I know I said I was leasing this one to force myself to keep it for more than a year. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. I’m trying to use the soft car market to get out of my C300. Hopefully I can work it so that the low interest rates for CPO Audi’s and the low auction prices on lease returns will absorb my substantial negative equity.

I’m still trying to find out how, mathmatically, leasing works because for what I’m paying per month and what the residual is I shouldn’t be this far behind. My guess is that if I kept it another year I’d be in better shape, but I don’t think I can put up with it that long.

While I’m waiting for stuff at work I figured I’d compile a list of pros and cons. And just so that I’m not being pessimistic I’ll put my likes first. But I’ve come to the conclusion that this is a 20k car with 15k worth of badges.

Likes

1. Suspension. Although it’s gotten a little brittle with the colder weather and/or mileage it’s still very comfortable for the cornering performance it delivers.
2. Handling. It’s doesn’t have the same high ultimate limits that my BMW did, but responds to inputs better than the BMW did. Sometimes being able to have fun at slower pace is preferrable to just going fast. It’s hard to explain. The best analogy I can come up with is, going fast in a slow car is more engaging than going slow in a fast car.
3. Panoramic Sunroof. Having that second skylight in the backseat is just plain cool.
4. Exterior Styling. I still like the way it looks.
5. 7spd automatic. The 7 speeds really masks the lower power output of the engine by making sure it’s always in it’s power band. And I like how you can just slap it left or right for downshift/upshift. Other auto gear selectors usually make you go to an S mode before you can select a gear. It’s needed though, because it doesn’t like to kick down when you press the gas. Instead you have to manually slap it down to a lower gear.

Dislikes

1. The seats. This is by far my biggest complaint with this car. The seats are rock hard and in the year I’ve had it I’ve never once found a position that’s comfortable for more than 20min. Even if I did, they left out any memory for the seats so it’s not like I’d be able to get it back to where I found it. Getting out of the car after a 30min drive, my back aches, my ass aches and my legs are asleep. Sucks; and it’s the major reason I’m trying to get rid of it.
2. Service costs. Yeah, I know it’s a Mercedes, okay, I get it. Try this on though: $250 for an oil change. They call it, ‘Service A’ to try to disguise it and make you feel better but when you look at the list, it’s an oil change. Sadly you have to do it to keep the warranty. I’m not entirely sure that’s legal, but …. Oh, and Service B? $450. Yeah, oil change. This thing’s gotta go before that.
3. Cheap interior. I knew when I bought it that it was a little low rent, but instead of disappearing into the background it’s become more of an eye-sore.
4. Gas mileage. Mixed driving is 22-23mpg, as long as most of the mixed is freeway. Pure city driving is 15-16mpg and pure freeway is 26-27mpg. My 330i, with more horsepower, did 30-31mpg … but the same mixed.
5. Wind noise. Either that or the tires are getting LOUD as they wear.
6. Cheap ass trim pieces. The lower grill is some of the chintziest plastic this side of a Kia. Strike that. Kia’s are probably built better. I’ve had two break so far and book time on replacement at the dealer is 2.5hrs. Because, being the excellent engineers they are, to replace the lower grill requires a full bumper removal.
7. Dealer service. I’ve got several small problems like the mirrors being loose, vibrating bad enough while driving that you can see anything in them, and squealing when they open or close. And a sunroof that squeals and stutters when opening. But the dealer service is too incompetent to even acknowledge the problems let alone figure out a way to fix it.

Just meh

1. Power. I don’t ever seem to miss not having more power. The 7spd, like I mentioned, masks the lower power of the C300. Power always feels adequate as long as you’re in the right gear.