Mercedes C220 W202?

I don't think these have been discussed here before. Anyone with any knowledge of this chasis? I believe they ran from 93-2000. I'm interested in finding out about their reliability, part $$, and how easy or hard they might be to work on.

Thanks!

FWIW, the W202 finished what the W201 started...they absolutely feel like they have been built to a price point.

They all seem to have transmission issues. If it's a Kompressor, plan on the S/C sh*tting the bed at some point. Harmonic balancers like to explode catastrophically, MAF units fail, windshield wiper motors burn out, and the HVAC finds a lot of ways to fail. Build quality is pretty bad, especially inside where all the cheap plastic is.

Probably the weirdest caveat, IIRC, is that windshield wipers are dealer only and kinda expensive.

I know someone who use to have one and now drives an e46 330i and they said the e46 is a far better car.

I wouldn't touch a MB from the period with a 20 ft pole unless it had a big sack of thermite on the end.

My uncle had one and it turned him off of German cars forever. He now drives a Camry, lol

Guess that pretty much answers the OPs question. It's unanimous and that doesn't happen often!

I'll ruin the unanimousness and share my experiences. I owned a 95 C220 and my mother still owns one. (I also had the experience of temporarily possessing a 2003 W203 which was a total engineering disaster that deserved to be killed with fire, and I hear from owners that the coupe is worse)
My C220 was only 5 years old when I bought it and it had received regular servicing before and during my ownership. It returned great gas mileage and dismal acceleration. It was a great highway car and I only sold it to make a downpayment on my house. My mother's C220 has received irregular service, gets parked for 6 months at a time and is often boosted off and driven 600+ miles and put back in storage. I find these cars to be well built and easy to service. Parts are no more expensive than than what you would expect for a Toyota, Mazda or Nissan.
If you are worried about the sliding single wiper assembly, pop off the cover and clean it and apply silicone lubricant annually. the only thing that I have done to either of these cars, other than regular PM is replace the water pump on one, which took less than an hour including beer breaks. I'd own one again, but I'd probably go for the M104 inline 6 next time (preferably the AMG built 3.6()

Like I was told when I brought up W202s last fall, expect to find a car for cheap, but have parts that still have Mercedes pricing.