C350e estate

[BrettMRC]

The hybrid dog wagon!
Quite pokey, quite economic and a decent boot.

Not many options ticked as lots were unavailable, (the car is at the end of the C350e model period) but it has the night pack, upgraded LEDs and grey/black leather.






I love the headlight design





Interior is a nice enough place to sit too

[BrettMRC]

Thanks - been having a play with the airmatic suspension today amongst other things.

Will get its first long run tomorrow, so will be interesting to see what it can do

[BrettMRC]

Boot floor is raised by about an inch....so nothing majot tbh.

[BrettMRC]

After the first good run out in the car I can confirm the following:

• Air suspension in comfort mode makes dog 1 sick 4 times.
• Overall combined range is probably 33% greater than the Outlander PHEV it has replaced. (One of my biggest gripes with the Mitsu)
• Going 3 hours each way in comfort mode, cruising at PH speeds it was quiet, composed and relatively economic
• With everything set to sport+ mode it really does shift
• If I had known these existed a couple of years ago I would never have gone for the Golf R
• The stock radio/speaker setup is pretty good really

[BrettMRC]

24valve said:

That's really good to know - other than the dog bit (I've got two chocolate labs which will occasionally ride in it)

I should be getting my one in the next couple of weeks - a obsidian black over black leather c350e sport premium. I didn't have a lot of choice since this was the last of two in the country, so the standard spec it is, with the additions of 18" wheels, chrome bits and a panoramic roof.

I have already emailed Braybrooks to see if they could retrofit radar cruise (distronic) but they cant, which is a bummer. they can do the burmester hifi upgrade though I think, but it might be too expensive, but I'm pleased to hear from you the standard stereo is o.k.

Putting suspension in sport mode cured doggy sickness

[BrettMRC]

Update after a month and about 750miles:

• E-Mode is great for the commute, even with a fairly limited range I can still get to the station and back on electric only.
• When you get to below 1/4 tank of fuel it stops displaying the remaining range...WHY!!??!!
• The adaptive/expensive headlights are as good as I had hoped - stick them in auto mode and they just work brilliantly.
• I reckon on a good long run it will have an overall range of nearly 500miles - will try this on my next Somerset/Edinburgh work run.

[BrettMRC]

In the hot weather with the air-con set quite cool I'm getting about 16miles. (Mixture of rural, town and some 60mph sections - very hilly)

I'd expect that to drop to about 10 if its anything like the Outlander was when the weather gets cold.

I think the average mpg is hovering about 50mpg. (it's usually driven in Hybrid/Comfort)

[BrettMRC]

Turns out the DRLs are blue when you unlock the car:

[BrettMRC]

Quick update:

• According to the onboard computer we've averaged 45% EV use during the last 1500 miles. (Mix of short runs or 300 mile round trips)
• Av MPG is sitting around the 54mpg point.
• On a 3 hour drive the computer reported 1 hour 28mins of EV usage, which is pretty good.
• When in 'charge' mode and driving on the motorway it recharged 80% of the battery in 30mins - which was a bit of a surprise!

Gripes? I wish the steering wheel adjusted a bit higher.

[BrettMRC]

It's being replaced with the C400e now; similar overall package with a better electric only range from what I understand.

[BrettMRC]

RicksAlfas said:

There's been no more news on that since the new year. Maybe it was a rumour only?

Last I heard was on this thread - autocar link within it.

Been awhile now though!

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[BrettMRC]

Thought I would give a post winter update

Have done about 5000 miles now, mostly town/local runs with the odd 350mile round trip. (Usually with the option to charge each end)

• Overall average MPG is 52 from new.
• Winter battery range is about 7 miles. (My commute is 99% sub 40mph with some steep hills, but even so...)
• Traction control seems to take awhile to cut in, several seconds in reality - enough for quite a bit of slip angle.
• Going in for a recall today to fix a false seatbelt/airbag alert thing that appears on the Audio 20 display/central dash display. (Merc Taunton say the 1.5 hours in the recall letter is optimistic - it will be about 3 hours!)
• According to the info display roughly 40% of the cars driving has been on electric.
• Long journeys still seem to achieve 35% electric driving due to regen/coasting etc.
• I have never used the gear paddles other than to test they worked. Pointless on this car.

There still isn't much out there on the market that can challenge this as a fast, economic estate IMO.

[BrettMRC]

RicksAlfas said:

Glad you are enjoying it.

I think the paddles are useful because with the Merc column gear change there is no other way of controlling the gears as there would be a with a conventional automatic lever.

I use mine to:
- force start the ICE on a cold morning
- drop down a gear (or two) ready for an overtake/join a busy motorway
- choose a lower gear for descending snowy hills

Interesting - mine always starts the ICE if its cold, probably below 10deg...

[BrettMRC]

Yeah, always fully charged...

What year/month is yours? Might be some ECU/firmware changes over the model life? Mine is 06/18.

[BrettMRC]

Took it in last week for the update/recall for the Audio 20 system.

Can't say I'd really noticed any problems....but instead of the 90mins quoted it was apparantly taking updwards of 5 hours to get the update loaded!

[BrettMRC]

Finally got around to using it for the Somerset -> Edinburgh -> Somerset trip this week.

Drove normally in comfort on both legs, only charged before leaving home....every charge point I tried en-route failed to work!

Up leg: 40ish MPG
Down leg: 42 MPG

So on a really long trip it was still pretty good on fuel. (Had c80 miles range left each end)

The A701 route, via Peebles & Eddlestone was good fun as always - usually do it in the Golf-R but the C350e was as much fun, if not more as it requires a tad more focus.










by Brett, on Flickr

[BrettMRC]

Quick update:

Sent an email to the charging point company asking why I had been unable to charge the car... response was that I was trying to use the AC charger and not the DC charger...guilty as charged. However; their charging/authentication app instructed me that the C350e was only compatible with the AC...

Oh well, not sure it would really have made any difference to the trip.

[BrettMRC]

tight fart said:

I've got one of these to go and look at tomorrow, the seller told me I would have to have a charging point at home as that's the only way they charge, reading the above that doesn't sound right.
Any points I should know before viewing, it's done around 50k miles.

My understanding was it depends on the charging point when out and about - the c350e has fast and slow charging options. Given how small the battery is I only ever tried a public charging point once; purely because I was interested. At home it charges in a few hours from a 13A supply.

Things to look out for?

• Check it’s had the 2019 recall for the radio/dash/software updates - and make sure the instrument binnacle doesn’t have any rattles.
• Make sure it has both charging leads.
• Check the economy/hybrid history on the dash to see what sort of a thrashing/charging regime its had. (Long term mpg should be high 40s to mid 50s if it’s been used as intended.)
• Make sure the charging flap opens and shuts nicely, they are in a daft place and get easily damaged.

Generally they are well put together and shouldn’t be too scary a proposition second hand!

[BrettMRC]

Did you buy one Mr Fart?

[BrettMRC]

tight fart said:

Not yet.
I really like the car, currently driving a TDV8 RR and fed up with the £500 a year road tax.
I cant believe the hybrid will cost even more!

Do they charge the battery when coasting or only when braking?

You get some regen whilst coasting - unless running in ECO mode. (I have never really bothered with ECO mode tbh)

Tax is because it was over £40k when new, should reduce a lot once it's 4 years old.