2009 Mercedes-Benz C-Class C300 4MATIC Luxury Sedan

Pros

Powerful yet gracious, beautiful and comfortable

Purchased As New

This is my first Mercedes and I absolutely love it! I bought a 2008 model with package 2, and enjoy every day of driving it. Very beautiful, people always look at it. Good gas mileage, excellent handling, very smooth and quiet ride, excellent breaking: stops immediately with hardly any noticeable impact. Excellent suspension offers comfort or sport ride options. Powerful V6 engine, traction control and 4matic all wheel drive helps to handle the car very well on the slippery roads and snow. Has lots of neat features inside and out....read morehide

Pros

multi-media, smooth ride, fast car with good looks

Cons

none

Purchased As Used

I spent almost a year researching and test driving various cars and finally decided on a certified pre-owned MB C200 4Matic Luxury Sedan. It had the smoothest ride, most comfortable interior and best looks within its class. It's been a few months and I can honestly say that this is a great car and I would highly recommend it to those of you who are looking to buy one. It's a surprisingly fast car and the multi-media console is easy to use and great to have....read morehide

Pros

Supple ride, superb auto transmission, aggressive good looks

Cons

iPod option is a bad joke, overly light steering, dearth of standard features

With its sharp exterior and comfortable ride, the C300W is overall a nice change from my last car, another German brand. Having paid a premium for the privilege of looking at the three-pointed star on my hood every day, though, I must say I was disappointed at the lack of standard features for a car in this class - no leather seats, no HomeLink or back-up camera options, no included maintenance. By far the biggest letdown has been the primitive and frustrating-to-use iPod USB setup (another extra-cost option) that not only makes listening to my iPod a distracting chore, but also does not integrate with my iPhone 3G (the connector doesn't recognize it, won't charge it, won't display its address book, etc.)....read morehide

Pros

Superb engineering quality. The latest C series looks fabulous.

Cons

Why did they take away the power mirrors?

I have just purchased my new C300 4Matic Luxury Sedan, via the European Delivery Program. What an amazing experience. We picked the car up at the factory and drove down through the Black Forest, Provence, and into Spain with stops in Barcelona, Valencia, Cuenca, and finally Madrid where we left it with the shippers. The car is currently in the middle on the Atlantic on its way to us. We should have it in a little over a week.

Driving in Europe was thoroughly enjoyable. The roads are far superior to American roads and the driving standards are just better. The car was everything we expected and a whole lot more. I couldn't wait to get up each morning and get in it. There's nothing about it that I don't like. It's a sheer pleasure to drive. We hit a few windy, mountain passes, and it felt like we wre riding on rails. It is so sure-footed.

The hardest part right now is waiting to get it back....read morehide

Pros

Very smooth ride, Good Fuel Economy

Cons

Space and Storage

I have owned this car for over an year now. Love its smooth ride. For new buyers who are worrying about mileage... wait till you have driven the car for 2-3 months or have 2000-3000 miles on the car. The mileage is scary in the beginning. I get an avg of 18-22 in the city and have got upto 27.1 on highway. I have a picture of speedometer incase you dont believe it. Dont buy this car because its a mercedes...drive every car in your budget and buy the one that best in your budget....read morehide

Pros

Great standard features, great looks, good power, nice interior finishes

Cons

Placement of cruise control; complicated to keep brights on

This is my second Mercdes - first was a C230. This car is much more powerful, much nicer. I was impressed with the reliability of the C230 and am equally impressed so far with the C300.

Pros

Prestige, Comfort, Sensible controls, Lots of Included Options. Smooth ride, small turning circle.

Cons

It's a Small Sedan!

Great car:- intuitive controls, easy Bluetooth, Great 5" center consol display and multi-function display at the driver instrument panel. Lots of included features like power sunroof, fog lights, dual-zone AC, power seats (both sides) and memory seats etc., Large caddy space and glove-box for this size car. Smooth ride and really sharp turning circle. Love the car - should have bought it sooner!!...read morehide

Pros

Classy design, good front seat comfort, excellent brakes, priced less than BMW 328xi

Cons

Poor fuel economy, not as sporty as BMW 328xi, cheap plastic interior, questionable reliability

This is my first Mercedes in 10 years. I have always been a fan of MB but the last one was a major disappointment in quality and reliability.

The first thing that got me back was the design. I love the look especially in all white. So five stars for design. The build quality is average to fair. There is some orange peel paint if you look close and the trunk lid does not line up on both sides evenly. I just was informed some are made in Germany and some are made in South Africa. Mine is of the German build but still lacks quality. I don't want to see the South African built MB! Interior design is nice but again, quality is an issue. Cheap plastic can be found everywhere you touch. It also shows cost cutting is a main goal for MB these days.

Comfort is important to me and thus far its good. Not excellent but very good.

Performance is so-so. The C300 is better on gas than the C350 but there is not enough power for passing. Around town, its acceptable but after a few months you notice many other cars passing you up at stop lights. I'm not a racer but keeping up with traffic is important.

Gas consumption is very poor. For this size engine and performance, I expected to average 20+ MPG. Instead I drive with a light foot and average 16.3 mostly highway driving. The best I have seen is 22-23 MPG on the highway. That is real world driving. Do not go by the EPA ratings as you will never see them.

Value wise, its actually a bit cheaper than the BMW 328xi. You give up some performance for the MB but the ride is much better in the C300 than the 328i. Depreciation is average.

In the end I would consider trading this in next year. I'm not sure what I would get but it probably won't be a MB....read morehide