Contrasting driving to Carnac in an E220 compared to an X300.

[emwmarine]

Well a few weeks ago I drove to Rouen and took the X300. I talked about it on a post on here. Well last weekend I had to drive to Carnac in Brittany from Paris and back. In the event, this time I rented a car from Paris to do the 500km each way, along with a couple of hundred when there. I rented a c class merc and they gave me a free upgrade to the very latest e220 diesel. So, I got to know the car pretty well over the 1200 odd km and I thought it would be useful to contrast it against the x300 and for that matter my own c180 petrol daily driver , 2011.

First of all the good bits. Clearly for a car that is twenty five years younger in design than the x300 the benz should be more refined and advanced in every way. Well, it is to a degree. The performance from the diesel is astonishing. The fuel economy for the size of the car and performance is also incredible. I got 50 mpg according to the computer with motorway speeds always around the French legal limit. The noise suppression on the motorway is also very good although there was a fair amount of tyre noise from the wider lower profile tyres. The ride was also incredibly smooth. Probably as good as the x300s.

Now the bad bits and where I think technology and progress is ruining cars in terms of driver enjoyment.

1) Modern active safety aids. These are a nightmare. I first realised that this car is wrapped in Cotten wool when I was creeping up to a traffic light on red in Paris at walking speed. With a couple of meters to go a pedestrian started to cross the road , quite safely, and the car had a nervous breakdown. It slammed the brakes on and lights started flashing 'pedestrian in the way'. The guy behind nearly went into the back of me. The 'lane assist'. This would be brilliant if on the motorway you could set the lane assist and adaptive cruise control and then have a kip but you cant. You have to keep you hands on the wheel or the car stops. But the problem there is that when you have the hands on the wheel, the lane assist is constantly fidgeting with the wheel to keep you in the lane. It's incredibly irritating and a bit like being in a 1960's Sean Connery bond film when Bond is sawing at the wheel. It had to be switched off once I got tired of the novelty value. Then there is adaptive cruise control. Great idea but it can't cope with overtaking on a busy motorway. In a stream of traffic on a four laned road it braked hard as it thought a lorry I was overtaking on a bend was in front of me when it wasn't. Another buttock clenching moment for the car behind. So I had to drive all the way with cruise control off.

2) Engine and gearbox. long live the 4 speed auto and straight six torquey Jaguar engine. The benz engine had a huge slug of torque in a tiny rev range. The 9 speed auto box was sublime in its changes. However it worked by constantly changing gear to keep the engine in that rev range. It was incredibly irritating in urban driving. The diesel engine though quiet on the motorway wasn't at town speeds and the constant gear changes got very wearing.

3) Taste. The dashboard was completely digital and came with a gps screen that was as big as my TV at home. Along with any colour you want 'ambient ' lighting. The whole inside should have worked well in Vegas but really isn't what you could describe as refined or tastful.

So the whole point of this rant is really to conclude that I would have preferred to have been in the Jaguar, or even my 2011 c class merc, or even the wife's Ford Kuga. I think cars are going down a route to automation and anodyne passengerdom that will remove all pleasure from driving. Let's hope the old cars will still be allowed on the road when automation and electric cars completely take over.