JohnRBaker
Mechanical
- Jun 1, 2006
- 37,173
I know that some of the things that I'm about to mention is not really 'new' technology but I still think that it's interesting and am wondering what others think of this.
First a bit of a back story; we hadn't purchased a new vehicle since 2014 and we hadn't been looking at new cars since we try to buy what we want, take good care of it and then drive it for 10 or 12 years. At the moment I've got six years on my 2013 GMC Terrain and my wife had five years on her 2014 Honda Civic, so we assumed that we would be good for at least another five or six years. Unfortunately, about a month ago my wife was involved in an accident. No one was hurt, but her car sustained enough damage that the insurance company totaled it. For the record, the local police adjudicated the accident as having been 51% to 49% my wife's fault. No tickets were issued, however, they ruled that my wife failed to yield the right-of-way, but that the other driver failed to take any action whatsoever trying to avoid the accident (the police officer's opinion was that while they couldn't prove it, they said the evidence appears to indicate that the other drive may have been distracted, perhaps either texting or doing something else with her cell phone at the time of the accident. She also may have been exceeding the speed limit.). Since the responsibility for the accident was basically a toss-up, our insurance company is NOT going to ding our insurance with a 'chargeable' accident, although we did have to pay the deductible.
Anyway, to make a long story a bit shorter, the payoff from the insurance company was MUCH higher than I had expected, about TWICE what I had estimated when I checked the 'Kelly Blue Book' website (the car was fully paid for so all of the money was ours). This completely changed our plans for what we were going to buy as a replacement. Before we heard what the payout was going to be, we were planning on getting another vehicle in the Honda Civic class (my wife liked the car, just that she wished for something a bit bigger). When we started to look around we decided to go up-scale a bit. Ever since my wife was in high school and a classmate of hers drove a Mercedes, she had wanted one, however we had never considered it, thinking it was just too expensive for our budget. However, we went to our local Mercedes-Benz dealer, sort of on a lark but before we left my wife had a nice 'new' C300 sedan. I said 'new' since it's actually a 2018 pre-owned model that had been used as a loaner car and had only 7,000 miles on it. As a pre-owned, fully certified car, we get the full four-year, unlimited mileage, factory warranty, starting from the date WE bought the car. They discounted the price significantly, particularly when we told them that we were prepared to put a substantial CASH down-payment (we still had to finance the balance but with a credit score of 844, you can get some pretty good deals).
Now this Mercedes C300 didn't have ALL the bells & whistles, but what it does have it still pretty cool. In addition to things that we were already familiar with, like back-up cameras, navigation systems, satellite radio, Bluetooth linking of your cell phone for hands-free use, there were a lot of other stuff that we had never had before. Now some are things that I had experienced in rental cars, like a blind-spot warning system and stop-start engine management, but a few things were completely new for us. This included something called Apple Car-Play where the relevant apps on you iPhone are accessible from the flat-panel display, such as Message and Music. Also a totally keyless entry/exit/drive system, run-flat tires, automatic-folding side-mirrors, memory seats, auto-adjusting seat-belts, Dynamic Select that gives you five different ride/drive response systems that includes settings for maximum economy, comfort, and two levels of sport driving and even a mode where you can customize most of the driving behavior options. It also has a nine-speed transmission with can be driven using F1-style paddle shifters.
What really impressed me is what has been done to improve efficiency. First off, is that this is a four-cylinder, turbo-boosted engine that really responds, even if you're driving in the 'Comfort' mode. I suspect that the nine-speed transmission also helps as it keeps the engine in it's most efficient RPM-range. But there was something that I had not expected. Now this car is NOT a hybrid, but it does have what they call a 'recuperation' system where when you slow down, the drivetrain, using some sort of generative, energy-recovery system that bypasses the alternator and recharges the battery during the slowdown (this is not based on braking as there is a 'charge' indicator on the dash and it lights-up even if all you're doing is backing-off on the throttle and before you apply the brakes). Now this is reported to save gas as the alternator is not engaged full time. This car also has electric-assist steering, which saves robbing engine power (now I have that on my 2013 GMC Terrain but the C300 steering is computer-controlled based on the different driving modes and your speed). We have a neighbor with a 2017 C300 and he's always bragging about the great gas mileage he gets and while I've tended to dismiss his claims, I'm starting to see that perhaps he may be right. Also, they've reduced the weight of the car significantly by replacing a lot of the chassis parts, not the outer body work, but interior structures with more aluminum, as much as 300 lbs or so.
Anyway, so far we've been very impressed by what we've seen and can understand why the C300 has become so popular, at least out here on the Left-Coast.
Oh and one other thing, I've never felt a paint job as smooth as what you feel when you run your hand over the hood or fender of this car, and keep in mind that it is a year old and has been driven 7,000+ miles before we took it home.
Here's a couple of pictures of the car (these are shots of the actual car, taken from the dealer's website on the day we bought it).
John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
First a bit of a back story; we hadn't purchased a new vehicle since 2014 and we hadn't been looking at new cars since we try to buy what we want, take good care of it and then drive it for 10 or 12 years. At the moment I've got six years on my 2013 GMC Terrain and my wife had five years on her 2014 Honda Civic, so we assumed that we would be good for at least another five or six years. Unfortunately, about a month ago my wife was involved in an accident. No one was hurt, but her car sustained enough damage that the insurance company totaled it. For the record, the local police adjudicated the accident as having been 51% to 49% my wife's fault. No tickets were issued, however, they ruled that my wife failed to yield the right-of-way, but that the other driver failed to take any action whatsoever trying to avoid the accident (the police officer's opinion was that while they couldn't prove it, they said the evidence appears to indicate that the other drive may have been distracted, perhaps either texting or doing something else with her cell phone at the time of the accident. She also may have been exceeding the speed limit.). Since the responsibility for the accident was basically a toss-up, our insurance company is NOT going to ding our insurance with a 'chargeable' accident, although we did have to pay the deductible.
Anyway, to make a long story a bit shorter, the payoff from the insurance company was MUCH higher than I had expected, about TWICE what I had estimated when I checked the 'Kelly Blue Book' website (the car was fully paid for so all of the money was ours). This completely changed our plans for what we were going to buy as a replacement. Before we heard what the payout was going to be, we were planning on getting another vehicle in the Honda Civic class (my wife liked the car, just that she wished for something a bit bigger). When we started to look around we decided to go up-scale a bit. Ever since my wife was in high school and a classmate of hers drove a Mercedes, she had wanted one, however we had never considered it, thinking it was just too expensive for our budget. However, we went to our local Mercedes-Benz dealer, sort of on a lark but before we left my wife had a nice 'new' C300 sedan. I said 'new' since it's actually a 2018 pre-owned model that had been used as a loaner car and had only 7,000 miles on it. As a pre-owned, fully certified car, we get the full four-year, unlimited mileage, factory warranty, starting from the date WE bought the car. They discounted the price significantly, particularly when we told them that we were prepared to put a substantial CASH down-payment (we still had to finance the balance but with a credit score of 844, you can get some pretty good deals).
Now this Mercedes C300 didn't have ALL the bells & whistles, but what it does have it still pretty cool. In addition to things that we were already familiar with, like back-up cameras, navigation systems, satellite radio, Bluetooth linking of your cell phone for hands-free use, there were a lot of other stuff that we had never had before. Now some are things that I had experienced in rental cars, like a blind-spot warning system and stop-start engine management, but a few things were completely new for us. This included something called Apple Car-Play where the relevant apps on you iPhone are accessible from the flat-panel display, such as Message and Music. Also a totally keyless entry/exit/drive system, run-flat tires, automatic-folding side-mirrors, memory seats, auto-adjusting seat-belts, Dynamic Select that gives you five different ride/drive response systems that includes settings for maximum economy, comfort, and two levels of sport driving and even a mode where you can customize most of the driving behavior options. It also has a nine-speed transmission with can be driven using F1-style paddle shifters.
What really impressed me is what has been done to improve efficiency. First off, is that this is a four-cylinder, turbo-boosted engine that really responds, even if you're driving in the 'Comfort' mode. I suspect that the nine-speed transmission also helps as it keeps the engine in it's most efficient RPM-range. But there was something that I had not expected. Now this car is NOT a hybrid, but it does have what they call a 'recuperation' system where when you slow down, the drivetrain, using some sort of generative, energy-recovery system that bypasses the alternator and recharges the battery during the slowdown (this is not based on braking as there is a 'charge' indicator on the dash and it lights-up even if all you're doing is backing-off on the throttle and before you apply the brakes). Now this is reported to save gas as the alternator is not engaged full time. This car also has electric-assist steering, which saves robbing engine power (now I have that on my 2013 GMC Terrain but the C300 steering is computer-controlled based on the different driving modes and your speed). We have a neighbor with a 2017 C300 and he's always bragging about the great gas mileage he gets and while I've tended to dismiss his claims, I'm starting to see that perhaps he may be right. Also, they've reduced the weight of the car significantly by replacing a lot of the chassis parts, not the outer body work, but interior structures with more aluminum, as much as 300 lbs or so.
Anyway, so far we've been very impressed by what we've seen and can understand why the C300 has become so popular, at least out here on the Left-Coast.
Oh and one other thing, I've never felt a paint job as smooth as what you feel when you run your hand over the hood or fender of this car, and keep in mind that it is a year old and has been driven 7,000+ miles before we took it home.
Here's a couple of pictures of the car (these are shots of the actual car, taken from the dealer's website on the day we bought it).
John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
