Sadly, the car goes back a little later this morning.
On the way home yesterday, I had the opportunity to "push" it a bit more than I did on the way down. Respond it did. It does indeed handle very well, and accelerate very well (with, apparentlly, a sweet, authoritative if not raucous exhaust note). While the quiet interior doesn't let you hear the exhaust note, my companion in the other car--a C350, heard it quite well.
There is a lot to do in the Nav system I'm afraid. I don't think it is as easy to use, or logical in operation as an off the shelf Garmin or Magellan or TomTom. For example, it rarely recites the primary road you are on, just the secondary. So, if you have maintained driving on Interstate 70, and part of I70 is joined by a stretch of I55, it will tell you to maintain travel on I55. Your first reaction is "But wait, I'm on I70!" The signage it presents doesn't match the road signage very well. I would not expect it should, however my Magellan does match it very well--surprisingly not only in words but appearance, too. Too many features require you to take your eyes off the road and hit buttons on the console. The buttons are small and the lettering even smaller. My Magellan, my Ford, and most modern units are touch screen with large, well market actions. Then there's the direction itself, ostensibly the reason to have a Nav system in the first place. On the way down it took me off the interstate (I didn't know why) to a road with a T; it gave no direction at the T. I made the turn, and then it directed me back onto the interstate. What was that all about, I don't know.
It did not appear to have a "preference" setting; i.e. avoid tolls, avoid 2-lane roads, or whatever; if it did, it wasn't obvious. It calculates the route with authority, but gives you alternates to choose from. It's hard to see precisely what lies ahead in the alternates. On the way home last night it had me on 2-lane roads running through NW Ohio. Pleasant, but why not the interstate? Even more interesting, the main 2-lane it had me on was sometimes 4-lane: US-24. However it kept taking me OFF the US-24 bypasses and through towns. For $116,000 perfection is expected and shortcomings would hardly be tolerated, especially on something built in. I will fully accept the fact that some issues and challenges with the interior features (nav, audio etc.) are due to my lack of familarity with the car. However, good ergonomics includes intuitive interfaces that don't require a lot of learning, IMHO.
Now, that C350? Price aside, it is a
delight. Tight, fast, nimble--like a pocket rocket on
rails. Tight quick steering, lots of road and steering feel (most of which is damped in the CL) After driving it for 20 miles, my first words out of the car were "I LOVE this car!". I didn't play with that Nav system or anything, because I was too engaged in the delight of driving. Wow. I think you could have a new C350 with about $70,000 change for the price of the CL 550. Drawing a logical conclusion, I would expect the overall feel and experience of the E350 to be somwhere between the two cars we had. I think the C350 had the "Sport Package" since it had AMG wheels, large cross drilled front rotors, but it was not the AMG.
If there is a next time, maybe they'll give us the C63 AMG??
Sadly Joe, I can't get anybody to pay for anything in my life
, but at least the gas was covered. I don't often have the opportunity to drive a new Mercedes, much less one for 2 days and 1200 miles, so I could not pass it up! My alternative was a cheap ($150) but boring airline flight. My young companion, the VP of my MBCA section, even had his airline ticket already and gave it up to drive the C350. Now that's dedication.
