chris10895
Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2016
- Messages
- 12
- Reaction score
- 4
- Location
- Winchester UK
- Your Mercedes
- B180/2011/1.7L
Since 2000 I have covered over 250,000 miles commuting in a couple of W168 A Classes. Both had to go eventually because of rust and increasing maintenance costs, and I drove a 55 plate Focus for 18 months before feeling the urge to return to the Mercedes fold. A very tidy, one owner, 27000 mile '11' plate W245 B Class with Comfort and Light and Sight packages seemed to fit the bill. I took several test drives in it … it seemed rather light on the steering, and unsettled on country roads but good on motorway and major roads. The front tyres (Michelin Energy Savers 205/55R16) were rather low, and pressures high (as per the label inside the fuel filler flap which offers only max loading settings of 32/38), but a swap of wheels front to rear and setting pressures at 29 all round improved matters quite a bit.
Moving forward a month … I have driven Volvos, BMWs, Fords, Hillman Imps, Previas, VWs, RangeRovers, various vans … the list goes on ... over a lifetime of motoring. This has to be the worst handling car yet. Yes, I did read as many reviews as possible … some were scathing, but most were just mildly critical, and some were even complimentary about the car's road manners.
On anything other than billiard-table-smooth surfaces, constant steering correction is the order of the day, and yesterday my passenger got a fright when the car lurched viciously at the rear as it drove round a corner and caught a small patch of damaged tarmac with one wheel.
The earlier A Class wasn't the best, but it was fairly stable and predictable. I'm guessing that this unruly behaviour has something to do with the move to a solid axle from the earlier independent links at the rear.
Steering alignment has been checked; it has also been checked by a Mercedes dealer.
Has anyone any ideas how to 'tame the beast' before I sell it, or throw good money at different tyres. Or are they just something that Mercedes should never have let out of the factory (what do they pay their designers and engineers for, I wonder)? That cheap old Focus? … drives like it is stuck to the road! If Ford can do it ….!!!
Any suggestions (short of a match and a can of petrol) would be gratefully received. I'd like to keep it … but I'm not sure that I can live with it as it stands. Thanks
Moving forward a month … I have driven Volvos, BMWs, Fords, Hillman Imps, Previas, VWs, RangeRovers, various vans … the list goes on ... over a lifetime of motoring. This has to be the worst handling car yet. Yes, I did read as many reviews as possible … some were scathing, but most were just mildly critical, and some were even complimentary about the car's road manners.
On anything other than billiard-table-smooth surfaces, constant steering correction is the order of the day, and yesterday my passenger got a fright when the car lurched viciously at the rear as it drove round a corner and caught a small patch of damaged tarmac with one wheel.
The earlier A Class wasn't the best, but it was fairly stable and predictable. I'm guessing that this unruly behaviour has something to do with the move to a solid axle from the earlier independent links at the rear.
Steering alignment has been checked; it has also been checked by a Mercedes dealer.
Has anyone any ideas how to 'tame the beast' before I sell it, or throw good money at different tyres. Or are they just something that Mercedes should never have let out of the factory (what do they pay their designers and engineers for, I wonder)? That cheap old Focus? … drives like it is stuck to the road! If Ford can do it ….!!!
Any suggestions (short of a match and a can of petrol) would be gratefully received. I'd like to keep it … but I'm not sure that I can live with it as it stands. Thanks