This past Saturday I test drove the Mercedes 2008 C 350 and 300. It was located in Morristown, NJ at the FTC Private Terminal. It was a windy chilly day but I was also stuck in traffic, so I was a little late. In the end I managed to grab some pictures and test drive the car on a closed and street course.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJVAlFussA4[/youtube]It should have been a little better - due to the fact I was not able to push the car to its limits. Well here are some pictures:
I enjoyed the test drive. Let me go in to a little detail about the courses.
The Street Course
The street course was what it sounded like. We actually drove the C class sport on a course, guided by one of the Mercedes guy. I really wanted to drive the vehicle off course and just bring it back I felt it was tested. The walkie talkie on the side of me prevented me, if I did I would have probably been kicked out.
We went through a closed parking lot with bumps and curves. The shocking part about the ride was the shocks actually picked up nicely. I felt really comfortable in the car. While on the street course I was ignoring what the guy was saying and just following the person in front of me. Why? I wanted to see and test the speakers and the music, so I blasted the radio. Beautiful I can say!
Closed Course
I did not like the closed course at all. I had to wait at least 30 minutes. Once I was on the closed course. I peeled on the straight away and then had to make 2 sharp turns, then onto a right curve turn. Then came more turns and more turn and more turns after that. I could not speed up and slam on my brakes to test the brakes.
During the waiting though - I was speaking to one of the Mercedes guy and he said a person got kicked out because they just went through all the cones and did not even care about the course.
While my turn was finish - a person was driving around the course with the e brake on. They had to stop him and remind him of the e brake.
Overall Experience
I enjoyed the test drive, though it was not what I expected. I have chatted with several people and some stated the test drive 3 years ago was far better, one said "they actually let you abuse the car."
This year it was more controlled - which is ok I guess since some drivers may take it way too far. Hope you enjoyed the video above!
