Mercedes W202, good car?

This isn't really a "i think i'm going to go buy one of these tomorrow" thread, but more a "I have no idea what i'm going to replace the MX6 with in a few years, and there's very few cars that interest me in a daily driving capacity, so i get excited when i find one."

So... the W202. I'd want to find a manual one. These cars seem to be pretty affordable to buy, so my questions:

1) Are they worth a damn?

2) Is the cheap entry price a result of hideous maintenance costs?

3) How terrible are parts?

4) Easy to work on?

5) Should i give up now on finding a decent one with a manual trans?

6) Ever available with cloth interior?

7) Because i'm dumb and like to "maintainify" my daily drivers, which one would be the best starting point in terms of easy performance improvements?

8) I like forced induction. Is the C230 Kompressor worth seeking out in that case?

9) Will i be disappointed coming from a mangled and ugly but hilariously fast 25 year old MX6?

Here is a thread on problem areas.

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w202-c-class/1230237-w202-common-problems-their-solutions.html

IMHO if you want boost plus luxury get a Jaguar XJ6R (aka X306).

Can i get that with a manual trans?

Those are awfully large, though... I'm not sure that i'm looking for luxury. If i was, i wouldn't be settling with 90s C-class. Thinking more like.... E36, but not an E36.

Worth mentioning that i think this is the only car so far that i've thought about that wasn't FWD to replace the MX6 with.

In reply to Swank Force One:

They were never manual in the USA...

Then i'm not real interested at the moment.

In reply to Swank Force One:

Just get a damn e36.........lol

My experience. I have driven a W201 with a 6 cylinder auto and a W202 with 6 cylinder auto. I'd rather own the W201 but as point of interest W202 was stock and the W201 had aftermarket swaybars and Bilstein sports or HD or something. Also no manual in US in C230 Kompressor IIRC.

I'm aware of the weak points and ownership experience of an E36. I'm not asking about an E36 in this thread.

93EXCivic wrote: My experience. I have driven a W201 with a 6 cylinder auto and a W202 with 6 cylinder auto. I'd rather own the W201. Also no manual in US in C230 Kompressor IIRC.

What did you like better about the W201?

Hrmmm... so no manual W202s in the US?

In reply to Swank Force One:

I thought the W201 felt better put together mostly. Also the handling felt better but that may have been because of modifications and better maintenance.

I am pretty sure there were no supercharger manual W202s imported by MB. IIRC there were base 4 cylinders with manuals.

I do not believe any us spec Mercedes that new would have come with a cloth interior. Also, most if not all of the fun Mercedes that would have a manual will be at least as old as your mx6 (like the 190e cosworth, 190d turbo, etc). If I was going to get a small Mercedes I would either not worry about it being a manual and look for a c36 amg, or find a (rare) 190d turbo 5 speed.

Any mercedes newer than the early 90's with a manual is a unicorn.

Just buy the tri star hood ornament for ~$28, place it on a pile of $100 bills which have been soaked in gasoline and throw a match on it. In the end it will be less painful.

Good luck with finding a I6 manual W201, they didn't exactly import a ton of them. If you want to convert one, the flywheel is made of sintered unicorn E36 M3, used. I think they're tooling up for a new run made of rocks from mars.

I like those bodies but skip to 2.3 supercharged motor. I don't like those motors at all and there is no aftermarket support (unless you want to pay $1k for a pulley...). They don't make much power, they are boomy and noisy, fuel economy is sub par for a 2.3 4 cylinder. Get the 6 or the AMG version.

No manual trans on the OEM USDM. I reckon with enough time, talent and money you can retrofit a manual trans. somehow... The easiest route is probably to get the parts from EU. Maybe ebay.

they are pretty easy to work on and I didn't find parts too extravagant when I had my SLK of the same vintage. The car seems to hold together well. Mine had 140k miles on it when I got it. My aunt in EU still has hers since new - 2.0L supercharged with the EU manual trans.

Eh... if a manual w202 doesn't exist stateside then I'll let this idea go.

Very, very few modern manual Mercedes exist stateside, period.

In the mid 90's I remember an article that stated something like 0.3% US bound Mercedes were equipped with a third pedal.

Curmudgeon wrote: Just buy the tri star hood ornament for ~$28, place it on a pile of $100 bills which have been soaked in gasoline and throw a match on it. In the end it will be less painful.

But the stack of benjis won't have that satisfying, solid THUMP when you shut the door.

I'd totally own a C280 of either the V6 or I6 persuasions. The maintenance costs aren't as hellacious as your average BMW or Audi, and the only downside is that they're almost completely soulless to drive.

But then you have to put up with crap like the over-engineered wiper linkage. See, they decided to have ONE wiper blade, but in order to make it clear more useful real estate, they put a cam mechanism in it to extend the blade when it nears the corners of the windshield, and retract it near the top and sides.

No. Really.

ditchdigger wrote: Very, very few modern manual Mercedes exist stateside, period. In the mid 90's I remember an article that stated something like 0.3% US bound Mercedes were equipped with a third pedal.

This I know... but what's unclear at this point is whether or not manual w202s exist stateside, specifically. Wiki says there are, buy who know if that's accurate. It also hints that f2 powered 929s were stateside, and that seems to be untrue.

Swank Force One wrote:

ditchdigger wrote: Very, very few modern manual Mercedes exist stateside, period. In the mid 90's I remember an article that stated something like 0.3% US bound Mercedes were equipped with a third pedal.

This I know... but what's unclear at this point is whether or not manual w202s exist stateside, specifically. Wiki says there are, buy who know if that's accurate. It also hints that f2 powered 929s were stateside, and that seems to be untrue.

I have never seen or read anything that suggests they do. The newest manual mercedes I have seen were late 80s w201.

I know the gen after the W202, C230 Kompressor coupe/hatch thing was available stateside with a manual.

And i'm somewhat interested in those, but i think they might be out of my price range.

You could get the Compact here with cloth seats, too!

Supposedly the first couple of years (93-94) a manual was offered for the W202, but the automatic was actually standard, not the manual, so most of the dealers purchased autos.

iadr wrote: As an Ex dealer guy - the only cool part of those was the cupholder. Don't get one of those- huge cylinder head, transmission (water-oil cooler in the rad leaks coolant into the ATF to start), and rear subframe problems.

Those same problems apply to Neons, too.

I was looking at W202s for a while and on the Benz boards, the prevailing knowledge is that no manual W202s of any variety actually made it over here. Manual W201s exist (in diesel, 2.3, 2.3 16v and unobtainium but verified with the 2.6), manual W203s exist and aren't that hard to find (lots of C230 manuals), but manual W202s have never been spotted in the US.