I hired a Mercedes C Class 200D for 12 days. Turned out to be a fantastic car. Wonderful quiet long distance cruising, very comfortable seats, economical. The car seemed to be well assembled and of a nice strong build quality. It held the road nicely and absorbed the bumps well. I did almost 1,000 miles in it and was very impressed. I am interested to test the new shape one when it appears.
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This surprised me too - then I looked in the tables in Diesel Car and found that despite both being called '200' the C-class and B-class appear to have quite different engines.
I had a C220 CDI as a courtesy car when my B200 CDI was being serviced - it was just as you say. Quiet and refined at all speeds; good response to the accelerator; and a reasonable idling speed which doesn't set up a vibration in the car. All of which fine qualities the diesel B-class so signally lacks.
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Thanks for your very interesting reply " Avant". I was actually impressed when I sat in a B Class in a showroom.It also seemed to be well finished inside. It's very interesting about the different engines. My hired C 200 CDI behaved exactly like your courtesy car even though your's was more powerful. My wife and I were amazed how fresh we felt and no body stiffness at all after a 230 mile trip.Good support from the seats. I plan to buy a new shape C Class 200 CDI or even a 220 CDI when they appear in the showrooms.I genuinely think it will be a very good car, as we were so impressed with the present older shaped version.The one I hired had a six speed manual gearbox.
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Both the C200CDI and the C220CDI in the present (W203) C-Class have basically the same 2.2l engine. The C220CDI has balancer shafts and a different turbo compared to the C200CDI. It is not the same engine as the 2.0l in the B200CDI.
I had a C220CDI W203 for 3 years and 85000km as a company car. Despite being one of the very first off the production line, having all the complex (and expensive) options available at the time, and being driven by my unsympathetic right foot, I had no problems whatsoever and no trips to the dealer other than for routine servicing. There were almost no stone chips after 3 years and when it was cleaned up it looked like new, apart from the kerbed alloys which were hardly the car's fault!
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I drove a c200 cdi for a week or so while my c270 cdi was being fixed. Rather gutless in my view, but a little
lighter at the front end, so more agile feeling. The c220 cdi has more poke (143 bhp?) with corresponding
torque. My favourite though was a c180K (can't remember what bhp etc.) - very smooth & nice light
engine that transformed the handling & ride - even though it may have been slower that the c270/320
diesel & petrol engines 5/6 cylinder jobs. One big disadvantage with the heavy old diesel lumps that few comment
is that heavy front end - big disadvanatge those extra 150kilos over the front wheels in the twisties, the ride suffers too,
especially bump absorption.
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After properly reading your detailed reply. I will have to push my wife to allow me to buy the C 220 CDI. I see the new shape ones will have much better wait distribution.The engine futher back and lower I think. Also the battery in the boot in the diesel ones.Unfortunately because of tax, we pay a fortune for cars in Southern Ireland. There is little point in my buying new cars in the North or in England, as they hammer me with the same tax when I get home.
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Thanks very much " woodbines" for all the useful information. Very much appreciated. After reading a detailed report on the new shape C Class, Mercedes have obviously been hard at work improving the design and very importantly the weight distribution. I personally don't like these flashy reports on new cars in many magazines, when in fact the testers have hardly had the cars for any length of time. I like Honest John, Parkers and Which etc etc. I read the others; but I prefer the less showy more detailed reports.
I see that the new C Class is heavier than the old one. So even if they have improved some engine performances together with economy, one would probably need the 220 CDI rather than the 200 CDI.
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Thanks very much for the information " Bagpuss". I want to learn all I can about the C Class as I am determined to buy one of the new ones when they appear.I was really thrilled with that hired car, so the new one will be even better. I do a lot of long distance driving up and around Northern Ireland and then back again to Dublin in the same day. One now gets a lovely smooth run from Dublin up to Dundalk and there are good stretches in the North as well. The traffic on Dublin's M50 is terrible.So I was truly able to test the hired car.The C Class has definitely got understated elegance. I like a car like that.
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