C200 BlueEFFICIENCY SE 125 Auto 5-door Estate

A bit of a curate's egg - good in parts, not in others

I bought this in 2011 to replace a "moon and back" C250 diesel estate that had served me well until it rusted away. First the good news. Lovely looking thing (though this is subjective) but I always feel good as I approach it, looking smart in "Fire Opal" - which is bright red. Not so good is the interior, in light grey, totally impractical. The reason I have this is that I initially bought a similar car in white with a black interior, but this seemed to be a Friday afternoon" car, and I swapped it under a 30 day exchange deal, and this was the only one available with a towbar, and COMAND sat-nav, which is a country mile ahead of the Becker system. Three main niggles. Firstly, trip computer over-states mpg by c. 10%, the real calculated brim-to-brim figure is mid-to-late forties, and I am not a hard driver. The old car exceeded the state forecast, this one was well-behind it, so disappointing in that sense. Though mainly solid, build quality is poor in parts, the kickplates being nasty plastic that come loose whilst pretending to be stainless steel. Reliability good, except for two wheel sensors recently, at c.£250 a pop, an a hard-to-fix minor water leak by the fuel pump. Final niggle is that I find the car difficult to remain comfortable in on a long journey, possibly because of an offset steering wheel, and awkward angle of the seat squab, which won't rise enough at the front, when lifted at the back. For this reason I was going to buy a new(er) one, but the latest "C" is getting too big, and crucially doesn't have a spare wheel. The main reason for hanging on to it is that there is a good non-franchised dealer within walking distance if needed, and a franchised dealer not that far away (both in Herts) though I actually get the car serviced in Devon for reasons of past association - the Exeter and Taunton dealers are very good. Overall operating cost has been 61.16p/mile, over 43,000 miles odd, of which 38.5p is depreciation. Within this, my tyre cost is low, and looks like c.34,000 miles per set, and I change early for safety reasons. Last insurance renewal was around £350, tax is £130. Real-world mpg is c.47mpg on average, less with a load and more light-laden in the summer. Sound/entertainment system is excellent, though lacking Digital Radio, which may become an issue eventually. Has been described as a computer with a pretty good car attached! Ride is comfortable, and it feels solid, but not quite as quiet as I expected. I would say a good second-hand buy, now available (late 2017) for around £8-9k. No rust on this one (they seem to have sorted that out – the old one was the first of the water-based painted cars, and I don’t think they knew what they were doing then) and given the odd niggle largely down to the electronic complexity of all cars these days, likely to rumble on pretty well.

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