What they said when the Mercedes C-Class Coupe was new… (Aug 15 2002)
A sensational new 1.8 litre engine and some serious price cutting has given the Mercedes C-Class Coupe a new lease of life.
Affordability has suddenly become the name of the game and not only is its brand new engine greener and leaner than before, it also packs a mighty punch.
Not that the old one lacked much when it came to performance - but the changes under the bonnet of this latest generation of Mercedes are a real eye-opener. Mercedes calls it Twinpulse and the technology combines all the advantages of lower fuel consumption with supercharged clout.
Up until now even the most basic C Class Sports Coupe would have set you back in excess of £20,000. Now it is available at £18,795. Even the top range C230 Kompressor has seen its price pruned back to £22,105 and now it is sensible money.
But the comparison becomes more attractive once you consider what is going on in the engine department. The old 2.3 litre engine would deliver around 27 miles per gallon and pump out C02 at the rate of 245 g/km.
Now the car will achieve 34.9 mpg on average and it has cleaned up its emissions act by 43 g/km. The benefits are slightly less for the five speed automatic versions but it all means that the C-Class Sports Coupe has come of age.
Previously at close on £24,000 it was over-priced for a medium sized three door car - albeit one bearing the famous three pointed star. BMW with its 3 Series Compact and Audi with performance versions of the A3 hatch were a much better bet.
Now this Mercedes can carve its own niche in the market and that reduction in CO2 emissions is particularly attractive to company car users although it is still outside the bracket to give a discount to the private buyer.
The capacity of the engine may have been reduced - from 2.2 to 1.8 litres - but in terms of horsepower not a lot has changed. The new engine pumps out 192 bhp and that gave the auto version a 0 to 60mph time of around eight seconds and a top speed in excess of 140mph.
The new engine makes extensive use of aluminium and runs beautifully smoothly thanks to advanced engineering in the form of balancer shafts. This is as refined as a Mercedes should be and the Sports Coupe has plenty of creature comforts onboard. Automatic air conditioning, a multi-function trip computer, a speed limiter facility on the cruise control and a CD multichanger were all fitted to this car. Even the centre console was cooled from the air conditioning - to such an extent that it could keep things ice cold.
The boot at 11 cubic feet is sensibly sized and despite this being a coupe it can take two adults in the back quite comfortably. A little niggle was when it came to adjusting the driver's seat. It can be set for reach, height, rake, cushion angle - in fact virtually any way you can think of. But is was all done manually and that meant an awful lot of fiddling to get it right.
However once done satisfactorily it provided a superbly comfortable ride - a touch firm but that is what a car like this should be. The sporty feel of this coupe was enhanced by using the manual side of the auto box -a set up Mercedes has got down to a fine art. Just a sideways flick of the gear lever moves you through the box with the changes being delivered just when and where you want them.
If I have a real reservation then it is about the styling. I loved the front end and the slippery side profile but wasn't too sure about the black plastic across the tailgate. Somehow it did not have the same class feel as the rest of the car ... and class is an important commodity in a Mercedes.
Words: Chris Russon
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