dchen2

Hey guys, I just made my first online review and posted it up on epinions regarding my experiences driving a Mercedes C230 and C350 sport and a C280 Luxury Sedan, go check it out!

http://www.epinions.com/content_270506888836

Only goes to show ya how good Lexus is, after my summer with the Mercedes, I ended up getting a 01 GS 430 for myself... Lexus all the way baby, cant beat them for the price! Mercs are pretty good, if all you care about is the brand name, are indifferent to how much cash you spoon out, and value the cold, sterile German style of luxury.

newr

thanks for the review! you are one lucky bastard

dchen2

thanks newr! Definitely a sweet ride when it was either that or a 4 banger ford fusion or worse, gasp, a pt cruiser!!!

Can't hold a candle to my current GS though!

SteVTEC

The 4-cylinder Kompressor engines were criticized for being very unrefined, and I think they also had a lot of reliability issues. Also, even consumer reports mag got 0-60 in 8.5s for the C230 2.5L V6, so the car is probably a good bit quicker than that. At least 8s if not better. Considering Mercedes is up against the ultra-smooth and refined Inline-6 engines from BMW in the entry lux class, a Mercedes 1.8SC would feel like a piece of crap in comparison. So I'm not surprised they switched to a 2.5L V6 which should be a ton more refined.

As far as fuel mileage, you just never know with EPA ratings, and a lot of that has to do with how the shift map is tuned for the automatic tranny. The 7AT could very well have a much more responsive shift map making it a lot more fun to drive, whereas the old 5AT from the 1.8SC could have been a dog, but had really good efficiency. And that has nothing to do with 0-60 times. Our Highlander 0-60's faster than a BMW X5 3.0, but the X5 is still way more responsive and fun to drive due to much more performance oriented shift mapping. Our HL is a dog unless you're giving it very heavy doses of throttle, since that's the only time the shift map will let the engine get above 3000 rpm where it gets into the powerband.

So nice review overall, but there's more to the engine lineup changes than just paper specs. I'd be curious to know if you've driven the 1.8SC version and how it compared. I've driven neither, so I'm just going by what I've heard and what I know about the engines technically.

dchen2

Yeah, I've driven a new 2003 Merc C230 Kompressor at the dealer a couple years back, which had the 1.8L SC and also got to drive a friend's 02 C230 Kompressor Coupe which had the 2.3L SC.

I think you might have the old 2.3L Supercharged merc engine confused with the 1.8L supercharged engine Mercedes put in their 230k's from 03-05.

The 2.3L had roughly the same HP as the 1.8, ~190 but a bit more torque. Unfortunately, the 2.3L was very very unrefined and crude sounding, the 1.8 is actually fairly smooth, not a good/smooth as the pheonominal inline 6s the bimmers had but still appropiate for a entry lux car.

The problem with the 2.5 NA V6 in the new C230s is that they lack substantial low/midrange torque, thus deprieving the new C230s from that feelings of speed the old kompressors had.

Sadly, the 06 C230 I drove actually felt more sluggish than the Ford Fusion with a 5AT and 160hp I4 though that was most likely due to the Fusion's 300-400lb weight advantage.

The mercs had a comfort and a sports transmission mode (along with the rather useless manual mode) you could choose between and though the sports felt phoenominal in the C280 and especially the C350, in the C230 the lack of torque and super quiet exhaust helped to kill the differentiation between the comfort and sports mode.

You are right though, a sportier shift programming does wonders. I.E., in my old F150 truck with the 5.4L engine, it felt so much more drivable and was much easier to access the powerband after I programmed it with a SuperChip.

Still the greater reliability and associated ease of production (I heard the 2.5, 3.0, and 3.5 V6s all are very related) was why Mercedes switched to their new family of V6s.

Nextourer

cool! Thanks for the review.

I'd hate to be a used car buyer looking for this current generation of C-Class sedans lol. C240 with the 2.6 litre and C280 with the 2.8? in 2001, then C230 Kompressor with the 2.3 litre, which then gave way to the 1.8 litre supercharged engine and then the C320.... then now the new C230 Kompressor, C280 and C350 lol.

newr

C230 is now NA V6. There is no more C230 Komp.

dchen2

Seriously... C230K 2.3, C230K 1.8, C240, C280 2.8, C280 3.0, C320, C350, C32, C55, you confused yet?

newr

you are missing the current C230 2.5 NA V6 Seriously, yes, it can be confusing for some people with not only the C line up but also the 3 series as well

Nextourer

Can't imagine Europe.. they also had the C260 CDI and the C180 lol... I guess the C180 is the same as our C230K.

newr, hmm.. true but the last generation had

323i, 328i... then it just split into 320i, 325i and 330i until the current gen. It's the 911 range you gotta worry about lol.