Time for an end of term report then. I bought the Merc in March 2020, a few days before the first lockdown in fact, so collecting it required a very empty train journey to Somerset which still managed to include a broken train and a delay. The trip home up the M5 was easy at least. The Merc was on 66k miles when I bought it and the whole reason for my purchase was to eat up the miles on my new commute. It's leaving me on 104k miles after doing less miles than anticipated but still 38k in 17 months. I was seriously considering keeping it until 200k miles, but once the urge for a new car gets you it's hard to resist. I imagine everyone on this forum (except perhaps Marv) knows that feeling.
After owning it, I'd highly recommend a W218 or X218 CLS but probably more to people who do a lot of sitting on the motorway or are older and appreciate a relaxing car. I considered a facelift version as a replacement; that's how much I liked it. They seem to be pretty solidly built, reliable and still look amazing. Shame the diamond cut alloys on Mercs always corrode, as mine did - oddly, more so in the garage over winter than they did on the car
My criteria were (and still are) pretty simple: 40mpg, big fuel tank, estate, fairly luxurious. I wanted 4wd but compromised and managed fine on winter tyres, but there wasn't much snow last winter anyway. I still had to be very ginger with the accelerator to avoid spinning a rear wheel on the exit of our drive, but it didn't want to wag its rear or light up the tyres nearly as much as my old pre-facelift W204 C350 CDI estate.
The C-class with basically the same engine is a good comparison. With hindsight I regretted having changed that for the BMW 535i Touring which I bought on a whim and I definitely appreciated Merc's way of doing things again. The CLS has a massively better interior than even the facelift W204 or W205, with stitched artico on every surface (inc. lower dash and door tops) as standard; it feels classy inside. Pretty much all of the £10k of options on my C350 were standard on the CLS too, plus more besides. The one thing the C-class did better was be fun; the CLS simply does not want to play, despite being quite capable in the corners and decently quick. The C-class felt like the engine was too much for the chassis; definitely not the case for the CLS. The engine is better insulated in the CLS too but still sounds a bit tractorish when extended. I wonder how much more fun the CLS 63 AMG is in reality?
Running costs were very gentle. I think the overall average mpg is about 40mpg. The trip computer lies so would say something around 43 to achieve that. While I checked each tankful, I don't keep a spreadsheet so can't be more accurate. The most miles I got from one tank was 679, which still only took 76 litres to fill; the range display disappears when you have about 30 miles left remaining and just shows a red image to fill up. I wasn't going to play chicken too much on the M5. I'd love to have checked the tank held the full claimed 82l. At least the boot was capacious, though the opening narrows at the bottom and the load height is a bit shallower than other big estates. Other costs were two services (an A and a B), front disks+pads, a gearbox oil change, new wipers, one full set of tyres (still with 7mm all round) and an auxiliary battery. Including depreciation, all running costs, VED and insurance it cost me 33.2p/mile based on average £1.20/litre for diesel.
I've previously been quite tolerant of foibles with cars but little niggles can annoy you when you're doing the same journey all the time. Most are very minor indeed:
- Poor voice quality on the phone through the aftermarket Carplay interface. It was pretty good through Merc's own bluetooth but there's no way to both connect to Carplay and use the car's own bluetooth
- Reversing camera not quite aligned correctly so if you used it to reverse into a parking space, you'd end up askew. There doesn't appear to be any adjustment in the alignment.
- When I replaced the front tyres, I got a pair of Michelin Pilot Sport 4. The rears needed replacement a few months later and, being wider, I discovered the rear Michelins weren't available so bought Goodyear F1s. They cause a bit of tramlining, which the worn out Pirelli P-Zeroes didn't.
- Climate control only allows 1C increments. Sometimes you can be too hot at 20C and too cold at 19C.
- There's a bit more cabin noise than you expect. I think it may be due to it being a Shooting Brake; I haven't spent enough time in the coupe version to compare. The frameless windows don't rustle; it's general structural noise.
- My wife finds she feels a bit carsick in it sometimes; I think that's due to the way it oozes down the road.
- When you set the cruise control at your current speed, it sets lower by about 1mph so you need to click it back up 1mph to avoid slowing down.
- The separate front DRLs are a few years older than the car in design, so when they're on they make the front end look old-fashioned. You can turn them off but I think they're quite useful for seeing other cars, so I like them to be on. Instead I usually turn on the sidelights which turns off the main DRLs which are funky, more up to date rings of LED within the light units. You almost never see a pre-facelift CLS with these turned on (the facelift version has proper DRLs mounted in the lights) which is a real shame. The niggle is that you have to manually turn the sidelights on and get the warning beep if you leave them on; so 90s
Some things it does really well and I'll miss:
- Turning circle is really excellent, so it's dead easy to manouevre despite its length.
- Seat really comfortable for long periods driving position is great and the armrest on the door extends forwards far enough for you to rest your elbow on when holding the wheel.
- The dash is fantastically easy to use, though the buttons next to the COMAND wheel need you to look down to use because they're close together and there's nothing to distinguish them by touch.
- Dials are wonderfully clear and the screen in them is easy to use and genuinely useful. A bit of a high point in Merc's dashboard design, IMO.
- The column shifter is brilliant, although you need the paddles or there is no way at all to override the auto gear choice except putting it in S mode.
I'm hopeful that my Allroad encourages a similarly relaxed driving style; it's nice to drive an hour to work in traffic and not have your pulse raised. However, within a few yards of driving the Allroad I remembered that it's actually fun to drive and that was the killer blow; the engine sounds nicer, response to the accelerator is much better and the steering feel and response is like a much smaller car. You can throw the Audi around, yet it rides better too. So while I enjoyed my drive home in the Merc through the Shropshire hills after placing the order for the Audi, I had no regrets.
Didn't realise until I looked at this photo later that I'd caught the Merc in shot. Most apt:
I don't do many miles so not a massive worry.