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Comment by kbenson | Hacker News Reader

No, it's a CLK430 convertible from ~2003. It's got plenty of power, it just feels like it purposefully retards the throttle when starting from stop for a short while to keep it from jerking off the line. In my trying to compensate for that, I give it more throttle, which seems to trigger it to stop the retarding action, and the it accelerates faster than expected. It feels like if I just let it do its thing it would be fine, but it feels slow to me when starting, which causes the whole problem. This isn't a developed problem, it was like this from the beginning, so I assume it's on purpose.

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The CLK430 has a 275 HP V8 and the car weighs nearly 4,000lbs. That's not a lot of power for a vehicle of that size and non-AMG models aren't geared for acceleration. The surge you experience is probably the transmission down-shifting. On typical city driving the Mercedes transmissions seem to select gears 2 higher than what would be optimal for acceleration. In the AMG models they don't even use 1st gear unless the transmission is in Sport mode.

Glib solution: Buy an AMG and smile when you put your right foot down, but cry when you go to the bank...

> The CLK430 has a 275 HP V8 and the car weighs nearly 4,000lbs. That's not a lot of power for a vehicle of that size and non-AMG models aren't geared for acceleration.

I alternate driving a Honda Odyssey and a recent base level Hyundai Elantra as a commuter every day. I'll tell you flat out this is not a problem with too little horsepower or torque. I've also recently driven one of the AMG Mercedes variants for a few days, and seemed to notice the same issue in that vehicle, but much less pronounced.

> The surge you experience is probably the transmission down-shifting.

What I'm experiencing seems to be slightly different than what the original commentor started out with. I'm referring to starting moving forward from stop, such as a stoplight.

> Glib solution: Buy an AMG and smile when you put your right foot down, but cry when you go to the bank...

Naw, I still have my 240z sitting out back. It was fairly tricked out prior to it becoming basically useless most the time when I had multiple children. I get most of my jonesing for fast cars satisfied by the fantasy that I'll one day fix it up again. I think it was way more fun to drive than most the modern fast cars, because it's not so much about how fast you go, but how fast if feels like you are going. Driving a small early 70's sports car serves that up pretty well even without actually going all that fast. :)

We're veering off topic a bit but I've come to learn Mercedes pretty well now. I'd put money on your feeling with the Mercedes being two-fold: 1) The gearing: They're long gears and it defaults to selecting a very tall gear. I have 500hp on tap and doing 50mph in 7th gear isn't fun, but that's what it selects as a default in comfort mode. 2) Traction control: It might not be as much of a problem in non-AMGs but the traction control is surprisingly intrusive and very good at hiding that it's engaging because there isn't a mechanical coupling to the drive wheels. It uses the brakes and I assume some throttle limiting. Even in the sport handling modes it's quite intrusive.

I never drive with traction control or in comfort mode - not even in winter. It's a completely different car with them off - if you get another chance to drive one I'd suggest turning it all off. Unfortunately the throttle isn't linear but any more than 20% will spin the tires.

I also have an S2000. It has half the horsepower and weights 1,000lbs less but it's a blast.

I'll see if the traction control makes a difference next time I have reason to drive either of the cars. Thanks for the input.

> I also have an S2000. It has half the horsepower and weights 1,000lbs less but it's a blast.

50% the horsepower but 74% the weight isn't that bad a trade-off. Less top speed, but likely better cornering, which is probably fun. :)

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