(I am not stalking you Steve)

Had a test in an A4 today with the auto handbrake thingy. It’s neat in as much as you flick a little lever to engage it and don’t have to bother to disengage when you pull away. It does, however, clunk just a little when you first start to pull off. I am guessing it doesn’t fully disengage until it detects you trying to move off, so it is reactive rather than proactive.

How do find hill starts in a manual Merc?

Steve

I drove a Manual C180 once.... not something i would do again.... stick to the autobox.....

Yeah yeah, whatever

I tried the electric handbrake in a Passat hire car at work. It didn't work. Which was amusing. Just as the Hertz guy walked away from it as well. Ah well, it only hit one of the MDs 5s, it was absolutely fine

Moral: if it's not broken, don't fix it! Or indeed, make it worse than it was before. I'll take the handbrake with a lever located on the transmission tunnel thanks

Steve

I drove a Manual C180 once.... not something i would do again.... stick to the autobox.....

Absolutely. They make particularly terrible manual boxes too. Which is why it's difficult to find them. Take this as a sign

Reinventing the wheel, building the better mousetrap and improving Tunnocks Caramel wafers all spring to mind.

yep Merc manuals are rubbish but I would have one rather than an auto on a 190 2.3/2.5 16 as engine very peaky.

I drove a Manual C180 once.... not something i would do again.... stick to the autobox.....

Yup! Drove one of the coupe ones in a manual and talk about faffy!

And as Steve said... rubbish manual boxes too! One thing that merc has always been good at and that's making a slush box.

I once drive a C200 auto estate too and the brakes failed on me for no apparant reason so crashed into a metal fence (no damage to either as low speed reverse). Brakes were fine before and after :confused: The only way I managed to stop was to ram it into Park... man what a racket from the gearbox that caused!

Its not too bad to be honest, I think it would be much harder in a Petrol but the CDI has plenty of torque and a good strong clutch for pulling away....it needs it ....otherwise the hill starts would be a real pig.....still not 100% sure its the car for me.

Gave it a real good tcut and polish, put some new 17's with toyo's on it and had a remap...but it still might be for sale soon lol... going to look for a Superb TDI