Long term report - Mercedes Benz C180 CGI BlueEfficiency

If you've been following this blog you'd know that I've been running a 2012 Mercedes Benz C180 CGI BlueEfficiency for a while now.

I collected the car in November 2012 and it has now been over a year of owning this slightly premium sedan. It may be the entry level c-class but I've not been left wanting in any department at all. Of course, if you had to pay over RM214,000 for any car it better not be lacking in certain aspects. 

Anyway, as a mode of family transport it has been examplary. The nine year old gal who spends a lot of time in it revels in its comfort and relative silence. I have to say that in standard trim the standard 'agility control' suspension setup soaks up bumps and road undulations better than most cars in its class and  it even feels better to sit in than a W212 E300 with Avantgarde suspension, which is slightly firmer than this smaller w204 C-class. As for road noise, the car rides on current Contiental CSC5, which gives predictable handling but seems to be slightly noisy on broken surfaces. This may be down to the wider 245/40/17 rear tyre that were specced with the car. The fronts are 225/45/17 if you were wondering. I may resort to trying out a set of Goodyear Eagles after this set wears out, but at 27,000km on the clock, there is still a lot of thread left. Aside from that, the w204 is quiet and a great place to escape into when you have to battle through Klang Valley traffic.

It has 156bhp and 250nm torque from a 1.8liter turbocharged direct injection engine. Performance is adequate and 0-100km/h takes around 8.5seconds, slightly faster than what Mercedes says (8.9sec). It does feel like Mercedes actually throttled back the power as basically the same engine is used for the c200 as well as the c250 which gives 184b and 201bhp respectively. So it feels like those modern turbodiesels where the power comes in one whole lump. Above 5,000rpm there's nothing left for the car to give but usually by then you're already way above the national speed limit. But it could do with about 30 more horses. Gee, I keep saying that to most cars I try these days. Except for when I drive my mum's Suzy Alto, which needs at least a million horses to feel faster than it is now.

The car's handling is good. I'd have to state that these days Mercedes make cars that have better steering feel than their rivals BMW and Audi. It is slightly more understeery than the e90 BMW 320i (which came out slightly earlier than the 2007 launched w204) but it feels better overall in terms of ride, luxury and steering feel. The entry level Audi A4 1.8tfsi is good, efficient and fast but slightly clinical in nature. Typical of an Audi. I wouldn't mind the A4 but I like the heritage that comes with a Mercedes and when it comes to ownership, you have got to take servicing and overall maintenance costs into the picture and this being a locally assembled C-class, it is fully covered by Mercedes Benz Malaysia's 4 year unlimited mileage warranty. Longer than what was offered by BMW or Audi at that point of time and even now. 

So as for servicing the w204, it needs one every 12,000km and to ensure that warranty is maintained, it is serviced at the authorised serviced centers. And this isn't something cheap. Expect a minimum of RM980 for a service A and RM1,600 or thereabouts for the every other service B. So at 27,000km I've done two services to date. You could get it done outside at a specialist, but then your car would not be covered under warranty. Oh, the car has had the left front suspension strut changed under warranty during the first service with no questions asked. So that is the price to pay for maintaining warranty. Slightly expensive servicing. But servicing at Mercedes Benz has its perks, free flow of coffee and tea, cinnamon rolls, nasi lemak and so on. In fact my daughter loves going to service with me as she gets to eat those cinnamon rolls mentioned above. Basically I don't mind as at least she takes advantage of what Mercedes is charging me!

What else is there to say? The car pretty much says it all. It's a Mercedes. It opens doors. It allows my family and I to travel in relative comfort. It is decently fast (hitting 160 km/h is a breeze, hitting 200km/h still doesn't stress out the car although it isn't as fast as it could be), but heck, beggars can't be choosers. Especially in car expensive Malaysia. Stay tuned for more updates.