**Testdrove a '05 Mercedes-Benz C200 Kompressor**

[cawimmer430]

This week on Tuesday, I was supposed to drive a 2005 C200 Kompressor sedan up to Munich, but my journey was postponed because some idiot had powered up the battery by connecting the negative (-) pole to the battery first, and therefore short-circuiting some vital electrical systems. The car had to be pushed into the shop and was being fixed around the clock for four days so it would be at least ready for Friday. The car was a Mercedes-Benz Munich firm vehicle, which was delivered to M?hldorf in January for storage (don?t ask me why) and left on the dealer lot untouched (aka hasn?t been started since). So it?s no wonder that the battery was drained and the car needed a boost to start. Anyway, the culprit hasn?t been caught yet and probably never will, but the car was ready today. All vital electrical systems had been replaced. The car was ready to be taken to Munich. Wimmer was the man for the job. []







This C200 Kompressor was pretty neat looking on the outside. I was never a W203 C-Class fan until the facelift took care of all the things which had made the pre-facelift C-Class so unappealing to me. For one, the interior on this thing was top quality. Not class-leading, but good quality. The dashboard materials felt good and were soft. Aside from that, the light colored interior appealed to me and looked classy. Aluminum brushed metal added a light sportiness to the cars inside. The car had Avantgarde-spec trim level and usually would have come with a darker interior, but whoever specified this car (remember, someone at MB did all the sorting out) had ordered a lighter interior color combination. The seats were a 50-50 cloth-leather combination, which IMHO looks so much better than either 100% cloth or leather. C?mon guys, save the cows! [:P]



Exterior-wise, I loved the Cubanitsilber body color and the gorgeous 5-spoke 17? rims. If I was in the market for a W203 C-Class, please give me a C320 CDI Avantgarde 7Gtronic in silver but with those rims. Well what can I say, the car looked really nice and I was actually drooling over it. I couldn?t wait to take it to Munich (and that meant taking the AUTOBAHN). The fact that this car was 2nd lowest petrol C-Class, the C200 Kompressor, didn?t bother me at all. The C-Class is light and the C200 Kompressor is a pretty quick car in its own right.







The engine started smoothly and I was immediately taken aback at how refined it was. Mercedes definitely got their 4-cylinders on the right track. The TwinPulse system and counter-rotating balance shafts did their job in smoothing out the inherent 4-cylinder roughness. The Kompressor couldn?t be felt nor heard as well. The first stop had to be a gas station because this thing was running on fumes. I dumped in 20 liters of the overpriced rip-off gasoline which should see me through to Munich and well beyond that. Thankfully, I was given instructions on how to charge the bill to the local MB dealership.



The drive to Munich was relatively uneventful, except for one small?eh big problem. The mechanics had fixed the car, but they hadn?t fixed the airconditioning system. And today, temperatures were burning me at 35-37 degrees Celsius! [:o] I don?t the know the value in Fahrenheit, but this weather wasn?t fun at all. It was friggin? hot! All the A/C did was blow out hot air. So I switched the whole thing off to give the engine a little more power and opened the front windows a tiny little bit to let in some live giving cool air. I was burning alive in this car and was wet as hell. My shirt and pants were full of sweat in no time. Yes it was that hot unfortunately. So I stopped at a small trucker stop, bought some water and did a quick photo shoot of the C200 Kompressor.







First impressions of the car were highly positive from a driving point of view. The steering was weighted and very responsive to my input. It was quick acting and road contact was easily felt. This is typically not characteristical of Mercedes? cars, except now on the A, C, SLK and E-Class (with sports package). The C-Class was a joy to throw around curves: a maneuver aided by the equally sporty setup suspension. Ok, this car was an Avantgarde-spec model but I?ve driven the facelifted Elegance C-Class and it?s equally more dynamic and sporty than the pre-facelift version. The suspension was a combination of hardness and softness, but tended more to the hard side. It was reasonably comfortable, but the Avantgarde C200 Kompressor was aimed at sporty drivers. So in the handling and suspension department, I felt the C-Class was top notch for Mercedes? standards.



The engine was another joy. Don?t get turned off by the badging (I?m surprised if most people even read this far?you know the ?If it doesn?t do 0-60 in 3 seconds and 10 second ? miles, I?m not interested? mentality. [:blackeye:]), the C200 Kompressor employed a 1.8-liter 4-cylinder that was supercharged and produced 163-horsepower and 240 Nm (177 lb/ft) of torque at 4,500 RPM. In a car like the C-Class, this was pretty powerful stuff. The engine loved high RPM?s and gave off a nice sporty sound. Acceleration was crisp and quick, nothing fast, but quick. I?d easily wager a sub 10 second 0-60 time for this car.







Despite using a 5-speed automatic, the transmission and engine worked well together. I felt this was largely due to the excellent 5-speed automatic transmission. It may be eclipsed and overshadowed by the 7Gtronic, but it?s still a damn fine transmission with its background shifts, smoothness and responsiveness. Plus, I also shifted manually by engaging the tiptronic functions. This was especially useful when doing some quick overtaking driving. The roads leading to the Autobahn were unfortunately filled with slow moving (80 km/h [50 mph]) trucks and people in regular cars who didn?t keep a safety distance this enabling some of us to overtake. Nevertheless, I found some loopholes and quickly used the power of the C200 Kompressor. In 3rd gear particular, this thing accelerated pretty nicely. The supercharged engine supplied enough torque and power for such driving. 2nd gear was also pretty fast. Overall, I had no problems overtaking though it has to be said that past 120 km/h (75 mph), things didn?t seem to slow down a bit! And this was a C200 Kompressor! Well, IMHO the car felt livelier at higher speeds than at lower speeds. Funny.



The Autobahn was only a few more km?s away, and then I?d be able to enjoy a high-speed 30 km+ (19 miles) stretch of road for which Germany is famous for. With the ?Bahn in sight, I closed the windows and prepared for a high-speed drive. With a sporty setup suspension and steering, I felt the C200 Kompressor could easily do this. I passed the sign that said ?let her rip? and hammered the C200 Kompressor. The road in front was virtually empty and I pretty soon reached the speed of 200 km/h (125 mph). Although the engine still had enough grunt left for me to take it to a higher velocity, traffic started appearing and I was forced to keep driving at 200 km/h. In fact, I pretty much drove 200 km/h all the way to Munich on the left lane (right lane was full of slower cars). Except for that time where that POS Ford Fiesta 1.1 pulled out in front of me (boy those C-Class brakes are good!) and took forever to overtake a truck. Even worse, the bastard wouldn?t pull over. It was burning hot inside the car, the A/C didn?t work, I was hungry and thirsty (time was around 11:00 AM) and this Ford Fiesta driver was pissing me off. So I flashed him numerous times with my lights indicating that he should move over. To further indicate I was in a hurry, I drove a little closer to him, then braked a little to increase the safety distance once again. Well, he got the message and pulled over and I hammered the C200 Kompressor. The Fiesta driver had been doing a slow 140 km/h (88 mph), so I was pretty amazed when the C200 Kompressor took off and was accelerating pretty respectably. It didn?t take long, and I even got the car up to 210 km/h (131 mph). I think the cars top speed is somewhere in the 230 km/h region (144 mph).





(WARNING: The stunt above should only be performed by professional drivers. [] [:P])



So here I was cruising down the left lane at 125 mph most of the way. I was impressed with the C-Class high-speed handling at a 200 km/h cruising pace. Past 210 km/h however, I felt that the C-Class was nearing it?s limit. At least the C200 Kompressor. I?m sure a C350 or C55 AMG will have been prepared for higher speeds. It wasn?t anything critical, but the car felt harder to control than at 200 km/h. Wind noises were also louder than expected, especially around 180 km/h (113 mph).



I arrived in Munich shortly and immediately opened the windows to let in some air. Boy was I sweating and the sun was burning my skin. Worse, I had to breathe in the exhaust of the Munich midday traffic: and today, schools all over Bavaria end and families go on vacation! Munich was hell. Glad this C-Class had an automatic transmission. I was in no mood to do my own shifting. I had to bring the C200 Kompressor to the gigantic MB dealership where I had that terrible internship last summer. It took at least 30 minutes to arrive there once in Munich thanks to tall that traffic. Curse the bastard who short-circuited the electrical systems of this C-Class and thus destroyed the A/C!!! I guess the MB technicians also fixed the ?important stuff?, and the A/C wasn?t on their list. [:blackeye:] But look on the bright side, the radio worked! [:P]



Tons of Americans in Munich at this time. They?re so easy to spot with their baseball caps, rucksacks and camera?s! [:P] I was stuck in traffic a few times and even heard them speak on the sidewalk next to the C-Class. Some were bitching about the heat while others took photographs of all these historic buildings. I saw someone with a ?Y? baseball cap take a picture of a Gothic styled building behind me and I?m sure me and the C-Class also got in the picture! ? Ben was that you!? [:P] [:bigsmile:]



Well, I arrived at the dealer gave the car up, and had to take the train back home. Took a streetcar in the direction of the train station as an illegal passenger (didn?t pay for my ticket since the damn machine wouldn?t take bills and I didn?t have coins! [:P]). Thankfully I wasn?t caught (?Damn Wimmer, you?re such a badass!? [:P]). Driving up had been fun, but ?driving? home was going to be boring as hell. I hate taking the train. There?s nothing more boring than sitting in a slow moving (62 mph) train that stops at every damn little town and has no airconditioning. At least my compartment was filled with older schoolgirls celebrating the end of school. [] ? Sorry, no pics. []



Well, that concludes my cool story and testdrive of the day. I still would rather have a C320 CDI, but the C200 Kompressor wasn?t bad at all, even on the Autobahn. [:sun:]





Link: http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=2123075671

[BMWDave]

Nice writeup B)  37 degrees in celsius is about 99 degrees.  Yikes!  :o  Did the car smell like sweat when you delivered it?

[Colonel Cadillac]

That sounds like a ton of fun. I want to experience a car that is stable at high speeds and be able to go that speed for a long time.  

[cawimmer430]

Nice writeup B)  37 degrees in celsius is about 99 degrees.  Yikes!  :o  Did the car smell like sweat when you delivered it?

Thankfully no. Once off the Autobahn, I opened all windows to get some air and they must have aired out the car. I didn't smell any sweat either. I use a pretty good deoderant.    

[cawimmer430]

That sounds like a ton of fun. I want to experience a car that is stable at high speeds and be able to go that speed for a long time.

High-speed driving is only fun in cars that are stable and somewhat big. In all our cars, 300SE, 500SL and E320, it's no problem. The C-Class was fine at until about 210 km/h, afterwards its a little nervous. I think the C350, C320 CDI and C55 AMG are better suited for this task since they're heavier and also more capable of quicker acceleration and a higher top speed.

BTW, your Audi should be able to do that on the 'Bahn.    

[Raza]

That sounds like a ton of fun. I want to experience a car that is stable at high speeds and be able to go that speed for a long time.

I had the Passat stuck at 130 for 7 minutes once.  

[Colonel Cadillac]

When I was driving home in the Allroad from a town about 30 minutes from mine, I had it going 90-110 and it is AMAZING how much more stable it is than the Volvo. It feels like I am going about 70.

If the highways were straight, then I would be able to say I was going faster.  

[cawimmer430]

That sounds like a ton of fun. I want to experience a car that is stable at high speeds and be able to go that speed for a long time.

I had the Passat stuck at 130 for 7 minutes once.

It's really a lot of fun keeping it at that speed on the Autobahn. The only annoying things are the folks who pull out from the right lane and have slower cars. You have to slow down because of them and it takes them at eternity to overtake. Then sometimes, they continue to drive on the fast lane at a slower pace despite the slow lane being free.

Sometimes I wish I drove an Excursion.    :ph34r:    

[BMWDave]

That sounds like a ton of fun. I want to experience a car that is stable at high speeds and be able to go that speed for a long time.

I had the Passat stuck at 130 for 7 minutes once.

It's really a lot of fun keeping it at that speed on the Autobahn. The only annoying things are the folks who pull out from the right lane and have slower cars. You have to slow down because of them and it takes them at eternity to overtake. Then sometimes, they continue to drive on the fast lane at a slower pace despite the slow lane being free.

Sometimes I wish I drove an Excursion.    :ph34r:  

You wouldnt be able to maintain 130 in an Excursion :D  

[cawimmer430]

That sounds like a ton of fun. I want to experience a car that is stable at high speeds and be able to go that speed for a long time.

I had the Passat stuck at 130 for 7 minutes once.

It's really a lot of fun keeping it at that speed on the Autobahn. The only annoying things are the folks who pull out from the right lane and have slower cars. You have to slow down because of them and it takes them at eternity to overtake. Then sometimes, they continue to drive on the fast lane at a slower pace despite the slow lane being free.

Sometimes I wish I drove an Excursion.    :ph34r:  

You wouldnt be able to maintain 130 in an Excursion :D

129 mph then!    

[BMWDave]

That sounds like a ton of fun. I want to experience a car that is stable at high speeds and be able to go that speed for a long time.

I had the Passat stuck at 130 for 7 minutes once.

It's really a lot of fun keeping it at that speed on the Autobahn. The only annoying things are the folks who pull out from the right lane and have slower cars. You have to slow down because of them and it takes them at eternity to overtake. Then sometimes, they continue to drive on the fast lane at a slower pace despite the slow lane being free.

Sometimes I wish I drove an Excursion.    :ph34r:  

You wouldnt be able to maintain 130 in an Excursion :D

129 mph then!  

Yea right :P   More like you'll be wobbling along at risk of tipover at 75 mph. :D  

[cawimmer430]

That sounds like a ton of fun. I want to experience a car that is stable at high speeds and be able to go that speed for a long time.

I had the Passat stuck at 130 for 7 minutes once.

It's really a lot of fun keeping it at that speed on the Autobahn. The only annoying things are the folks who pull out from the right lane and have slower cars. You have to slow down because of them and it takes them at eternity to overtake. Then sometimes, they continue to drive on the fast lane at a slower pace despite the slow lane being free.

Sometimes I wish I drove an Excursion.    :ph34r:  

You wouldnt be able to maintain 130 in an Excursion :D

129 mph then!  

Yea right :P   More like you'll be wobbling along at risk of tipover at 75 mph. :D

And by the time you reach 60 mph, you would have to find a gas station since the 150 liter fuel tank would be empty right?    :P  

[BMWDave]

That sounds like a ton of fun. I want to experience a car that is stable at high speeds and be able to go that speed for a long time.

I had the Passat stuck at 130 for 7 minutes once.

It's really a lot of fun keeping it at that speed on the Autobahn. The only annoying things are the folks who pull out from the right lane and have slower cars. You have to slow down because of them and it takes them at eternity to overtake. Then sometimes, they continue to drive on the fast lane at a slower pace despite the slow lane being free.

Sometimes I wish I drove an Excursion.    :ph34r:  

You wouldnt be able to maintain 130 in an Excursion :D

129 mph then!  

Yea right :P   More like you'll be wobbling along at risk of tipover at 75 mph. :D

And by the time you reach 60 mph, you would have to find a gas station since the 150 liter fuel tank would be empty right?    :P

Theyre not that bad with the fuel :D  

[cawimmer430]

That sounds like a ton of fun. I want to experience a car that is stable at high speeds and be able to go that speed for a long time.

I had the Passat stuck at 130 for 7 minutes once.

It's really a lot of fun keeping it at that speed on the Autobahn. The only annoying things are the folks who pull out from the right lane and have slower cars. You have to slow down because of them and it takes them at eternity to overtake. Then sometimes, they continue to drive on the fast lane at a slower pace despite the slow lane being free.

Sometimes I wish I drove an Excursion.    :ph34r:  

You wouldnt be able to maintain 130 in an Excursion :D

129 mph then!  

Yea right :P   More like you'll be wobbling along at risk of tipover at 75 mph. :D

And by the time you reach 60 mph, you would have to find a gas station since the 150 liter fuel tank would be empty right?    :P

Theyre not that bad with the fuel :D

You're kidding right?