Test drive Mercedes Benz C-class w202 1993-1997 sedan

Black cat, white cat

They have, perhaps, only the word compartment in the name. Well, maybe some similarity can also be seen in prices, wheeled bases and some other technical parameters, which, in fact, gave us the right to call these two cars classmates. But then-continuous, directly egregious differences. Even in the document with the name of the registration certificate of the PEUGEOT 407 Coupe, it is defined by the traffic police with the traffic police as a passenger sedan, and Mercedes C-Sportcoupe-as a hatchback ... Fortunately, is also a passenger. Interestingly, are there freight sedans and hatchbacks? By traffic police-yes, but for some reason they did not meet us ...
 
In 407 Coupe on the beard there is a button for turning off the anti -circus system, and next to it is also a button with an icon resembling a Z sign. So, the purpose of the latter is just not difficult to understand. She converts shock absorbers into a hard sports mode of operation. But why the first does not fulfill what is required of it is another mystery. It turns off the electronic pacifier only for seconds. Try it, they say, and no longer rumbled. On a Mercedes, however, ESP is also not completely turned off: at low speeds, the electronics dozing, but with the development of a critical situation, it takes control.
PEUGEOT 407 Coupe, without any doubt, is a classic compartment, despite the impressive length that he got from the 407 series. The car has two doors, isolated luggage volume and a four -seater salon. Oddly enough, he has no competitors. If we take for comparison the same purebred coupe as the BMW 330ci or Mercedes CLK280, then you will have to pay for German cars at least $ 10,000-15,000 more than for a French car with a three-liter engine. That is why it was decided to take a less ambitious model in the couple-Mercedes C-SportCoupe.
Cam spores. Actually, incomprehensible things are doing in Stuttgart. Too voluntarily in the Mercedes began to interpret the term compartment: either a four-door sedan will be called (we are talking about a series of CLS), then a three-door hatchback (and what else, in your opinion, is C-Sportcoupe?). It is clear the desire to reflect in the name the exalted status of a car, to emphasize the unusualness of its appearance. But if other companies follow this example, chaos will reign. The Chinese will begin to give out their lanky pickups as limousines.
 
There is only one excuse for a direct comparison of the new Peugeot with the popular German C-Klasse, which since 2004 began to give himself out of the compartment. If you think about it, they have the same target audience. These are people who will never buy a compartment for pleasure and luxury. They will not be obsessed, as in love at first sight, but carefully study the price tags, gently gleam the practicality of the machine from all sides, scrap its residual value and other points of the marriage contract.
 
Here in the previous 406 Coupe Pininfarina (and therefore dazzling beauty), in fact, people fell in love. The novelty appeals to other feelings. Watch how spacious and convenient the salon is - even the seats move forward with electric drives. And how is a capacious 400-liter trunk. The body meets the most stringent security standards, and a huge front overhang and a long hood of a soft structure is a good chance for a pedestrian (and less insurance compensation). Finally, what an impressive standard equipment: smart xenon and parking sensors, rain sensors, illumination and tire pressure, seven airbags and electric drives with memory, cruise control and two-zone climatic system, 18-inch discs and adaptive suspension.
 
C-Sportcoupe, however, is also not a poor relative. For a surcharge, you can order luxury options at all: panoramic sliding roof, parametric steering, Harman/Kardon audio system, and a lot of sports improvements.
 
RADIUS OF ACTION. In a hungry shark muzzle 407 Coupe, a kilometer is read. And in short -sized the appearance of Sportcoupe, the trunk of which contains only 300 liters (though, with the backs spread out, the volume reaches 1100), something else is visible. This is a city dine, not cramped and comfortable, with a large signature sign on the nose, which has long gained a second meaning: to give way.
 
407 Coupe has a relaxed reclining position. Massive side rollers on the pillow and back will keep the body in turns. A large range of electrical adjustments allows you to find a convenient landing and without risk to adjust it directly on the go. In SportCoupe, we do not advise doing this. All adjustments are mechanical. Access to some is complicated. The profile of the pillow and back does not have pronounced sports, but such seats create less inconvenience when you have to get out of the car often.
 
By the way, about the doors. The 407 Coupe has not a door, but the gates of a river gateway. Very heavy and, of course, very large. But they are not extended back, which could still be explained by the desire to facilitate the landing of passengers on the second row of seats, but forward. In Mercedes, it is easier to operate doors. But you will not envy those who have to climb the rear sofa. There are plenty of spaces, as in the C-Klasse sedan, but after Peugeot access to the gallery only children will seem exciting.
 
The suspension of the German car works softer, it is better to swallow joints and fossa on the roadway. The noise is insignificant and mainly represented by a motor hum. Outside, Sportcoupe is solid, with gambling steel notes. But in the salon, you can’t recognize the timbre of the engine - as if under the hood rumbling diesel.
The adaptive pendant Peugeot 407 Coupe painfully perceives sharp irregularities, but easily swallows gentle - there is no swing and at all. The noise from the wheel arches is listened to more, but the vocals of the V-shaped six are more pleasant and better drowned out.
 
And such an observation: if you lower the windows in a French car, then at a speed of 100-110 km/h the ears will begin to lay low-frequency hugs. In SportCoupe, the same effect occurs at speeds of 140-150 km/h.
 
The front wheels suspension on the classic two levers (and lightweight) and the back of the multi -link suspension, which caused excellent handling of the sedan 407, was additionally improved for Coupe: the body of the body was strengthened, shortened springs of greater stiffness and amortizers with electronic control (included in serial equipment of modification V6 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 ). In the running C-Klasse, there was also a place for innovations. The front wheels racks are made according to the MacPherson scheme, but with three levers that form an A-shaped structure. Improving controllability also gave the use of a steering gear gear.
 
Fat nature. Even in accelerated characteristics, a fundamental difference is felt. The machine does not shoot the rear -wheel drive Mercedes when starting. The electronic stabilization system ensures that the feed of the machine does not shine on a slippery or heterogeneous road. The engine equipped with a compressor supercharger is able to slow down the momentum as quickly as it is to gain them, which helps to better feel the craving and more efficiently slow down only due to the discharge of gas.
 
The anti -wings system (conditionally disconnected) carefully strangles the engine so that the front wheels do not slip. The automatic box also does not instantly switch to the transmission below when the gas is shed to the floor. And the gear rates, it seems, are small-a powerful overclocking of 407 Coupe owes a decent moment that develops a 211-horsepower engine. If you think that the car becomes more dynamic in S mode, you are forced to disappoint. The fact that the motor is now twisted under the limiter, you feel only when the gas is discharged - the engine is more significant. By the way, the brakes of both Peugeot and Mercedes what is necessary - slowdown is easily controlled, cars do not lose stability in emergency situations.
 
Evaluating controllability is an ungrateful business. It all depends on the personal addictions of the driver. Through the lamb of the French coupe, you feel the slightest change in the profile of the road (track, patch on the coating). Informativity is sometimes simply frightening, but the car itself clearly keeps a course, performs all the maneuvers at speed decisively and accurately. If you like such cat habits, then 407 Coupe will become a standard. However, C-SportCoupe also has a quality that distinguishes the cat's breed-equanimity. Let the steering in the German car when compared is more severe and sharp, but it is in this car that for some reason you feel lion's calm.
In the constellation Leo. We are ready to partially share the opinion of those who are with enthusiasm about the PEUGEOT 407 COUPE salon. The matte black skin is very thin seats with a pronounced sports profile and the elements of the upholstery of the doors. For surcharge, you also get the skin on the visor of the dashboard and on the passenger part of the dashboard. Tastily designed devices. Saturated, but logically built a central console. Between the seats is a convenient and roomy armrest. The lower edge of the huge windshield is unusually far forward. And so that the space under it does not resemble the wasteland, the designers of Peugeot placed there deliberately bulky ventilation structures. Their futuristic appearance is slightly knocked out of the general style of the interior, but at the wheel of 407 Coupe you can imagine yourself with a spaceship pilot - massive aluminum inserts in the doors only contribute to this. You can’t give up the quality of soft plastic parts. And only especially vulnerable audiophiles can arise to the sound of the JBL audio system JBL. Not the most successful detail is the display. This suggests the screen more informative and large. Too small and lateral mirrors - to maneuver in a tight stream has to be tripled.
Alpine freshness. Smokers, sluts and just bores, falling into the salon of this Sportcoupe, will find a lot of reasons to turn. Very bright plastic upholstery of the lower part of the torpedo and doors is probably quickly stained, and the textile coating on the seats and the ceiling is entered with tobacco aromas. But you know, it is better to go for dry cleaning once again than to deprive yourself of a radiant environment. A light salon is always perceived much more spacious. And when there are also two hatches over your head, through which sunlight freely penetrates, it seems that in the cabin of the car it even breathes as easily as on the slope of the ski resort (for which, of course, I must say thanks to the air conditioning system). Of the inconvenience, we note only manual adjustments of the seats (but there are a lot of them). Additions will require a foot handbrake and another typically Mercedes trouble - there is no steering wheel switches to the right of the steering wheel, and there are already two of them on the left. You master the rest of the control (mirrors and the inclusion of light, climate and audio) instantly. It is immediately obvious that interior designers were able to find a common language with those people in Stuttgart who is responsible for ergonomics.

Text Ruslan Tarasov, photo Andrey Danilov
 
Peugeot 407 Coupe 3.0
 
Gasoline engine, v6
Working volume (cubic cub) 2946
Power (L.S. at about/min) 211 at 6000
Moment (nm at rpm) 290 at 3750
Front drive
Gearbox 6-speed,
Automatic
Length/width/height (mm) 4815/1868/1399
Equipped mass (kg) 1612
Maximum speed (km/h) 243
Acceleration to 100 km/h (c) 8.9
Fuel consumption (city/highway, l/100 km) 15.0/7.3
The price of the tested car is $ 51 500
 
 
Mercedes-Benz Sportcoupe C230K
 
Gasoline engine, 4 in a row
Working volume (cubic cub) 1796
Power (L.S. at rpm) 192 at 5800
Moment (nm at rpm) 260 at 3500
The rear drive
The gearbox is 5-speed,
Automatic
Length/width/height (mm) 4345/1730/1400
Equipped mass (kg) 1400
Maximum speed (km/h) 236
Acceleration to 100 km/h (c) 8.2
Fuel consumption (city/highway, l/100 km) 12.8/6.4
The price of the tested car is 41,000

 

Source: "Autopilot"