Merc C180 (hopefully not shite)

[pompei]

She Who Cracks The Whip has been to see a 53 plate Merc C180 with tiptronic transmission today. She says it is very nice and told the bloke she is going to sleep on it.

 

Anything to watch for in these?

 

Thanks.

[SambaS]

Weird I was going to ask the same if it's the little coupe thing with the odd glass tailgate. Rents are after one.

 

All I can add is that my grandparents traded in their immaculate 190 for one some years ago and kept taking it back to the dealer because something was squeeking in the sunroof plastics. Other than that and the cost of Mercedes service and repair hourly rates (which is a given obvs.) I don't remember them having any problems.

[fiatdaft]

RUST and electrical faults,they are gutless aswell.

[Autoplas]

Rust and electrical problems can occur on pre-facelift W203's (2000-2003). The facelift cars 2004 are a return to what you would expect from Mercedes Benz. They let the bean counters take over in the late 90s to the early 2000's and cut too many corners, hence the W203 and the W210 (E Class) issues. For either the C or E class, buy a 2004 on car.2004 on cars are correctly seam welded.

 

You would be best off with a C180 compressor,C200 or C200 Compressor rather than the base C180.

[ashmicro]

Basic unblown C180 goes alright. You're right about the accountants having taken over at DaimlerChrysler for a time. Apparently, after the Chrysler "merger", there was a meeting in November 1998 where it was decided that they needed to go from making 1 billion Eurocoins p.a. to 3 billion. Inevitably, quality suffered. My 2001 W203 wasn't as well made as my 1998 W202. I even noticed that when washing the car, it just wasn't as well thought out, and had loads of wee shitty plastic clips where the 202 had screws. Little things like that.

 

The W203's jack is shit, BTW. Be careful, the car will fall off it pretty easily. Use the wheelchock if it's still in the toolkit.

[pompei]

I went over to have a quick look at it - it is a Kompressor but despite it being only 9 years old the rear arch lips were starting to go and had been flashed over. She is not having it ...

 

Thanks for the advice, folks - she is still looking at Mercs but later models now.

[scooters]

I went over to have a quick look at it - it is a Kompressor but despite it being only 9 years old the rear arch lips were starting to go and had been flashed over. She is not having it ...

 

Thanks for the advice, folks - she is still looking at Mercs but later models now.

 

 

better off looking at earlier models Mr Pompington,

 

sometime in the early 1990's the bean counters at DC bought a load of shite Russian Steel and consequently Mercs started dissolving. I've just fixed an injector leak issue on a mates 5 year old Merc - it has had: 2 wings, half the floor, the light surrounds, a boot, and a slam panel and a bulkhead ALL replaced under warranty - for SERIOUS rust - talking BL at there very Friday PM, middle of winter of discontent worse here only much much worse.

 

Personally I would not consider any Mercedes built after 1992 -

 

tell her to get an S70 or something -naughties Volvos are much better screwed together than the Mercs

[SambaS]

Well my mum and stepdad have done the deal...

 

They have traded in the Mercedes Benz 300 CE against a C180 Kompressor:

 

 

The new one did look quite clean, I don't remember if it was a 53 or a 54 but reading this blog I'm hoping it was the latter.

 

It is a shame about the old car, it's Swiss, my stepdad has owned it for 13 years and it was immaculate, and well maintained in Switzerland. But running a 3.0 Automatic for 4 years has meant they couldn't always use the car when they wanted to.

[ashmicro]

I went over to have a quick look at it - it is a Kompressor but despite it being only 9 years old the rear arch lips were starting to go and had been flashed over. She is not having it ...

 

Thanks for the advice, folks - she is still looking at Mercs but later models now.

 

 

better off looking at earlier models Mr Pompington,

 

sometime in the early 1990's the bean counters at DC bought a load of shite Russian Steel and consequently Mercs started dissolving. I've just fixed an injector leak issue on a mates 5 year old Merc - it has had: 2 wings, half the floor, the light surrounds, a boot, and a slam panel and a bulkhead ALL replaced under warranty - for SERIOUS rust - talking BL at there very Friday PM, middle of winter of discontent worse here only much much worse.

 

Personally I would not consider any Mercedes built after 1992 -

 

tell her to get an S70 or something -naughties Volvos are much better screwed together than the Mercs

 

 

What's the crack with the anti-corrosion warranty, then? The blurb with my W221 mentioned 30 years!

[fiatdaft]

The car must have full merc history and never have been painted before ,they will also use any excuse they can to wriggle out of fixing the rust,its only really since 2007 ish that mercs have been getting a bit better.

[Guest]

I think I'd have had the W124 coop LPG'd instead.

[fiatdaft]

i would have kept the ce and used the money that it cost to change into the newer slower merc for fuel.

[Guest]

i would have kept the ce and used the money that it cost to change into the newer slower merc for fuel.

 

Yes, or that.

[Cavcraft]

My CLK has some quite strange rust issues. Arches are surprisingly good, but there's a couple of sort of bullet hole type patches here and there. It's also got a rusty bullet hole driving it before any of you mention the fact.

[Autoplas]

I went over to have a quick look at it - it is a Kompressor but despite it being only 9 years old the rear arch lips were starting to go and had been flashed over. She is not having it ...

 

Thanks for the advice, folks - she is still looking at Mercs but later models now.

 

 

better off looking at earlier models Mr Pompington,

 

sometime in the early 1990's the bean counters at DC bought a load of shite Russian Steel and consequently Mercs started dissolving. I've just fixed an injector leak issue on a mates 5 year old Merc - it has had: 2 wings, half the floor, the light surrounds, a boot, and a slam panel and a bulkhead ALL replaced under warranty - for SERIOUS rust - talking BL at there very Friday PM, middle of winter of discontent worse here only much much worse.

 

Personally I would not consider any Mercedes built after 1992 -

 

tell her to get an S70 or something -naughties Volvos are much better screwed together than the Mercs

 

nonsense

[pompei]

I went with her today to look at another, 2004 model, rust on the arches again! The dealer selling it said that they all have issues with the rear subframe bushes but this one had been done. But it still rattled like a maracas convention.

 

She's off solo to see another tomorrow, I can see this all ending in tears ...

[fiatdaft]

Figured out that they are shit yet?

[pompei]

She's like a dog with a bone ... I even offered her my Fiat Koop in an attempt to veer her off this foolhardy path

[RoadworkUK]

 

....on a mates 5 year old Merc - it has had: 2 wings, half the floor, the light surrounds, a boot, and a slam panel and a bulkhead ALL replaced under warranty. ...

 

That will have either been in a cataclysmic accident and repaired by a cretin, regularly parked in the sea or have had road salt rubbed into every orrifice by a fanatical rust fetishist. We get some shit turn up at work but I have never seen a sub 5 year old Merc with any major rust other than from impact damage.

 

Post 2004 are definitely epochs better than -2003, and pre -98 is best. Early W210s are vastly better than later ones, which are practically landfill fodder. Had a mechanically perfect E320 CDi binned because the bodywork looked like you could plough it and grow potatoes.

 

I don't really like any of the C-Class, nor the farcical horror story that is the CLC. Four cylinder diesels are prone to injector issues and coolant leaks. The OM651 engine is a ballache. A Petrol CLK, though, is A Good Thing.

[pompei]

Well, she went out this afternoon and bought a Y reg Kompressor coupe with the panoramic roof. I have yet to see it but cannot help fearing the worst...

[Pete-M]

On the M5 yesterday I saw quite probably the rustiest car I've seen on the road in years.

 

A 98-99ish CLK 320 with holes in most panels. Not small holes, oh no, these were 6-7" in diameter. The boot lock was amusing as virtually the complete mechanism was visible, the central locking solenoid etc, how it was still attached is a mystery. Lower section of the front wings was utterly shot, as was the drivers door - the window mechanism was visible as I went past the thing.

 

As I was in Gloucestershite, I suspect it may have been a repeated flood victim.

 

Old giffer driving it seemed happy enough to be doing 85-90 on the straights, both himself and the car looked a bit 'old money, about to snuff it', two number two letter reg plate etc. Summat like "RM 21" or similar.

[RoadworkUK]

See; Rat-look can actually be pretty cool if it's an octogenarian doing it, and doing it properly, like.