the car will remedy this) and the pedal-plus-lever park brake seemed unnecessarily complicated and even a little cheap-feeling. Also, the lower LED driving lights seem really chintzy to me and I can’t imagine them dating well at all.
We only spent 15 minutes or so in the car, but I was not hating the experience. Unfortunately I don’t really have enough experience with M-B’s main rivals – Jaguar, Audi and BMW, so I can’t say how this new model compares, but it seems to be hitting all the targets it’s aiming for. I look forward to an opportunity to spend some time with it.
I must admit I was surprised that it was only a 1.8L 4-pot when we got back to the office. It certainly felt like a small 6-pot and the auto was about as responsive as Australia Post but chuck it into ‘M’anual mode and it felt much livelier.
Seeing your knees hugging the dash gave me nightmares about frontal collisions. Not much space there to absorb anything. You really did look cramped.
I DID like the true coupe nature of the vehicle and that large glass roof sure does make for a nice cruiser on a summers day. Pity the sunroof doesn’t close when you switch the car off. Just one more thing that you should have to worry about shutting when leaving the car.
I’m sorry but it didn’t feel like $92k of car. But then 15 minutes is not enough to help me ‘understand’ the car. For that price it needed something to surprise me. The engine did but so do engines in much cheaper cars.