Anyone else disappointed with their C63 (W205)?

Anyone else disappointed with their C63 (W205)?

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Discussion

RudeDog

Original Poster:

1,652 posts

173 months

Sunday 18th September 2016
quotequote all
I've had my W205 C63 for about 5-months now having replaced my W204 C63 back in April. I'm interested to know how others are getting on with theirs because I'm really quite disappointed with mine. It's not a patch on the old car.

- I've got lots of interior squeaks and rattles, particularly one annoying one on the driver door/window
- The speaker in the dash and one in the door vibrate when the bass is low. This is so annoying!
- The brakes squeal. Mercedes looked at them and said it was a known fault and they will come back to me when they have worked out a solution. 6-weeks on, they still can't figure it out.
- The iPod dock software needs a reboot because it disconnects my device intermittently.
- The standard seats are crap (OK this is my fault for not figuring it out before I bought it)
- The optional 19" alloys (five twin spoke design) on mine are proud of the rubber protector on the tyre which means that they are very easy to scuff. Not sure if this is a design flaw or if they were delivered with the wrong size tyre. Would be interested to know if others have this problem?

Overall, it just doesn't feel like a well made car. I never had any problem with my old car and my perception of the MB brand has taken a massive nose dive with this latest version. Annoyingly, I find myself hating the thing more and more every time I drive it.

Does anyone else have a similar feeling towards their P&J?

RD

Edited by RudeDog on Sunday 18th September 14:56

Shuks76

235 posts

149 months

Sunday 18th September 2016
quotequote all
As a W204 C63 owner this makes for interesting reading, since I am always toying with the idea of moving into the newer model. Salesman at my local dealer told me to hold on to my car, apparently he is paying more to buy these back each month. Service manager told me the guys in the shop all think this car has more "special" to it than the new one. No doubt the new car is quicker, but I don't find my current car slow even after 2yrs of ownership.

mikearwas

1,112 posts

158 months

Sunday 18th September 2016
quotequote all
RudeDog said:
I've had my W205 C63 for about 5-months now having replaced my W204 C63 back in April. I'm interested to know how others are getting on with theirs because I'm really quite disappointed with mine. It's not a patch on the old car.

- I've got lots of interior squeaks and rattles, particularly one annoying one on the driver door/window
- The speaker in the dash and one in the door vibrate when the bass is low. This is so annoying!
- The breaks squeal. Mercedes looked at them and said it was a known fault and they will come back to me when they have worked out a solution. 6-weeks on, they still can't figure it out.
- The iPod dock software needs a reboot because it disconnects my device intermittently.
- The standard seats are crap (OK this is my fault for not figuring it out before I bought it)
- The optional 19" alloys (five twin spoke design) on mine are proud of the rubber protector on the tyre which means that they are very easy to scuff. Not sure if this is a design flaw or if they were delivered with the wrong size tyre. Would be interested to know if others have this problem?

Overall, it just doesn't feel like a well made car. I never had any problem with my old car and my perception of the MB brand has taken a massive nose dive with this latest version. Annoyingly, I find myself hating the thing more and more every time I drive it.

Does anyone else have a similar feeling towards their P&J?

RD
I don't own a W205 but I did test drive one before opting for a W204. I have to say the W205 did not impress me much at all. Capable but none of the excitement and fun that you get with the 204.

RudeDog

Original Poster:

1,652 posts

173 months

Sunday 18th September 2016
quotequote all
OK, I avoided trying to talk about my subjective opinions between the two cars because I wanted my post to be based on the facts relating to my experience of the two cars. In actual fact, I wanted to know if any other W205 C63 owners were experiencing a similar number of niggles that were ruining their overall enjoyment of the car (whether they had previously owned a W204 C63 or not).

But if you want my opinion, I started this topic two days after I swapped my cars over. You can see in my last paragraph that I was immediately regretting the decision and missing the old car. Unfortunately, as I've come to know the W205 better, I've only started missing the old car even more.

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

My advice, based on first hand real world experience and gut feel, is that the old car is the one to have.

Zanderman

1,090 posts

211 months

Monday 19th September 2016
quotequote all
I took delivery if my new C63 on Friday and 2 years ago had the previous model C63. So far (and this is based on only a few days) I like the new one a lot more, its a way more modern proposition, faster and feels to me to be way better put together. Handles better and isnt as difficult to get the power down as the old one. The sound isnt quite as good but to be honest I ended up feeling a little embarrassed at how loud the last one was and that it could be heard miles away.

So far love it!!

Bradders901

225 posts

130 months

Thursday 22nd September 2016
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No quality issues with my 205 C63S saloon, at all - whereas my 507 coupe was back in the dealers after the first weekend for squeaks, although it was sorted and I love that car. Ultimately though, even though the 205 is a 'better' car than the 204 it lacked character, mostly due to the engine and ordinary c class looks - so ultimately it lasted 7 months before I sold it. Saying that, I have just ordered an Edition 1 S Coupe, I think that has the edge I want whereas my saloon was too much of a Q car for me...

Smokey32

359 posts

92 months

Thursday 22nd September 2016
quotequote all
The Coupe is a lot more handsome and a better car so they say. Totally different rear end suspension wise.

Everyone seems to say the interior is brilliant, maybe you are unlucky? heh

RudeDog

Original Poster:

1,652 posts

173 months

Saturday 24th September 2016
quotequote all
I hope I'm just unlucky Smokey and that everyone else who has looked forward to getting their hands on one of these cars manages to realise their dream. For me though, I think I will be switching brands next time I change my car.

pomp1

238 posts

199 months

Monday 26th September 2016
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Break squeal is terrible on these. Myne has had the pads replaced twice and the disks replaced. Think it is over the worst of it but every now and again it appears momentarily.

I had to stand my ground for Mercedes to sort this problem.

Screen has been replaced due to dash rattles.

In MY opinion it is still a significantly better car than the W204 C63 that was on the driveway for three years beforehand. However, it is not as charismatic......

juan king

1,093 posts

188 months

Monday 26th September 2016
quotequote all
Admittedly not a c63, but I've had my w205 c200 for 18 months now and it is by far the worst car I have ever had. In the 16,000 miles it has covered from new it has had:-

Lambda sensor fault (replaced)
clutch fault (resulting in new clutch after 11k miles)
water pump (replaced)
engine wiring loom fault (replaced)
main fuse box fault (replaced)
speaker and trim rattles (ongoing)

Totally lost trust in the brand, and when it goes I shall not be returning.

jahill

41 posts

82 months

Tuesday 30th May 2017
quotequote all
I'm a bit late to the party, but in case anyone is pondering the same decision, I'll try and give an unbiased opinion as someone who owned the previous C63 Coupe for four years and moved to the new C63S Coupe about six months ago.


So, here's a list of what I like about the new one:

1) The engine noise sounds fantastic. I loved the noise of the old car and I was seriously concerned about the switch, but I needn't have been. This engine (at least in 'summoning Thor' mode) sounds incredible (don't just go by the YouTube videos, they don't do the car justice)

2) The sheer power from around low revs. The old C63 was fast (especially when they were chipped), but the new car can pull harder in third at low revs than the old car could in second. Once above 4500 revs, though, they seem on a par

3) The gearbox is (on the whole) much, much smoother (even taking into account the gearbox/ECU software upgrades that largely fixed the jerkiness of the transmission towards the end of the old C63's life). It still can make the car jolt when going into first in sport+ mode, but I'm hoping that will be resolved by another software fix

4) The gearbox is much, much smarter. The car no longer insists on changing up a gear when you hit 1200 revs and, similarly, doesn't see a need to hold on to 4500 revs at other times while tootling down the road at 20mph, just because it can. In sport+, it'll happily stay within the power band without sounding like a demented, wounded elephant that had forgotten why it started trumpeting in the first place. The new C63 also uses first gear, rather than studiously avoiding it, and doesn't need a good kicking to get it to change down in the first place

5) The steering accuracy of the new car is razor sharp, the old car always felt like there was some lag built into reaction of the steering

6) The new suspension is far less harsh when riding around town (although the saloon is better, both because the standard seats are softer than the sports seats and I suspect a different suspension and tyre combination)

7) The new car is a bit quieter on most motorways, but it can still be noisy on concrete surfaces

8) The interior and exterior looks - this is a car that finally looks as good as it goes

9) No squeaks and rattles, unlike the old car

10) Sat nav is leap years ahead of the old car. The music system is also better than the old (hi-end) system, but could still be improved (but who cares, when you have one of the world's best-sounding V8 engines?)

11) A cubby hole to put sun glasses!


Things I don't like:

1) The steering doesn't have quite as much feel as the old car, but are much improved by putting ContiSport 6's on the front (rather than the 5P's). I'm now waiting for Continental to bring out the necessary tyres for the rear (or for me to run out of patience and buy some 20" rear wheels)

2) Slightly more wind noise than I expected (and, iirc, more than in the saloon)

3) As mentioned above, the car doesn't feel any quicker than the old above 4500 revs. Comparative road test measurements seem to back this feeling up

4) Can't skip multiple music tracks when using the sat nav as they've removed the forward/back buttons from the console

5) The new car might easily be able to manage 26mpg on a motorway trip, but don't expect it to do any better than the old car in town driving. At least if you insist on using Sport+, which I reckon you should. I suspect I get 20% fewer miles per gallon in town than I used to (although, to be fair, I didn't run the old car around town in this mode) and the reality is probably somewhat worse than this. The new car refuses to register fuel consumption less than 9.4mpg, so that's where the reading sits whenever I do anything other than a long motorway journey

6) The bonnet could be more muscular!

All in all, the new car feels way more advanced than the decade or so difference in age between the two would suggest. The old car remains a capable, charming and, above all, fun car, but it always felt most at home being used as a motorway cruiser. That, to my mind, the old C63 beat the 911S4 I had for a couple of weeks last year for steering-feel speaks more about the old car than the new. So, while the new car lacks a little of the old's steering feel, in all other respects it is a huge leap forward and I don't regret it for a minute (did I mention that it's worth getting the ContiSport 6's?!).

The new car always manages to bring a smile, partly because of the new steering accuracy, but also because of the way it can force your head back into the headrest at pretty much any engine speed - and in a way that still surprises me. Add the fact that, last weekend, I drove 150 miles over four hours through heavy traffic, yet still managed to get out the other end as fresh as I started the journey speaks volumes for what an all-round great car it is (and motorway miles really was a huge strength of the old car).

PPS One final note, more as a pre-warning than anything else: there is a serious ambundance of torque over grip in the new car. The old car can be booted down the road and remain relatively idiot-proof. The new car will easily break traction at 20mph and try to throw you into the hedge at anything over 60% throttle (in Sport+) in second/third gear, depending on the outside temperature. At 10c, you probably need to reduce this to 30% throttle. At 5c, you need to put winter tyres on, unless you want you other half to inherit the mangled remains of the car. The axe murderer has returned!

Edited by jahill on Wednesday 31st May 01:19

Mikearwas

1,112 posts

158 months

Tuesday 30th May 2017
quotequote all
jahill said:
I'm a bit late to the party, but in case anyone is faced with the same decision, I'll try and give an unbiased opinion as someone who owned the previous C63 Coupe for four years and moved to the new C63S Coupe about six months ago.


So, here's a list of what I like about the new one:

1) The engine noise simply sounds fantastic. I loved the noise of the old car and I was seriously concerned about the switch, but I needn't have been. This engine (at least in 'summoning Thor' mode) sounds incredible (don't just go by the YouTube videos, they don't do the car justice)

2) The sheer power from around low revs. The old C63 was fast (especially when they were chipped), but the new car can pull harder in third at low revs than the old car could in second. Needless to say, the new car pulls much harder from 2000 revs than the old car at 4500. Once above 4500 revs, though, it doesn't seem a lot quicker.

3) The gearbox is (on the whole) much, much smoother (even taking into account the gearbox/ECU software upgrades that largely fixed the jerkiness of the transmission towards the end of the old C63's life). It still can make the car jolt when going into first in sport+ mode, but I'm hoping that will be resolved by another software fix

4) The gearbox is much, much smarter. The car no longer insists on changing up a gear when you hit 1200 revs and, similarly, doesn't see a need to hold on to 4500 revs at other times while tootling down the road at 20mph, just because it can. In sport+, it will happily stay within the main power-band. The car now actually uses first gear, rather than studiously avoiding it, and doesn't need a good kicking to get it to change down in the first place

5) The new suspension is far less harsh when riding around town (although the saloon is better, both because of the standard seats being softer than the sports seats and I suspect a different suspension setup and tyres)

6) The new car is a bit quieter on most motorways, but it can still be noisy on concrete surfaces

7) The interior and exterior looks - this is a car that finally looks as good as it goes

8) No squeaks and rattles, unlike the old car

9) Sat nav is leap years ahead of the old car. Music system is also better than the old hi-end system, but could still be improved (but who needs this, when you have one of the world's best-sounding V8's?)

10) A cubby hole to put sun glasses!


Things I don't like:

1) The steering doesn't have quite as much feel as the old car, but can be much improved by putting ContiSport 6's on the front (rather than the 5P's). I'm now waiting for Continental to bring out the necessary tyres for the rear (or for me to run out of patience and buy some 20" rear wheels)

2) Slightly more wind noise than I expected (and, iirc, more than in the saloon)

3) As mentioned above, the car doesn't feel any quicker than the old above 4500 revs. Comparative road test measurements seem to back this feeling up

4) Can't skip multiple music tracks when using the sat nav as they've removed the forward/back buttons

5) The new car might easily be able to manage 26mpg on a motorway trip, but don't expect it to do any better than the old car in town driving. At least if you insist on using Sport+, which you will. I reckon I get 10% fewer miles per gallon in town than I used to (although, to be fair, I didn't run the old car around town in this mode) and the reality is probably worse than this. The new car refuses to register fuel consumption less than 9.4mpg, so that's where the reading sits whenever I do anything other than a long motorway journey.

All in all, the new car feels way more advanced than the ten years or so between the two models would suggest. The old car is still a very charming, capable, fun car, but it always most at home being used as a motorway cruiser. The new car lacks in some steering feel (getting those front tyres changed will go a long way towards fixing this), but in all other respects it is a huge leap forward and I don't regret it for a minute.
Having driven the new C63S the other day i agree with most things. Especially the low down pulling power but feeling similarly savage at higher revs.

New car much more capable but the old car has more character in my opinion and is more enjoyable at slower speeds.

jahill

41 posts

82 months

Tuesday 30th May 2017
quotequote all
I would agree the old car has a lot of character, yet at the same time the new car impresses with its own character over a period of time of getting to know it. It certainly doesn't feel like the through and though muscle car that the old one was.

Around town, I have to say I still prefer the new car, but mostly because the gear change on the old C63 was so jerky for so long that it always felt like a big, heavy car around town. Which reminds me about a point I missed and will add to my list: the steering accuracy of the new car feels razor sharp, whereas the old car always felt like there was some 'lag' built into reaction of the steering, which also made it feel a heavier car.

Whatever you decide to do, enjoy the ride :-)


Edited by jahill on Wednesday 31st May 00:35

alexpez

161 posts

227 months

Thursday 1st June 2017
quotequote all
What kind of range are you guys seeing on a full tank in the new one?

jahill

41 posts

82 months

Friday 2nd June 2017
quotequote all
I reckon somewhere close to 280 miles, but the car has only done 5000 miles so far and is still being run in. My previous C63 improved hugely between 5000 and 20,000 miles, so the numbers might improve.

Checking the iPhone app, my guesstimate seems about right - after a 100 mile motorway drive and several short journeys from cold, I'm seeing fuel at 59% with a 163 mile range.

Don't count on this around town, though. As I mentioned in my post above, I can struggle to get above the minimum number the trip computer will show of 9.4mpg...

PS on the old car, the refuel light would come on at around 180 miles

Edited by jahill on Friday 2nd June 03:39


Edited by jahill on Friday 2nd June 03:41

Andys1000

164 posts

125 months

Thursday 15th June 2017
quotequote all
RudeDog said:
I've had my W205 C63 for about 5-months now having replaced my W204 C63 back in April. I'm interested to know how others are getting on with theirs because I'm really quite disappointed with mine. It's not a patch on the old car.

- I've got lots of interior squeaks and rattles, particularly one annoying one on the driver door/window
- The speaker in the dash and one in the door vibrate when the bass is low. This is so annoying!
- The brakes squeal. Mercedes looked at them and said it was a known fault and they will come back to me when they have worked out a solution. 6-weeks on, they still can't figure it out.
- The iPod dock software needs a reboot because it disconnects my device intermittently.
- The standard seats are crap (OK this is my fault for not figuring it out before I bought it)
- The optional 19" alloys (five twin spoke design) on mine are proud of the rubber protector on the tyre which means that they are very easy to scuff. Not sure if this is a design flaw or if they were delivered with the wrong size tyre. Would be interested to know if others have this problem?

Overall, it just doesn't feel like a well made car. I never had any problem with my old car and my perception of the MB brand has taken a massive nose dive with this latest version. Annoyingly, I find myself hating the thing more and more every time I drive it.

Does anyone else have a similar feeling towards their P&J?

RD

Edited by RudeDog on Sunday 18th September 14:56
Not sure if you'd be interested, but I have just put up a video with a test drive and review of the AMG C63 S COUPE and found some similar issues and some great thing..

https://youtu.be/17XCQqToCIE

Please let me knwo what you think

Andy

jahill

41 posts

82 months

Saturday 17th June 2017
quotequote all
I'm going to hazard a guess that your test car had ContiSport 5P's on it. They give nothing like the steering feel or dry-weather grip of the ContiSport 6's (or, I gather, the Michelin PSS). They really let the side down.

rgv250ads

434 posts

113 months

Thursday 29th June 2017
quotequote all
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Have you test driven the Convertible C63/C63S ? Has anyone else or own own ?
It's the first car that's tempting me away from my SLK55 as we now have a 2year old and 'single use' of the SLK55 is reducing annual mileage to barely 1,000.

My parents recently brought an immaculate Lexus IS250C Folding hard top 4 seater, which I've driven and found sublime, but was too refined felt like a land yacht, immensely comfortable thou. It got me thinking..... what sort of love child would result with an SLK55 crossed with the IS250C.

At the mo the C63 Convertibles are way out of my price point, but in 4 years or so you never know. Reading tuning items on Weistec and Eurocharged get the juices flowing even more, for about £3k sterling you can get 600HP out of this 4.0L V8. Incredible.....


BigR

335 posts

161 months

Monday 3rd July 2017
quotequote all
Have just got shot of mine after 2 years of ownership.

The positives were the engine and overall engineering, the noise was very pleasing and the performance of the engine was mightily impressive.

The negatives were the general build quality of the car - i think categorically it was the worst screwed together car I've ever had. It went back 3 or 4 times to fix rattles, all of which were "we used some lube" (it could have been back every week, save for desire to actually use the car and simply not bothering). Guess what? a few hundred miles down the road and the noises were back. Indeed, it often came back with new rattles...

Squeaky brakes? Yes sir, AMG are working on a solution... 2 years later and...??

The gearbox was also difficult with a random change down from 2nd to 1st when you dropped below about 8mph. The result was regular 'kangarooing'. Again, they claimed that they'd done a software update and therefore it was all ok - never was and clearly they never bothered to check or follow my direction of how to experience it.

And finally, the customer service was hit and miss. I think Merc set themselves up by the big "we are Mercedes, of course you're going to get outstanding customer service". If they didn't try so hard, maybe expectations wouldn't be so high.

Will I have another Mercedes again? Maybe in the future at some point, but no real rush. Would I get another C63? Probably not merely because I tend to feel that I've ticked that particular box.

jahill

41 posts

82 months

Sunday 9th July 2017
quotequote all
I think the build quality dropped sometime around the early to mid-90's and has been gradually improving again over the past few years, I doubt we'll ever see the quality we saw in the 80's again, though.

My previous C63 felt like it was built like a tank, but occasionally had some rattle noises from somewhere around the glove box. The new one seems much better screwed together, with no rattles, but I've only done about 6000 miles so far.

I found the kangaroo hop as it drops down into 1st (I think I only experienced this in Sport+ mode) a total pain, but this seems to have been eliminated in the latest engine management and gearbox upgrades as this issue went away when I had mine updated. It was embarrassing to take people for a spin and have it constantly fluff up this gear change.

As mentioned above, the steering improves dramatically with ContiSport 6 tyres (and likely the latest Michelin Pilot Sport's).