W204 C350 CGI (M276 engine) owners wanted!
W204 C350 CGI (M276 engine) owners wanted!
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Discussion

DJ-DST

Original Poster:

2,425 posts

94 months

Friday 14th August
quotequote all
I am looking for UK ONLY C350 CGI facelift models, I have been compiling a database of them for the past 8 years and have generated a LOT of interesting info. Broken down into body styles, colours, optional extras etc. This is allowing all VIN factory data cards to be compared to find the highest spec cars and which extras are rare/common and so on. If you would like your car to be included please post a photo with regards showing, or message me if you prefer.
Please note, this is strictly for UK facelift CGI (Petrol) models with the M276 engine ONLY.
I have one of the 3 saloons myself.

For a rough idea of what data I have already found, here are a few stats generated from it:


John DB

11 posts

108 months

Sunday 16th August
quotequote all
Hi,
I'm glad your looking into this as I know they are not so many around.
I have a facelift 2011 estate in Cavansite Blue - metallic.
Interesting to know how many estates?

It is heavily optioned car as it has an interesting back story with Mercedes.
The main options it has are:

220A Leather black anthracite.
230 Parking Guidance.
233 Distronic Plus cruise control.
237 Active Blind spot Asssist.
238 Active Lane keeping Assist.
241 Electric seats with memory
275 Memory Package (front seats, Strg col & Mirror.
386 Mobile Pre-installation
390 Linguatronic.
413 Panoramic Roof.
512 Comand APS with DVD changer.
513 Traffic sign recognition.
518 Universal Communications interface.
537 DAB radio.
581 Automatic Climate Control including rear.
621 Headlamp with ILS.
772 AMG styling Package.
810 Harmon Kardon sound system.
950 AMG sports package.

Many more smaller more normal options also but not listed above.
At one point I tried to add up how much the option would have cost and it is some were near £14,000 to £15,000?
Id be interested to know what you think.

Regards
John.






DJ-DST

Original Poster:

2,425 posts

94 months

Monday 17th August
quotequote all
I only have 4 estates so far! I am currently trying to source price lists for all periods of sale, then I will be able to generate a rough total cost new from decoded VIN data. I can also compare all found cars and crunch the numbers for all options to see which car has the highest spec, which options are the rarest etc etc. The amount of data available gives huge potential. Eventually it will all be on a public facing website (registrations and VINs hidden of course)
Im still in the process of designing a data sheet for each car on request.

This isnt a final version, and has a couple of design errors still but gives you an idea of what I will be able to do.


DJ-DST

Original Poster:

2,425 posts

94 months

Sunday 23rd August
quotequote all
I believe there are approx 350 sold in the uk (yes an ironic number!) that is based on all of the variations in model name as given on the DVLA database, and found via howmanyleft website.
I am in the process of getting all production figures from MB Club, I have coupes and estates, but for some reason saloons are not listed. So hopefully I can get those.
Next step is a 2018 copy of MB EPC to install and get running. Then it can be queried for VINs, and find the UK market cars.
After that, using the publicly available API on the DVSA site, its possible to look up cars by VIN which gives registrations, including previous ones via MOT data.
This this then give a definitive database of all UK cars, including decoded data cards for factory optional extras.
From this the highest spec cars can be found, which are most rare or common etc.
Lots of fascinating data to be crunched in the future!

DJ-DST

Original Poster:

2,425 posts

94 months

Sunday 6th September
quotequote all
Ok, for anyone interested.... I have spent countless (read probably 48+) hours reverse engineering the 2018 Mercedes EPC database.
Totally scrapped the EPC front interface, and am directly querying the data, and that reveals...

UK cars:
49 saloons.
22 estates.
286 coupés.
357 Total

John DB

11 posts

108 months

Monday 7th September
quotequote all
Thank you for that , interesting they are not many estates.
I believe (I stand to be corrected) my estate was the first face lift C350 registered in the UK.
It was registered in the 1st quarter of 2011, 29th March 2011 - with a release date (not sure what this means?) of 2010-12-08 and a delivery date of 2011-02-17.
I was told when i purchased the car in 2015 it was owned & run by MB UK for a 1 year as a technical demonstrator (taken to dealership's to show the technician's the new car) and possibly used for promotional work?

John.

DJ-DST

Original Poster:

2,425 posts

94 months

Monday 7th September
quotequote all
That’s really interesting. I now have the Mercedes factory records for all 22 UK-order C350 M276 estates recorded in the 2018 EPC dataset, so yes — we can absolutely see where your car sits in relation to the other 21 in terms of its Mercedes release/delivery dates and build sequence.

I don’t have the database running at the moment, but I’ll check it when I get a chance. It should give us a very good indication of just how early your car is.

DJ-DST

Original Poster:

2,425 posts

94 months

Tuesday 8th September
quotequote all
John, would you mind emailing me your VIN when you get a chance? I’ve been digging into the Mercedes factory data for the 22 UK estates and I think I may have found yours, but I’d rather confirm it from you before I go any further.

There are some really interesting things I can tell you about its build chronology and specification once I know I’m definitely looking at the right car.

John DB

11 posts

108 months

Friday 11th September
quotequote all
I've sent you a PM.

John DB

11 posts

108 months

Friday 11th September
quotequote all
I've sent you a PM.