Hollywood

Had an opportunity to play and drive the W204 the other day. An amazing car, BMW will be very worried. The telephone system works really well, easy to use and understand. Bluetooth works well with both COMAND and the standard stereo. If you have COMAND, you can have you address book listings saved to the hard drive of the COMAND unit. You can either send them via bluetooth one by one (takes for ever) or if you have the SAP cradle, you can insert your sim card into the cradle and save them all at once. The system can store 10 phones for COMAND and 15 for the standard stereo.

You can also store songs on the COMAND hard drive. The hard drive (40GB) stores the sat nav info for faster map and data read. I think there is only about 4 or 8 GB of room for MP3, WMA or AAC music files. you can put these files on a CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R or via the PCMCIA slot and use SD cards to transfer the files. The COMAND system play DVD Video and SACD. The standard system via the CD Changer will play MP3 CD's.

Been informed that there are no plans for the C350 for Australia.

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Monster

Not surprised, i have seen more SL55AMGs and SL65 AMGs than C350s in Sydney. I dont' think anyone will spend around $100k AUD for a C-class, even if it is really good.

cawimmer430

So if Australia won't get the C350, no C63 AMG as well?

Monster

I see more C55 AMGs than C350 in Sydney, so i guess there is a small but profitable market in Australia for high performance sedans, but the C350 is caught in no man's land. An E280, or a CLK200 is worth around the same as a C350 in Australia, so i can see where people put their money in. Australians in general perfer larger cars, espically for those who can afford them. If they can afford to pay $100k for a car, i think they want something more comfortable and something more prestigious, such as an E-class or a CLK.

The C63 AMG is different, for many, the AMG version is worth paying the extra money for.

cawimmer430

I see. Thanks for the info.

Well keep us updated once your dad decides to buy a C63 AMG.

Monster

i can only hope , keep us updated once your dad decides to put the 7.3 V12 into your SL

cawimmer430

7.3 is too underpowered. He wants to source the 8.3-l V10 from the Dodge Viper.

Mr. Mercedes

Monster, I think it's more to do with the pending engine upgrades and the lack of competitiveness against the 335i. A C350 would easily be more expensive then the BMW and would get thumped performance wise. The C300 allows Benz to position the vehicles slightly differently for the time being, but there is no way they will leave the BMW's extensive engine line up unanswered for too long.

MB Australia is probably also avoiding annoying people who would pay top dollar for a 'range topping' c350 only to find it superseded within 1 1/2 years. We'll get a much more complete line up when the new range of engines is out. For the Australian market, this will satisfice for now. Well that’s my theory at least.

MrsMerc

Hollywood, are you in Sydney? How did you get to 'play and drive the W204'?

nazca

According to this link at the RVCS website it looks like the C350 has been approved for sale in Australia:

- ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

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