Andy M3

Last night i picked up a Mercedes for the evening. I have never really had much to do with them, but i thought i would relay my thoughts over the 50 miles i was in the car.

It was an 04 avangarde with 4k on the clock. The car retails at £28000, so i was expecting most of the toys, but to my suprise, it had a basic single CD, no sun roof, cloth interior, poor looking 16" alloys and half an electric drivers seat. The most diar part of the acres of plastic, was the mock carbon fibre centre consal -

So i decided to take her for a drive, and 1st thing i noticed was how quiet it was on the move, the 1.8 engine isn't big enough and gets flustered when pushed hard, but when maintaining the speed limits, it is very comfortable to be in for some time.

The steering was weighted nicely was direct and responsive, and the firm but accomadating suspension held it's own, although did roll around a little bit.

Plenty of traction, obviously with that engine, just a little boring and too expensive.

Good points:

Good steering
Nice handbrake
Useful steering wheel controls for the information display
One stork on the colomn to opperate it all.
Speed limiter that stops you passing any given speed that you set
Un-lock the car and the interior and exterior light comes on
Quiet cabin

Bad points:

fiddly and useless climate control
Underpowered
Price
10000 mile servicing
Crap CD player, poor speakers
Poor finish / plasticy
Spongy brakes
Useless headrest retracting button

All in all i would give this car 7/10 based on the 50 miles i covered in it -

Andy

brickboy

I was passengered in a C200 Kompressor recently, very similar impressions of performance (or lack of it) and poor choice of interior materials & finish.

I'm biased a little, but my Passat has a better interior fit & finish, and better perceived quality inside and is a good £10K cheaper

SJJ84

For not much more money, the C230 Kompressor is a lot more capable. It uses the same 1.8 ltr engine but with a bigger supercharger. You can also get a sports pack for £620 which comes with nicer 17" alloys, better brakes, exhaust and sports seats.

Jap2Scrap

Does it fly out of the window for a feed every time you pass a pond or river?

Diablo

I think with the mercs you need to do some 'ooo's of miles to appreciate their deeper qualities.

Thought the 10000 mile servicing was a quide and they had service indicators?

hades

Would that be the backrest or the cushion? You would think with a £28k car they'd give you the whole seat.

Seriously, agree with most of your comments from driving one for 500 miles ish about a year back. 163bhp is not a lot, especially in a heavy car - felt about as lively as a 1.8 Mondeo. However, quiet, comfy and above all relaxing on the cruise, not tiring to have done 8 hours work and 100's of miles in day.

Personally don't like the Merc handbrakes, but guess that is down to what you're used to. Headrest retract button was fun! (but pointless, I agree). On a scooby forum complaining about plasticy interior and poor standard sound system in a Merc has a certain irony , but I know what you mean - Mondeo had similar quality interior and better stereo at a lot less money.

SJJ84

The C180K doesn't have 163bhp, it's more like 140bhp. It's the 200K that has 163bhp and the 230K has 190bhp, all using the same engine but in a different state of tune. They aren't designed to be a fast sporty car, they are ment to be comfy and easy to drive, which they are. As for the handbrake, is a bit weird, but then in an auto you don't use it anyway. To be fair tho, stepping out of a top of the range M3 into a basic C180, it's never really gonna come out looking too good is it.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Mater of mine has an E class with the Kompressor engine, moderately quick but the comparisons to various electric floor sweeping equipment are not unjustified, the engine sounds truly in pain. We had an ML 320, that was crap at most things, bring back the wonderful old Mercs that do a million miles and dont need to visit the dealers.