Figure this is somewhat appropriate here, though the C Class isn't really a 5 Series cross shopper....
[caution: hyperbole click-bait style headline coming]
OR IS IT????
Okay, so I'm out of town right now, been covering the East and West Coast geography lately. Decided to check out the local BMW, Porsche and Mercedes dealerships.
I'll start with BMW's, which was so insanely busy that it felt like a zoo. 30 some odd salesmen yet none greeted me once (did get a "hello" from a busy one, and the receptionist girl a smile and "hello" but I think she just had a crush on me). It felt dangerously close to something like a Toyota or Nissan dealership. I'm just gonna credit that to the particular dealership and not BMW's morphing in general (hopefully that's the overall case).
In contrast to the Mercedes dealership, which was a ghost town and had an energy almost as dead as the stigma of the brands stereotyped demographic.
The modern Mercedes experience through the eyes of K-A:
I used to be filled with such glee when I saw a flock of Mercedes', I felt at home at their dealerships. The brands idiom was something I personally identified with. Maybe it's sour grapes (though sour from what, I don't know, Mercedes never screwed me over aside from screwing up what I liked so much about them), maybe I have some weird agenda against Mercedes that stems from something that doesn't benefit me in any tangible way, but walking into an array of Mercedes products just feels so.... dull. Sterile. Unattractive? It feels so "uncool", so past-tense. Their product line is such an unflattering sight, no harmony, and where there is, it's a flawed strategy that permeates through their lineup like a flu that each one has caught. I use "flu" hopefully as it'd mean it's something that could be rid, in due time. Knowing how Mercedes' drive, there's nothing exhilarating in the least about the concept of driving one, and to me, the designs tell you that when you look at them. They look like a flock of old timers, trying desperately to look young by holding up some glowsticks.
Which brings me to the C Class:
First glimpse, is the same as when I'd seen the car several times on the roads (corporate cars)....
Let me first say, that like ALL Mercedes, it makes THE WORST use of headroom space, as with a Pano roof, I had horrible room up there, and even with no sunroof, it was too tight. Unreal how poorly Mercedes is able to execute in headroom space. I'll chalk it up to a company who mastered boxy designs, going through longstanding growing pains when trying to apply modern sleek styles to their existing approaches.
EXTERIOR: Utterly horrible, IMO. At some angles, it looks like it's trying to capture the Audi A4 architecture. Not surprising, considering M-B's recent attempts at taking from many of their competitors' styling traits.
The exterior has a very good wheelbase-to-length ratio, even better than the 3 Series' (BMW invented the modern well-proportioned wheelbase-to-length ratio practically, as they do it so well), which says a lot. Similar to the F10 in concept being as to how like the F10, it leads its class in such a ratio.
Problem is, like all Mercedes' (to me), it executes it so awkwardly, and such an athletic pose doesn't flow with the more old-timey exterior. The car looks "squished" but not sporty, long, but not athletic. The lines, following all recent M-B's, is a discordant, go-nowhere dropping theme, that ads an anti-athlete look, and makes the whole profile look hard to comprehend.
For the record, I think it looks better in photos.
The rear, literally resizing the S Class, doesn't work for a car that's supposed to evoke a more youthful spirit.
The front of the car I drove had the ubiquitous and consistently overstated Star grille, but WITHOUT the "AMG Sport Package", and it looks downright hideous and fumbled. The hood cutline, the way it sloped downward, in an attempt to combine "futuristic" with "old fashioned" just made my stomach turn. The headlights, wearing M-B's clunky "squared off" new theme, looked equally as perplexing and dull. It's just a very in-cohesive and gawky look.
In fact, the whole car looks gawky. It looks like the previous C Class, squished down a little, thus stretched out more, and anorexic to the point where its bones are popping out and forms are looking funky.
The aluminum window trim even looks weird to me, it's hugely thick, thus not really gelling with the design, and not seamlessly "flared out" like BMW does theirs, it's just thick continuously through.
It's not a sexy design, IMO, it looks like a granny grocer getter, but trying really hard to be anything but that.
The "AMG" Sport Package one that I saw downstairs briefly, mended some of those issues in awkwardness, but did so at the expense of looking kind of amateurly boy-racer-ish to me.
To me, the F30 3 Series is a MUCH nicer, more athletic and well proportioned design. It's a more simple and wisely executed design, compared to the C Classes awkward, overtried look that just has no holistic qualities, IMO. The 3 Series is vastly more effortless.
INTERIOR: I sat in several different specs. One thing remained consistent: "Is this seriously what the 'lowly' C Class offers now?"
The highest spec is almost astonishing in its quality and luxurious touch, considering the horrid previous gen C Class interior (namely the utter POS pre-facelift) and the pretty bad F30 interior.
Stitched leather dash (only on top spec), nice surfaces everywhere, a somewhat classic Mercedes vibe (in the way you'd want, unlike their awkward attempts to mesh it in with the exterior) in all the right ways. The seats almost blew my mind to be in a C Class.
Even the (horridly cheaply afterthought/tacked on) standup screen was almost forgiven.
The steering wheel on the Sport model is extremely nice. The touch-controller atop the scrolling wheel is awesome and gives you too ways to do one thing (and looks cool and tastefully "futuristic", again, a rarity in M-B's mostly recent uneasy attempts at anything "futuristic").
The center console, being a one piece kind of "tacked on" wood surface I'm not crazy about, looks sort of cheap in theory, but it's pulled off well enough. The dash and its version of being "layered" looks overall nice to me as well. The circular air vents look good, and give a tastefully classic Mercedes vibe.
The I/C display, infotainment screen quality, etc. were all top notch. The gauges had some nice design touches as well (i.e it's not just a flat digital display with no tactile qualities like the S Class is).
In the lower spec, it still was an impressive interior. Surfaces now sans the stitching still looked and felt like nice plastic. The wheel still looks alright, etc.
The silver switches on the door have a very nice tactile feel. Much better than the 3 and in some ways, even the 5 (considering BMW uses fairly cheap widow switches, one of rare F10 downsides).
The biggest surprise to me is how seemingly EVERY C Class comes with those classy looking silver 'Burmeister" frontal speakers (a'la new S Class). Yes, they're a little too close to "Budweiser" and they can look gaudy to some, but to me they work well in a Mercedes.
The entire door panels look excellent, especially for this class of car.
Switches, etc. all felt good, or at least good enough.
Two notes:: 1- The car I drove was $50K! Since when did C Classes cost that? And it wasn't even the "AMG" Sport Package. Taking that into consideration, the interior seems a little bit less "out of its segments league" as it starts to encroach on 5 Series pricing.
2- What I really want to say is that "The 3 Series got left in the dust inside, while BMW totally screwed up the F30 interior, Mercedes made the C's about 4 generations ahead of the previous gen pre-facelift C Class interior, they outclassed BMW's interior and BMW should be having many peoples heads within their executive team right about now".
Being more diplomatic, I'll say: The F30's interior has a certain slight BMW charm (in M3 guise at least) when equipped perfectly, I guess you could say. It somewhat embodies the brands classic approach of a simple interior, not meant to coddle as much as it's meant to be teutonic, tactful and driver oriented so you can get down to business (DRIVING). It's spartan, it's to the point, it's much sportier than the C Classes interior.
On the flip-side, it's cheap in many ways, looks and feels vastly less luxurious than the C Class interior, and appears to be from an entirely different brand than the exceptional 5 Series and new X5 interiors.
Yes, BMW's and Mercedes' differences couldn't be any better identified than by their vastly different interior approaches here. Only thing is, Mercedes FINALLY, for the first time in a VERY long time (to me) nailed an interior for a respective segment to stand for Mercedes ideals. BMW didn't do it so well at all in the F30. And I'm being nice. I dunno, if I got an M3, I'd probably find a tactile simple and logical charm to my street race car interior, but if I had a 328i, I'd find much less redeeming qualities.
DRIVE:: This is where "Mercedes" is alway a "Mercedes", for better or worse. I drove the C300, which is the mid-line model. The motor felt peppy, you could have some fun with it. Not as ballsy as the 328i to me (which has the same HP on paper), but not as much of a downright slug with its balls cut off like the C250. The Sport Modes finally catch up to BMW (or get closer) in being true "Sport" modes, in that they change the character of the car. They're still more marketing driven in that they aren't as seriously engineered as BMW's Sport Mode (and nowhere near Porsche's PDK Sport Mode), but getting closer. What I DID love was the ability to MODIFY the settings under the "Individual" settings, something BMW doesn't do, at least not in the F10. If M-B was more serious about their driving dynamics, they'd add even more levels of tweakage to their Sport Mode modifiable settings, and have a real winner on their hands.
Drive felt quiet and comfortable, nothing out of the ordinary, but what you'd hope to expect from a Mercedes in this segment. A nice driving environment. Chassis felt nice and rigid, not the most "tank-like" drive I've felt, but solid enough. Mercedes' to me rarely drive as solidly as some competitors these days.
Another issue I have with Mercedes' these days is their chassis and suspension dynamics. The C was a definite improvement from the E Class (not a big feat), but the chassis still nowhere near as dialed in as a BMW or Porsche chassis. Hard turns were met with not that much fuss, like you'd have from the roly-poly E Class, but it wasn't as tight and balanced as a 3 Series. You could feel the chassis holding up, yet wanting to break a little loose.
The suspension was nice and supple, not floaty, but not too tight. A decent middle ground. Not the sportiest drive, not the cushiest, so a true enthusiast might find it a little too far "middle" to have a truly distinctive or definitive character, but it'll please the masses quite well in this regard. It's a car I'd be happy to beat around day in and day out, but something that wouldn't satisfy my enthusiast side.
CONCLUSION:
If you read through that entire thing, I think you get the picture right about now.
On one hand, it's the "same ole' same ole' lost Mercedes" to me. On the other, it's Mercedes changing the game by getting truly serious again, and giving BMW's bread and butter 3 a serious threat. HOWEVER, it also lessens the 3's bread and butter threat. Being that it looks both outside and inside more "luxury" seeking (which IMO works awkwardly at this size point) than sportily (while the previous gen was more sportily oriented in aesthetic) and the drive, while getting yet again closer, still to me wasn't as exciting or balanced as a 3, even the F30 which often gets derided by enthusiasts for "softening up".
To the point: The 3 is outclassed inside, by a massive margin, yet maintains its lead in design and driving dynamics, IMO. And you'd have to be INSANELY CRAZY to get a current E Class with its massacred flip-flop design over the new C.
[caution: hyperbole click-bait style headline coming]
OR IS IT????
Okay, so I'm out of town right now, been covering the East and West Coast geography lately. Decided to check out the local BMW, Porsche and Mercedes dealerships.
I'll start with BMW's, which was so insanely busy that it felt like a zoo. 30 some odd salesmen yet none greeted me once (did get a "hello" from a busy one, and the receptionist girl a smile and "hello" but I think she just had a crush on me). It felt dangerously close to something like a Toyota or Nissan dealership. I'm just gonna credit that to the particular dealership and not BMW's morphing in general (hopefully that's the overall case).
In contrast to the Mercedes dealership, which was a ghost town and had an energy almost as dead as the stigma of the brands stereotyped demographic.
The modern Mercedes experience through the eyes of K-A:
I used to be filled with such glee when I saw a flock of Mercedes', I felt at home at their dealerships. The brands idiom was something I personally identified with. Maybe it's sour grapes (though sour from what, I don't know, Mercedes never screwed me over aside from screwing up what I liked so much about them), maybe I have some weird agenda against Mercedes that stems from something that doesn't benefit me in any tangible way, but walking into an array of Mercedes products just feels so.... dull. Sterile. Unattractive? It feels so "uncool", so past-tense. Their product line is such an unflattering sight, no harmony, and where there is, it's a flawed strategy that permeates through their lineup like a flu that each one has caught. I use "flu" hopefully as it'd mean it's something that could be rid, in due time. Knowing how Mercedes' drive, there's nothing exhilarating in the least about the concept of driving one, and to me, the designs tell you that when you look at them. They look like a flock of old timers, trying desperately to look young by holding up some glowsticks.
Which brings me to the C Class:
First glimpse, is the same as when I'd seen the car several times on the roads (corporate cars)....
Let me first say, that like ALL Mercedes, it makes THE WORST use of headroom space, as with a Pano roof, I had horrible room up there, and even with no sunroof, it was too tight. Unreal how poorly Mercedes is able to execute in headroom space. I'll chalk it up to a company who mastered boxy designs, going through longstanding growing pains when trying to apply modern sleek styles to their existing approaches.
EXTERIOR: Utterly horrible, IMO. At some angles, it looks like it's trying to capture the Audi A4 architecture. Not surprising, considering M-B's recent attempts at taking from many of their competitors' styling traits.
The exterior has a very good wheelbase-to-length ratio, even better than the 3 Series' (BMW invented the modern well-proportioned wheelbase-to-length ratio practically, as they do it so well), which says a lot. Similar to the F10 in concept being as to how like the F10, it leads its class in such a ratio.
Problem is, like all Mercedes' (to me), it executes it so awkwardly, and such an athletic pose doesn't flow with the more old-timey exterior. The car looks "squished" but not sporty, long, but not athletic. The lines, following all recent M-B's, is a discordant, go-nowhere dropping theme, that ads an anti-athlete look, and makes the whole profile look hard to comprehend.
For the record, I think it looks better in photos.
The rear, literally resizing the S Class, doesn't work for a car that's supposed to evoke a more youthful spirit.
The front of the car I drove had the ubiquitous and consistently overstated Star grille, but WITHOUT the "AMG Sport Package", and it looks downright hideous and fumbled. The hood cutline, the way it sloped downward, in an attempt to combine "futuristic" with "old fashioned" just made my stomach turn. The headlights, wearing M-B's clunky "squared off" new theme, looked equally as perplexing and dull. It's just a very in-cohesive and gawky look.
In fact, the whole car looks gawky. It looks like the previous C Class, squished down a little, thus stretched out more, and anorexic to the point where its bones are popping out and forms are looking funky.
The aluminum window trim even looks weird to me, it's hugely thick, thus not really gelling with the design, and not seamlessly "flared out" like BMW does theirs, it's just thick continuously through.
It's not a sexy design, IMO, it looks like a granny grocer getter, but trying really hard to be anything but that.
The "AMG" Sport Package one that I saw downstairs briefly, mended some of those issues in awkwardness, but did so at the expense of looking kind of amateurly boy-racer-ish to me.
To me, the F30 3 Series is a MUCH nicer, more athletic and well proportioned design. It's a more simple and wisely executed design, compared to the C Classes awkward, overtried look that just has no holistic qualities, IMO. The 3 Series is vastly more effortless.
INTERIOR: I sat in several different specs. One thing remained consistent: "Is this seriously what the 'lowly' C Class offers now?"
The highest spec is almost astonishing in its quality and luxurious touch, considering the horrid previous gen C Class interior (namely the utter POS pre-facelift) and the pretty bad F30 interior.
Stitched leather dash (only on top spec), nice surfaces everywhere, a somewhat classic Mercedes vibe (in the way you'd want, unlike their awkward attempts to mesh it in with the exterior) in all the right ways. The seats almost blew my mind to be in a C Class.
Even the (horridly cheaply afterthought/tacked on) standup screen was almost forgiven.
The steering wheel on the Sport model is extremely nice. The touch-controller atop the scrolling wheel is awesome and gives you too ways to do one thing (and looks cool and tastefully "futuristic", again, a rarity in M-B's mostly recent uneasy attempts at anything "futuristic").
The center console, being a one piece kind of "tacked on" wood surface I'm not crazy about, looks sort of cheap in theory, but it's pulled off well enough. The dash and its version of being "layered" looks overall nice to me as well. The circular air vents look good, and give a tastefully classic Mercedes vibe.
The I/C display, infotainment screen quality, etc. were all top notch. The gauges had some nice design touches as well (i.e it's not just a flat digital display with no tactile qualities like the S Class is).
In the lower spec, it still was an impressive interior. Surfaces now sans the stitching still looked and felt like nice plastic. The wheel still looks alright, etc.
The silver switches on the door have a very nice tactile feel. Much better than the 3 and in some ways, even the 5 (considering BMW uses fairly cheap widow switches, one of rare F10 downsides).
The biggest surprise to me is how seemingly EVERY C Class comes with those classy looking silver 'Burmeister" frontal speakers (a'la new S Class). Yes, they're a little too close to "Budweiser" and they can look gaudy to some, but to me they work well in a Mercedes.
The entire door panels look excellent, especially for this class of car.
Switches, etc. all felt good, or at least good enough.
Two notes:: 1- The car I drove was $50K! Since when did C Classes cost that? And it wasn't even the "AMG" Sport Package. Taking that into consideration, the interior seems a little bit less "out of its segments league" as it starts to encroach on 5 Series pricing.
2- What I really want to say is that "The 3 Series got left in the dust inside, while BMW totally screwed up the F30 interior, Mercedes made the C's about 4 generations ahead of the previous gen pre-facelift C Class interior, they outclassed BMW's interior and BMW should be having many peoples heads within their executive team right about now".
Being more diplomatic, I'll say: The F30's interior has a certain slight BMW charm (in M3 guise at least) when equipped perfectly, I guess you could say. It somewhat embodies the brands classic approach of a simple interior, not meant to coddle as much as it's meant to be teutonic, tactful and driver oriented so you can get down to business (DRIVING). It's spartan, it's to the point, it's much sportier than the C Classes interior.
On the flip-side, it's cheap in many ways, looks and feels vastly less luxurious than the C Class interior, and appears to be from an entirely different brand than the exceptional 5 Series and new X5 interiors.
Yes, BMW's and Mercedes' differences couldn't be any better identified than by their vastly different interior approaches here. Only thing is, Mercedes FINALLY, for the first time in a VERY long time (to me) nailed an interior for a respective segment to stand for Mercedes ideals. BMW didn't do it so well at all in the F30. And I'm being nice. I dunno, if I got an M3, I'd probably find a tactile simple and logical charm to my street race car interior, but if I had a 328i, I'd find much less redeeming qualities.
DRIVE:: This is where "Mercedes" is alway a "Mercedes", for better or worse. I drove the C300, which is the mid-line model. The motor felt peppy, you could have some fun with it. Not as ballsy as the 328i to me (which has the same HP on paper), but not as much of a downright slug with its balls cut off like the C250. The Sport Modes finally catch up to BMW (or get closer) in being true "Sport" modes, in that they change the character of the car. They're still more marketing driven in that they aren't as seriously engineered as BMW's Sport Mode (and nowhere near Porsche's PDK Sport Mode), but getting closer. What I DID love was the ability to MODIFY the settings under the "Individual" settings, something BMW doesn't do, at least not in the F10. If M-B was more serious about their driving dynamics, they'd add even more levels of tweakage to their Sport Mode modifiable settings, and have a real winner on their hands.
Drive felt quiet and comfortable, nothing out of the ordinary, but what you'd hope to expect from a Mercedes in this segment. A nice driving environment. Chassis felt nice and rigid, not the most "tank-like" drive I've felt, but solid enough. Mercedes' to me rarely drive as solidly as some competitors these days.
Another issue I have with Mercedes' these days is their chassis and suspension dynamics. The C was a definite improvement from the E Class (not a big feat), but the chassis still nowhere near as dialed in as a BMW or Porsche chassis. Hard turns were met with not that much fuss, like you'd have from the roly-poly E Class, but it wasn't as tight and balanced as a 3 Series. You could feel the chassis holding up, yet wanting to break a little loose.
The suspension was nice and supple, not floaty, but not too tight. A decent middle ground. Not the sportiest drive, not the cushiest, so a true enthusiast might find it a little too far "middle" to have a truly distinctive or definitive character, but it'll please the masses quite well in this regard. It's a car I'd be happy to beat around day in and day out, but something that wouldn't satisfy my enthusiast side.
CONCLUSION:
If you read through that entire thing, I think you get the picture right about now.
On one hand, it's the "same ole' same ole' lost Mercedes" to me. On the other, it's Mercedes changing the game by getting truly serious again, and giving BMW's bread and butter 3 a serious threat. HOWEVER, it also lessens the 3's bread and butter threat. Being that it looks both outside and inside more "luxury" seeking (which IMO works awkwardly at this size point) than sportily (while the previous gen was more sportily oriented in aesthetic) and the drive, while getting yet again closer, still to me wasn't as exciting or balanced as a 3, even the F30 which often gets derided by enthusiasts for "softening up".
To the point: The 3 is outclassed inside, by a massive margin, yet maintains its lead in design and driving dynamics, IMO. And you'd have to be INSANELY CRAZY to get a current E Class with its massacred flip-flop design over the new C.