When the roof is open, a large wind-deflector panel in front of the opening tilts up to prevent any buffeting, booming, or cockpit turbulence at speeds up to 90 mph. Two glass panels cover the entire roof the front one can pop up to vent or slide back over the rear one for open-air motoring. The front buckets provide good lateral support, and the chic cloth is a welcome change from today's de rigueur hot-in-summer, cold-in-winter leather (a $1410 option).Īnd then there's the pièce de résistance, an idea that was featured on the 318ti California but is perfected here: the $995 panoramic sliding roof. Seating for four is comfy unless the rear riders are tall of torso or hairdo, in which case the roofline's inch-lower sleekness will present an interference fit. Inside there's a sporty three-nacelle instrument binnacle, a unique three-spoke steering wheel, and genuine aluminum trim. Claar's friends in the budget office helped him nab the four-door's optional Sport-package suspension as standard equipment and scored all-new exterior sheetmetal, bent into a much more raffish shape. Yes, the seats of the base car are cloth-upholstered and manually adjusted, but the 318ti used a cheaper outdated rear suspension and different and cheaper switchgear, and shared the sedan's front-end sheetmetal unaltered. And the base price of $25,595 - $5000 less than a C240 - indicates deep de-contenting, as with the BMW, which sold at a similar discount.īut maybe Claar had allies deep in the organization that helped him to make lemonade of this lemon assignment, because the cost cutting seems less obvious. The sports coupe gets a four-banger, while the rest of the C-class (and 3-series) lineup has graduated to sixes. The Benz's hatch surgery slices off 7.3 inches of length (the BMW lost 8.8 inches), trading the sedan's 12 cubic feet of enclosed trunk space for 10, to 38 cubes of hatch versatility. Yikes.Ĭomparisons of the new C230 sports coupe with the ill-fated BMW 318ti are inevitable. How else could he have been stuck with developing a C-class hatchback for the United States of Sedan-dom - the very nation that rejected a version of the wildly popular BMW 3-series that had been given a Gremlin chop? Talk about setting someone up for the big career crash. Had a few too many Maß beers at the Cannstatter Volksfest and spilled bubespitzle down the boss's wife's blouse. And unlike the ideal progression of slowest to fastest sports car I experienced on track with Porsche, the reason I decided to talk about this experience within a Mercedes-Benz review in the first place, I started out with the C55 and followed up with the C230 Kompressor Mercedes-Benz's most basic ride.Maybe Klaus-Peter Claar got crosswise with DaimlerChrysler's board of management. But I covered an AMG product last week, the compact C55. In the all-powerful department is its series of AMG sports cars, starting with the SLK55 AMG, then the SL55 AMG, and finally the SL65 AMG. The Boxster-fighting SLK, followed up by the Tiptronic-equipped 911 Cabriolet-competitive SL 500. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) well, at least after getting out of the C55. After all, the rival German manufacturer produces its own collection of sports cars starting withįrom an acceleration point of view, the C230 is a bit disappointing. Of course, Mercedes would have something to say about my all-powerful comment. Finishing off the ideal sports car progression was the pièce de résistance, a gorgeous, all-powerful Carrera GT. After that I did an autocross course in the new 911 Carrera S coupe, followed up by a run in the droptop version back on the race track. Track with the completely new Porsche Boxster, before moving up to a Tiptronic-equipped 911 Cabriolet. Last week I had a Mercedes-Benz C55 to test drive, this week it is the other end of the spectrum with the C230. Priorities of a More Practical Kind I was on the road course next to the California Speedway, in Fontana last week, living out a car enthusiasts dream.
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