Mercedes day at Loseley Park - a few impressions.
Discussion
On Wednesday this week, we went to the test day at Loseley Park near Guildford, organised by Tony Purslows, and tried out a few of the cars on local roads. The day was very well organised and quite relaxed, with several cars of different types for us to try out, including one or two we are particularly interested in.
First up we tried the new SLK 250, since my wife is interested in getting one. I drove first and to be honest, it really wouldn't be the car for me, although predictably my wife loved it of course. I like a sports car to be more raw than this and, for me, it lacks the visceral thrill of what I would call a 'proper' sports car. Nevertheless, it is undeniably stylish, but the 250 four pot really lacks any real grunt and, personally, I would wait for the V6 version. It drives well enough, handles and stops reasonably well, but I couldn't escape the thought that it is very much a case of style over content, although I guess it will do very well in its target market and probably most of those owners will be perfectly happy with the smaller engines (my wife being a prime example!
)
Next up we tried the new C Class Estate with the 250cdi engine, as I've heard a lot about how good the engine is and was interested to see for myself, just how it performed. First impressions of the new interior are that it is streets ahead of the outgoing model in terms of quality and feel. It is very easy to get comfortable and generally feels a nice place to be. So we drove off and I have to say that for a relatively small engine, at 1.8L, it certainly pulls very well, with plenty of low down torque. Engine performance is certainly everything I was led to believe and I would be very happy to own this car, but for one thing! Being a four pot diesel, there is this underlying roughness that seemed ever present at whatever speed we were doing. I expected it to smooth out and quieten down a bit when on a fast dual carriageway, but alas, I was always reminded of the engine configuration. Even my wife, who isn't normally sensitive to such things, commented on the fact that it felt slightly rough. Despite this, the overall impression of the revised C Class was very good and I would definitely consider it, albeit I would go for the V6 diesel version that is coming shortly.
Then we moved onto the new CLS 350cdi which, for me, was the highlight and suffice to say that if it were only down to me, that is the car my money would be going on.
Once I'd realised the gear selector had moved from its usual location and was now a simple stalk switch to the right of the steering column
we moved off and it was immediately apparent what a special car this is. You honestly wouldn't guess it is a diesel from inside the car. It is a very smooth engine and obviously very well attenuated with almost no turbo lag, which there is on my older 320cdi CLK. As you would expect, there is a huge amount of torque available, pretty much from idle and the performance of this car is a real delight. It really does cosset the occupants as you drive, although my wife found the seat backrest side supports a tad disconcerting as the appropriate one moves to support the upper body when cornering.
No doubt about it, this is one very classy car - but I just need to persuade the wife that we really, really, really do need a car like this!
Oh, one last thing, Purslows also had an SLS there which was, sadly, but not surprisingly, on static display only.
I did manage to get one of their guys to fire it up though and the epic sound from those tailpipes was just pure heaven to me. Very nice, although I have to confess, I'm still not sold on the styling. I would, however, overlook that if they want to offer me a drive! 
First up we tried the new SLK 250, since my wife is interested in getting one. I drove first and to be honest, it really wouldn't be the car for me, although predictably my wife loved it of course. I like a sports car to be more raw than this and, for me, it lacks the visceral thrill of what I would call a 'proper' sports car. Nevertheless, it is undeniably stylish, but the 250 four pot really lacks any real grunt and, personally, I would wait for the V6 version. It drives well enough, handles and stops reasonably well, but I couldn't escape the thought that it is very much a case of style over content, although I guess it will do very well in its target market and probably most of those owners will be perfectly happy with the smaller engines (my wife being a prime example!
)Next up we tried the new C Class Estate with the 250cdi engine, as I've heard a lot about how good the engine is and was interested to see for myself, just how it performed. First impressions of the new interior are that it is streets ahead of the outgoing model in terms of quality and feel. It is very easy to get comfortable and generally feels a nice place to be. So we drove off and I have to say that for a relatively small engine, at 1.8L, it certainly pulls very well, with plenty of low down torque. Engine performance is certainly everything I was led to believe and I would be very happy to own this car, but for one thing! Being a four pot diesel, there is this underlying roughness that seemed ever present at whatever speed we were doing. I expected it to smooth out and quieten down a bit when on a fast dual carriageway, but alas, I was always reminded of the engine configuration. Even my wife, who isn't normally sensitive to such things, commented on the fact that it felt slightly rough. Despite this, the overall impression of the revised C Class was very good and I would definitely consider it, albeit I would go for the V6 diesel version that is coming shortly.
Then we moved onto the new CLS 350cdi which, for me, was the highlight and suffice to say that if it were only down to me, that is the car my money would be going on.
Once I'd realised the gear selector had moved from its usual location and was now a simple stalk switch to the right of the steering column
we moved off and it was immediately apparent what a special car this is. You honestly wouldn't guess it is a diesel from inside the car. It is a very smooth engine and obviously very well attenuated with almost no turbo lag, which there is on my older 320cdi CLK. As you would expect, there is a huge amount of torque available, pretty much from idle and the performance of this car is a real delight. It really does cosset the occupants as you drive, although my wife found the seat backrest side supports a tad disconcerting as the appropriate one moves to support the upper body when cornering.No doubt about it, this is one very classy car - but I just need to persuade the wife that we really, really, really do need a car like this!
Oh, one last thing, Purslows also had an SLS there which was, sadly, but not surprisingly, on static display only.
I did manage to get one of their guys to fire it up though and the epic sound from those tailpipes was just pure heaven to me. Very nice, although I have to confess, I'm still not sold on the styling. I would, however, overlook that if they want to offer me a drive! Edited by Brent Chiswick on Friday 17th June 11:16
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