![]() In fact, it's a hatchback, just like the cheap economy cars that were so popular in the 1980s and early '90s. And, although the brilliant Mercedes marketing department named the C230 a "sports coupe," don't be fooled - it's not a coupe. Even the paltry Ford Focus hatchback comes with a six-disc changer.Īnother cost cutter is the C230's back end, which was chopped seven inches shorter than the C-class sedan that costs $5,000 more. Worst of all, especially considering that the C230 is aimed at a younger crowd, it doesn't come with a standard CD player. It also retains some of the big Benzes' idiosyncrasies, like a door lock switch on the center console and power window switches low on the door. Leather seats, which still don't feel as supple as the cowhide on high-end models, add $1,410 to the price. So where did Mercedes cut corners? The most obvious answer is in the interior, where cheap-looking plastics cover the dash and manually adjusted cloth seats are standard. A total of eight air bags protect front- and rear-seat passengers - two front air bags, two side air curtains and four side air bags. Mercedes-Benz obviously had to cut some corners to keep the price so low, but it retains the vault-like feel and top-of-the-line safety features expected in a high-end hatchback. A slick six-speed manual gearbox is available to please purist drivers. Aggressive thrusts on the accelerator bring aggressive shifts that let the engine wind up, while more lethargic driving is met with earlier shifts that save fuel. A five-speed automatic, which adds $1,300 to the sticker price, is capable of monitoring the driver's habits and shifting accordingly. Two transmissions are offered, both of which lean toward the sporty side. A noisy, metallic clicking sound during acceleration seems very undignified for a car with such a luxurious nameplate. But if the engine's feel is French cuisine, its sound is more like Mickey D's. The 192-horsepower, supercharged four-cylinder engine sends plenty of force to the rear wheels, with power coming smooth and even throughout the rev range. Its suspension is fairly soft, but it still injects confidence for spirited driving or emergency lane changes. The expensive Benzes sometimes feel like they're riding atop a giant marshmallow, but the little hatchback version has a much more intimate feel on the road. This emphasis on youth goes beyond price, as the C230 feels much livelier than its big cousins. The 2002 C230 Kompressor starts at an affordable $24,950, a price perfect for young professionals more interested in the big game than in big stock portfolios. Just mentioning the name conjures up images of supreme luxury - palatial houses, courteous servants, fine wine - the best of everything.īut the Mercedes vernacular is changing from "please pass the caviar" to "yo, wassup" as the carmaker courts younger buyers who don't have deep pockets. Just so you know, having too much oil in the engine can cause more damage than having too little.If ever a brand had cachet, it would be Mercedes-Benz. Hopefully it's your gauge or the mechanic overfilled it (lazy mechanics don't wait for all the oil to come out and start automatically filling it with the required amount of oil). Once you know that's what is wrong, you have to fix it because just because a crack is benign now, doesn't mean it won't get bigger and cause more problems. You can get one of these symptoms or all, just depends. So it depends on where the crack in the gasket is, it could leak oil on your foot, it could leak oil into the combustion chamber giving you nasty blue smoke, it could leak coolant into the oil giving you more oil than you ever wanted, it could leak coolant on your foot (that's why I needed a head gasket in my kid's SLK230) and it could leak coolant into the combustion chamber giving you nasty white/gray smoke and it could leak combustion gasses into the coolant (you'll see bubbles in the coolant, maybe burst a hose for good measure). I then have to click OK to continueĪs for a head gasket, it's job is to seal the heads and prevent oil, coolant and combustion chamber gasses from escaping or mixing. I still get a message every now and then that says my right tail lamp is on and it's not on, that is until I turn the headlights on. Click to expand.Either they hired Microsoft developers to help them with error messages, or, they used Google translator to go from German to English.
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