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Mercedes C300 is a Suitable Sacramento Realtor Vehicle
Elizabeth Weintraub and 2016 Mercedes C300 in the Sacramento rain, with her Porsche in background.
If you had asked me yesterday morning what kind of car this Sacramento Realtor was going to buy on Saturday, I would not have said a 2016 Mercedes C300. For one thing, it’s a four-door and considered a sedan, so the photos online did not appeal to me. I like a sportier car. Which is why I drove a Porsche Boxster. And why I left home in the rain thinking I would probably buy the BMW 228i convertible. Niello BMW has such a vehicle on the lot, metallic black with a red interior, goes from 0 to 60 in 5.7 seconds.
BMW 228I convertible with Elizabeth Weintraub
Plus, Niello BMW over on Fulton is a nice dealership to deal with. Everybody is laid back. The Consumer Report customer satisfaction ratings for BMW are much higher than for Mercedes. On top of that, Mark Cornell at BMW is a friendly, straight forward kinda guy. But so is the sales manager, Jose Armenta, at Mercedes. Yet, Jose gave me a much better deal on my Porsche trade-in and more of a discount off the C300 than BMW offered. I thought since Niello also owned the Porsche dealership that it would have offered more for my Porsche than Mercedes, but that was an incorrect assumption.
Let’s just say that for two cars priced very closely to each other, it would have cost an extra $9,000 to buy the BMW. So financially, it made more sense to choose Mercedes, but money isn’t everything. More important, I really wanted a more comfortable ride. I’ve had decades of bouncing around in first a Mercedes SLK and then a Boxster, and I now prefer a smoother ride, without feeling every single bump in the road. However, if I happen to get too nostalgic about it, the C300 features a function that can change “comfort” ride to “sport” and even “super-dooper sporty.”
Dash of Mercedes C300
The other cool features of the C300 are safety related such as blind assist, it actually warns you if another vehicle is in your blind spot when you change lanes. Its windows fold in for tight parking spots in the City. If you kick your foot under the rear bumper, the trunk opens. The downside is I could not download my address book to the communication center. It got to the J’s before it was full. But I can use Siri to call through the car’s bluetooth, which provides amazingly clear reception.
I love the panoramic sunroof, so it’s like a convertible without so much raw wind. I can also clear curbs with the sporty front end. Three times I’ve had to fix scratches on the underside of the Porsche bumper. The Mercedes C300 is much smarter than me. Yup, I’ve finally bought a car that is capable of doing more things than I will probably ever have time to discover. Plus, it will look good photographed in front of my listings. Many of my listings have featured my Porsche in the street. Just so buyers can say: “Oh, look, the neighbor drives a Porsche!”
OK, so it’s not the 2016 Mercedes GLA I had ordered last fall. That new delivery time was too nebulous. I also think Jose felt like they messed up with the first order and wanted to make this experience better, and he even mentioned he was grateful I gave them a second chance. Not every buyer will give a dealer a second chance, when you think about it. I know some buyers would have stomped out, but I’ve been around on earth long enough to know that it’s not so much the mistakes that happen, it’s what they do to rectify it.
A big thanks as well to my team member and friend, Barbara Dow, for helping me shop for a new car yesterday. It was a good thing now the GLA did not arrive on time. Sometimes mistakes work out for the better.
The New Sporty 2016 Mercedes GLA 250 SUV Might Change Your Mind About SUVs
The 2016 Mercedes GLA 250 SUV is the perfect Sacramento Realtor vehicle.
We played hooky yesterday, which is unusual for this Sacramento Realtor. The last time I can recall playing hooky was in 6th grade, when I stayed home from school to play Bop the Beetle. I was such a dork. Today I am always working, but yesterday my team member and good friend Barbara Dow and I snagged time for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in Arden Fair which, believe it or not, I have never dined at, and then on to the Mercedes dealership to test drive a Mercedes GLA, one of those fancy schmancy SUVs.
I spotted a Mercedes GLA in a magazine. It’s a sporty look and a much smaller vehicle than you’re probably used to seeing on the road. Even smaller than a GLK. I like small cars. I’ve never particularly cared for SUVs unless I’m being transported from the airport to my hotel in Hawaii. Never thought I would consider buying an SUV. But I’ve been reading about the new fangled electronic gismos on 2016 vehicles that supposedly simplify your life while providing increased safety. Like a series of beeps if you’re about to rear-end another vehicle and brake assist, just in case you have no eyeballs in your head or you’re staring at your phone and not the road.
Barbara Dow at the Cheesecake Factory
The sales guy asked if we were planning to buy a car and continued with a series of questions all designed to guide us toward buying a car, but we just went with the flow. I didn’t know if I would buy a GLA or not, but I did want to test drive one. The car on the lot was an atrocious blue. The seats in the back lie flat and the trunk automatically opens with a touch of the key fob. It automatically closes too, just in case you wander off with an armload of groceries and forgot you left it open. A car for people who multitask. Perfect for a Sacramento Realtor.
Elizabeth Weintraub at the Mercedes showroom.
It’s got a fast response time and snazzy pickup too, although the short test drive from the Mercedes dealership on Howe to Business 80 and back up Cal Expo didn’t really provide an opportunity to slam on the gas pedal due to snarled traffic and all those pesky people in the way, but I could feel the power regardless. In addition, the front seat moves 14 different ways, which means a woman of my height can see over the steering wheel.
The sales guy became increasingly eager to talk about existing inventory, but it was crystal clear that the only true way to buy this 2016 Mercedes GLK was to order it from the factory, with all of the options one’s heart desires. Remarkably, I have never ordered a car from the factory, but it was a ton of fun to discuss choices, color options, and features, and Barbara was a great help. Did you realize the Mercedes GLA entertainment option gives you an 80 GB hard drive to download your music to? I ordered the power sunroof, too, so it will be more like a convertible.
Don’t let the sticker price fool ya, you can easily add another $20K to the bottom line through options. The vehicle will arrive in January, probably about the time we get home from our winter vacation over Christmas in Cuba.
So now I have to decide whether I want to part with my Porsche Boxster. It’s a riot to drive. Although, I’m not really a two-car person and my husband doesn’t much care for the car. Not his style.
