2008 Mercedes-Benz C300 Sport

CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
Detailed editors' rating
Comfort: 8.0
Performance: 7.0
Design: 9.0
Overall score: 7.9 (3.5 stars)
• Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 19 reviews
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Product summary

CNET editors' review

• Reviewed by: Wayne Cunningham
• Reviewed on: 10/15/2007

For a remarkably affordable price, the 2008 Mercedes-Benz C300 Sport model gives you better cabin tech than we've seen in Mercedes-Benz models costing more than $100,000. To be fair, the C300 is a 2008 model, and we've only seen 2007 models so far (of the more-upscale models). But the way cabin tech upgrades go, it might be a couple of model years before we see these tech upgrades in something like the CL550.

Mercedes-Benz seriously updated its C-class for 2008, and now offers the C300 Sport, the C300 Luxury, and the C350 Sport, all in sedan form. For stylistic differentiation, the Sport model gets a three-bar grille with a big Mercedes-Benz badge in the middle, while the Luxury trim gets the badge as a hood ornament. We were very impressed with the C300 Sport we tested, which sits at the bottom of Mercedes-Benz's U.S. lineup. Along with its new cabin tech features, it drives very well, presenting some serious competition, both in performance and price, to Infiniti's G series.

Test the tech: Voice versus buttons
When we got the 2008 Mercedes-Benz C300, we noticed that its voice command system worked very well, offering a lot of intuitive commands to control the navigation, audio, and phone systems. And we also took note of the updated COMAND system, a knob on the console that mimics the interface in the S550 and CL550. To test out both systems, we selected a guinea pig from the office here, one of our colleagues who was unfamiliar with both interfaces. We wanted to compare the interfaces and also see how a novice handled them.

Jasmine France, editor of MP3 player reviews for CNET, agreed to be timed while performing three basic tasks, once with the COMAND interface and once with voice command. For the first task, we asked her to use the navigation system to find a place to eat. Using manual control, she tried to enter the names of a couple of restaurants, but none of them showed up. Finally she resorted to drilling down through the restaurant category to Italian cuisine and selecting a nearby restaurant. Counting her frustrated attempts to find a specific restaurant, her total time was 3 minutes, 59 seconds. Using voice command, she hit another dead end, getting stuck in the address entry rather than restaurant points of interest (POI). Eventually she found the right commands and set a destination for the same restaurant she found with the manual controls, all in 5 minutes, 28 seconds. That's one point for COMAND over voice.

Her next task was finding a music station she liked on Sirius Satellite Radio. Using the dial and buttons of the COMAND system, she quickly found the audio selection menu, moved to the Electronic channels category, and selected Area 33, taking only 26 seconds. Using voice command she was helped along by screen prompts showing available commands, but instead of dialing right to her station, she used the Next Station and Previous Station commands to find Area 33, taking 1 minute, 20 seconds. She could have saved some time by issuing the command "Station Area 33," which this voice command system understands. That's two points for COMAND over voice.

Her final task was to dial a number using the C300's hands-free Bluetooth system. Using COMAND, she quickly found the phone menu, then input each number. From start to the sound of the phone ringing took 27 seconds, another quick time. Using voice command, she performed the same task. Again, she got to the phone menu right away and started dialing the number. But this process took more time--1 minute, 22 seconds--because she entered each number of the 10-digit phone number one at a time. She could have saved time by speaking the entire number string, but the system prompted her fairly quickly when she started entering the number, making her think it wanted the numbers one at a time. Final score: COMAND 3, voice 0.

In the cabin
The cabin of the 2008 Mercedes-Benz C300 uses a lot of cool, new features. We're very pleased that Mercedes-Benz updated the COMAND interface, improving the switchgear and the software interface over what's found in other lower-end Mercedes-Benz models. We've too often seen the faded blue maps and fiddly plastic joysticks in cars sporting the tri-star. The updated system uses better-looking maps, a more refined audio and phone interface, and the console-mounted knob and back button.

And, as a step up from more expensive models, the C300 gets a hard drive-based navigation system. This means faster response times and no extra slot for a map DVD. Although we think the look of the maps is definitely improved, we are a little annoyed that you have to put the map view on maximum zoom to see all street names. Fortunately, a mere twist of the COMAND knob zooms the map in all the way. Generally we found entering destinations easy, although, as illustrated above, just entering in the name of a particular POI didn't produce results. We're also surprised that, with all the space afforded on a har-ddrive system, it doesn't include POIs for most retail stores. Instead, it just gives you a category named "Shopping Centers."

We liked the system's route guidance. For one test, we drove the car down the coast, on Highway 1, then set a destination using the map. We were easily able to move the map around, picking a spot on a particular road. With the destination set, the system quickly computed a route, highlighting it in blue. The system also let us browse through a few alternative routes. Once begun, the system's female voice gave us ample warning of upcoming turns. However, it doesn't have text-to-speech, so it wouldn't try to pronounce the names of streets.

An additional benefit of the hard drive-based navigation system is that 4GB of space are left over for music storage. We would have liked a bit more space, but as it was, the 10 albums we had stored only took up half a gigabyte of space. Under the interface, that storage space is named "Music Register." You can fill it up by putting standard CDs into the six-disc changer and selecting Copy. The system has the Gracenote database and will correctly label most tracks. It files them by artist name then album name, making it easy to navigate directories.

We also really like the interface for satellite and broadcast radio, done up with a graphic treatment that looks like an old-style horizontal tuner. The six-disc changer reads MP3 and WMA CDs as well as video and audio DVDs. The interface for CDs is easy to use, showing encoded track information, and the DVD capability was a nice surprise. You can watch a movie in the car while it's in park. An iPod interface is an option that we didn't have available on our car, but we assume it's much better than what we saw on the ML550. One strange addition is a PC Card slot just below the disc slot. You can use this with a PC Card adapter to plug in SD cards and CompactFlash, to round out your digital-music options.

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User reviews

• Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 19 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars Write review

• Showing 3 of 19 user reviewsSee all 19 user reviews

• 3.5 stars

  4 out of 4 people found this review helpful

  "vs. G35?? Comeon"

  by paindoc66 on October 17, 2007

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• 4.5 stars

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

  "in-car gadgets"

  by dsdev on November 23, 2007

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• 3.0 stars

  2 out of 3 people found this review helpful

  "MPG not good enough"

  by KBhky on October 17, 2007

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• See all 19 user reviews Write review

Where to buy

2008 Mercedes-Benz C300 Sport: $32,900.00

store	price	in stock?	rating
Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price From Edmunds.com	$32,900.00	No

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Where to buy 2008 Mercedes-Benz C300 Sport

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• Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price From Edmunds.com $32,900.00 See site
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