180 BlueEFFICIENCY Sport Auto 5dr Estate

Well made, comfortable drive

I bought this car to replace a much cheaper Insignia as we needed an estate, my wife didn't like the manual and she had lost confidence in the car after three coolant related breakdowns in a month. It is comparatively exceptional, unsurprisingly.

Pros:
- Despite being a Sport model it is comfortable, cruises well and the 1.8 petrol is flexible and powerful enough to make brisk progress.
- Automatic gearbox is excellent.
- Build quality is superb. No rattles or squeaks, and you wouldn't believe the car is 7 years old looking at the interior, it's practically new.
- Tyres, although wheels are staggered with wider rears, are not too costly (18 inch at ~£400 a full set).
- Voice control works really well
- Reasonable economy, around 32 to 35 on short runs and around 39 to 42 on the motorway.
- 'Toys' such as adaptive lighting that turns as you turn the wheel make driving much more relaxing.

Cons:
- Not the largest boot for an estate, though it is a very usable space.
- Automatic gearbox holds revs in 1st for an age when moving away, usually not changing up till about 3k+ rpm. Apparently normal for this vehicle and engine.
- Automatic gearbox can take a while to change down in economy mode when you go for an overtake. You get used to it, and in sport mode it's superb.
- Every wiper and indicator control is on one 'mega-stalk' on the left of the wheel, which takes a bit of getting used too.
- Parking sensors... this Mercedes design has taken a well working audible method and made it mainly light only (so you're watching lights and not your mirrors) and put the rear on the roof at the back of the car (so you are glued to the rear view mirror, at an awkward angle, when reversing). The vehicle screams at you for the last 2 lights of a ~10 light bar on each corner of the vehicle, but is silent for the rest. Really stupid and dangerous idea. On the plus side it makes you very careful when parking!
- Mercedes service history is online only, so if you want to use an independent they need access to update it (not a major headache, but limits the choice).

Overall it is a well built, thought out, practical vehicle, with all the toys you could want. It drives well, is comfortable, and reasonably economical for what it is. For the parking sensors alone I would have to knock points off, as they just don't work even 10% as well as acoustic-only sensors (I mean why not at least do both across the whole process?!).

I would definitely recommend it, especially if you have a good local independent Mercedes specialist to service it.

First Mercedes, definitely won't be my last!

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