***2003 Mercedes C180 Kompressor Sportcoupe***

[cawimmer430]

I had the opportunity to drive another sportscoupe from the C-Class range. This time, a C180 Kompressor, the entry level C-Class sportscoupe before the new C160 will come along this fall. I was pretty surprised after driving this car for a while, here?s why: It felt pretty sporty honestly. It?s still not on the same level of sportiness that the refreshed C-Class offers, but for my needs, it drove pretty nicely.



The C180 Kompressor is powered by a 1796cc 4-cylinder engine that is supercharged. It?s the same engine found in the C200 Kompressor?s but with different engine management settings. In the C200 Kompressor, 163-horsepower are offered: here, it?s 143-horsepower. Torque is rated at 220 Nm (162 lb/ft). This car came with the standard 6-speed manual transmission too. 0-100 km/h in 9.7 seconds according to Mercedes.







Inside, it?s not the best looking interior due to this car being a pre-facelift model. I suppose the materials were slightly better than the interiors on the original W203?s. The seats were covered in cloth with some wacko design on them. Didn?t bother to figure out what it was. [:P]



Well, the motor is pretty smooth. This 1.8-l definitely had TwinPulse and counter-rotating balance shafts that gave it a 6-cylinder feeling. Like the C200 Kompressor, the engine here feels very lively. It was surprisingly rev-happy and gave off an aggressive 4-cylinder growl when revved. Early on, the car was pretty fun to push around. The engine pulled and felt strong. Particularly in 2nd gear did this thing pickup speed like no one?s business! In the city, I ?accidentally? brought her up to 70 km/h (44 mph) despite a 50 km/h permitted speed. Damn! The motor didn?t feel slow at all. And a 0-62 mph time of less than 10 seconds is perfectly acceptable in my book.







The manual was a disappointment. Although it felt much improved over past Benz manuals, there was just something wrong with it: shifts from 2nd gear into 3rd gear felt like I was going from 2nd to 5th! Shift patterns were short however, so speed shifting wasn?t a problem. However, it wasn?t the smoothest of M/T?s so there was always a bit of mechanical resistance that could be felt. Annoying. The clutch was pretty vague too.







Steering wise, the car was pretty direct. Although not as quick acting or weighted as in the newer C-Classes, the steering on this sportcoupe felt ?sporty enough?. I really had no problems in curves our out in the country. Suspension wise, it was pretty hard. Whoever ordered this car had checked the ?Evolution sports package?, which I guess gave the car a sportier feel over standard sportcoupes. Guess that also included the nice rims.







Overall, not bad not bad. I still prefer the facelifted C-Class models but this car wasn?t bad. I was particularly fond of the motor. It was eager and powerful. Usually, Mercedes base models in Europe were really base models (slow etc.). Not this one. Funny how the C200 Kompressor does 0-62 mph in 9.1 seconds: a 0.6 second difference. I?d rather have a C180 Kompressor then for less money and the same standard equipment. Top speeds for the C180K and C200K are 223 and 234 km/h respectively (139 and 147 mph): not a big difference in my book. Well, a pleasing car overall, but I?d rather much have the facelifted sportscoupe version.





PHOTO ALBUM: http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=2122421563

[BMWDave]

Nice writeup B)  Euro cars always have the weirdest cloth designs...it makes me dizzy just to look at them :D

[Raghavan]

That cloth pattern is HIDEOUS. This thing is RWD, right?

[cawimmer430]

Nice writeup B)  Euro cars always have the weirdest cloth designs...it makes me dizzy just to look at them :D

You can order nice cloth designs on them too. In Europe, the C-Class Sportcoupe was literally targetted at young wealthy professionals who apparently like this sort of cloth design (looks "trendy" for example). Our E320 has 50-50 cloth-leather seats and our cloth looks really nice. Remind me to take a picture sometime.    

[cawimmer430]

That cloth pattern is HIDEOUS. This thing is RWD, right?

Yeah, RWD. The only MB's which are FWD are:

A-Class
B-Class
Viano
Vaneo

[ifcar]

Nice writeup B)  Euro cars always have the weirdest cloth designs...it makes me dizzy just to look at them :D

You can order nice cloth designs on them too. In Europe, the C-Class Sportcoupe was literally targetted at young wealthy professionals who apparently like this sort of cloth design (looks "trendy" for example). Our E320 has 50-50 cloth-leather seats and our cloth looks really nice. Remind me to take a picture sometime.  

Take a picture sometime.

We've got a few terrible cloth seats in the US as well. Think Aztek and early Ion.  

[BMWDave]

Nice writeup B)? Euro cars always have the weirdest cloth designs...it makes me dizzy just to look at them :D

You can order nice cloth designs on them too. In Europe, the C-Class Sportcoupe was literally targetted at young wealthy professionals who apparently like this sort of cloth design (looks "trendy" for example). Our E320 has 50-50 cloth-leather seats and our cloth looks really nice. Remind me to take a picture sometime.  

Take a picture sometime.

We've got a few terrible cloth seats in the US as well. Think Aztek and early Ion.

Dont forget early echos as well  

[ifcar]

That too. But I was sticking to American cars.  

[BMWDave]

That too. But I was sticking to American cars.

Well, we did get the Echo in America, so thats why I brought it up :)