A friend of mine recently bought the above mentioned MB from a neighbor and is willing to sell it to me for what he has in it, ie cheap. The only reason it intrigues me is the manual, and that I like the way they look. Its got @84K miles on it, no rust that I can find underneath or on the body. Are there any "gotchas" with these? Thanks
In reply to Aaron_King :
Is it running? If the battery has been dead for 2-3 months minimum, you're gonna need more than just a jump start/new battery. You'll need some MB specific software re-boot.
It's running, drove it all weekend. Our R class is an 06 so I expect some of the same, just wanted to know if there are any gotchas.
Are we talking the 2 door hatch version? These got pretty low grade reviews when new due to much cost cutting that left the car feeling cheap.
In reply to John Welsh :
But now that they are actually cheap, is that really an issue?
I would definitely buy one for the right price, especially with a manual and the cloth interior. The only issue I know of them is the body can rust in weird ways but I haven't done much research into the mechanicals.
From zero experience beyond researching the interwebs in the past on this car. I think some consensus is first year 2002 with the 2.3 is least desirable. Following years have smaller but better motor. Mild redesign in 2005 is peak.
I would rock the hatchback.
Unfortunately it's a sedan. But since it's a Sport it's got bigger front brakes, lower and slightly stiffer suspension and leather interior. The big draw for me is the 6 speed and the $2600 price. Biggest downsides are 80 or so less hp than my current DD but after driving SAABs for 20 plus years it's a nice change.
I love the dimensions of the sport sedan. Like an updated 190e (which is also a good looker)
I think these sport version have staggered tires with the rears being larger. If the tires aren't larger at least the rims are wider in the rear (I think.)
In reply to Aaron_King :
Hard to go wrong for $2600 if it runs.
Yeah, at a certain price, not much to lose.
IIRC the deal with those manual C-classes is that the manual gearbox is not particularly well-liked (just not as great of an experience as you'd want) and a specific range of years had some kind of expensive/potentially fatal engine issue (but maybe that was the V6?).
I seem to recall the consensus being that they are interesting but a BMW is better at just about everything everything except being a Benz.
In addition to the above, I'm led to believe that the C180-C230 of those years had a lot of premature timing chain failures, not sure how much of it is internet scare-stories though. I sure found a lot of those stories when I was researching though. A good friend of mine was editor of a specialist Mercedes mag, and she specifically warned me off that model of C class due to generally bad build quality (not sure if it was bad-bad, or bad-for-a-Mercedes).
pointofdeparture said:Yeah, at a certain price, not much to lose.
IIRC the deal with those manual C-classes is that the manual gearbox is not particularly well-liked (just not as great of an experience as you'd want) and a specific range of years had some kind of expensive/potentially fatal engine issue (but maybe that was the V6?).
I seem to recall the consensus being that they are interesting but a BMW is better at just about everything everything except being a Benz.
I'm not sure where the transmission hate comes from. I had one of these about 10 years ago and the transmission was fine.
A lot of people claim Hondas have the best manuals but I'd struggle to find a difference between the Mercedes manual and any Honda manual I've driven.
I ended up buying the car, just too good a deal to pass up. The trans is not as smooth as my SAAB but it's not at all bad. Aside from the AC, which didn't work when I got it, everything works and have not had any issues at all. It just about to turn 100k miles and really does drive like a new car. The timing chain thing is a little scary, but I let it warm all the way up before beating on it so fingers crossed.
Last Saturday I took the car back road driving in eastern Ohio and I was impressed with the handling and braking.
If you want to pass it on I'll be your huckleberry lol.
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