A Report Card... Of Sorts

As you may know I purchased a Mercedes-Benz CLA250 in February... against my wife's better judgement.

I have had the car some 6 weeks now and, as I recall from my school years, that is about when school report cards come out. While I dreaded those, I am about to grade the M-B in a similar fashion.

I still like it. It is fun to drive and would even be economical if I didn't have to use mid-grade gas in it. It gets about the same as the Focus did but is an overall better car in a number of ways. Still, it lacks that fun feature of a rear-view camera (which I can get for under $200, after market, if I am willing to install it myself).

I took the car up to the dealer's yesterday because the ECO mode didn't seem to be working properly. The ECO function shuts the engine off while you sit at a light, saving gas, and restarts it automatically when you take your foot off the brake. A friend asked, "What if it doesn't start again?", which gave me pause but I decided I can just re-start it the conventional way. Anyway, that problem has not arisen yet. Just the opposite. In fact, I drove it about 20 miles Thursday before it did what it was supposed to. It turns out that my oil temperature is the culprit, it just wasn't getting warm enough most of the time. One of the suggestions was to idle the engine and let it warm up before driving off. I admit I do not do this, my father always did but I, being obstinate and usually in a big hurry have never done that. I'll consider it but probably won't do it.

I saw the vehicle I possibly should have bought while at the dealer's: a GLA 250 SUV. very nice but not as good mileage figures. Still, a touch roomier and possibly a bit more room for my clubs (though they fit fine now if I remove the driver first) and maybe a little roomier for passengers, too.

But both the CLA and the GLA are small and, of course, not inexpensive... I wonder if I will still like the car after a year?