Miscellany: Mercedes-Benz 2013 C300 4Matic review - The Black Mirror

I've had my BMW 328i (F30) for years now and it's proven to be a fine car, except for the stupidly high repair costs (I'm sure I've put my mechanics' kids through college by now). It was one of those multi-day repairs that made me rent the subject of today's review, a 2013 Mercedes C300 4Matic.

It was the same model year as my 328i, but while this example had about 50,000 fewer miles on it than my car, it had not been maintained half as well.  The decals on the interior switches were eroded down to nothing, the aftermarket steering wheel cover made it feel like a baseball bat, and the worn-out suspension bounced the car around like a carnival ride. Let's move away from this particular example, though, and speak more generally about the C-Class, the traditional rival of the BMW 3-series.

The 2013 C300 was the last year of the third generation (W204 model code).  Unlike the 3-series, the boys from Stuttgart that year opted for a naturally aspirated, direct-injected 3.5-liter V6 (Mercedes would switch to a turbo four in the next generation). I found that the old V6 was less noisy and a little smoother than my F30's engine, but it got noticeably worse gas mileage and was slightly slower off the line.  The C300's sluggish 7-speed transmission didn't help matters, nor did the all-wheel drive system, which added a couple hundred pounds to the curb weight.

The interior of the 2013 C-Class was fairly well laid out, but there were some antiquated controls, like a numeric keypad and air conditioning dials that looked like they came from Grandpa's basement. The infotainment system had wireless Bluetooth, but the interface was pretty stark and ugly, even compared to my car.

The seats were comparable to the 3-series of the time - comfy, but not terribly supportive during hard cornering.  Both Mercedes and BMW use seats with a lot more bolstering nowadays, since today's luxury sedan buyer is looking for more sportiness than an SUV.  And everything felt a little cramped by modern standards.  Comparing like for like, the W204 was a smaller car overall than the F30, and it shows. Even the trunk was a bit smaller:

The C300 was an interesting ride, a different sort of take on the compact luxury segment from 10 years ago. If I had bought it back then, I don't think I'd necessarily be unhappy.  In the end, though, I was glad to get my car back.