W203 Mercedes C Class

[carlo]

Morning gang.

 

The more I read and look at these 2000 onwards C Classes the more I reckon it should be my next car.  Does anyone on here drive one as a daily or have good experience of them?  Things I like the sound of are:

 

Supposed to have very good ride and handling, and steering.

Nice compact size

Estate is stylish with good visibility

Great choice of engines, although I'm drawn to the 2.4 V6 or 2.7 CDI

Getting very affordable

Merc make good auto boxes (apparently)

 

Things that concern me:

 

Rust

Catalogue of expensive things which can go wrong (according to Honestjohn)

Seats look flat and uncomfortable.

 

Are they as good as the road tests reckon?

[Lacquer Peel]

[cort16]

Black Death on diesels

 

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Avoid the M271 post 2002 petrol fours as they're fucking awful. Sadly, the fitment of this engine is about when the rust issues were finally nailed. However, the W203 is a very good car. It rides well, handles well, is very comfortable and generally easy to work on. Post 2002 cars also have the later improved column stalk that can be an absolute swine to replace. The previous version almost never went wrong.

 

I would look for a pre 2002 Estate with the unbreakable M111 engine (180/200 etc) and a decent body. When my E36 Estate dies, I may well go Benz as the E46 is a pile of shit. The C Class Sport Coupe is a very decent and useful car but again, avoid the M271 engine.  Merc manual boxes are fine despite what anyone says, and you very quickly get used to the foot operated parking brake, even on manual cars. 

 

I liked mine, it was a smooth riding and easy too drive car that was superbly comfortable and restful over long journeys.

[carlo]

Cheers RB.  So presumably a pre-2002 C240 Estate wouldn't be a bad example of the breed if you wanted a smoother engine.

[2MB]

+1 on Merc manual boxes being totally fine to use. Maybe not totally suited to the driving style of most of their cars but there are worse 'boxes out there