Test drive Mercedes Benz C-class w203 2004-2007 sedan
According to the principle of hippocrates
UNDER NON NUCER does not harm! More than two millennia ago, Hippocrates called for all who were going to do healing. Updating their most popular model, the designers of the Mercedes Benets reasoned that the main principle of medicine is good in the automotive industry. Hand on the pulse
Chicken, carrying gold eggs, will not chop. And they are not only trying to keep a particularly popular model on the conveyor, but they are suitable for any modernization very carefully. The prestigious, safe, safe and stuffed with modern and expensive equipment, the current C-class has become the best-selling Mercedes Ben-Ben-Ben-Ben: in less than four years they were dispersed by a million and a quarter. And after all, this car has to please the extremely capricious customers. These are generously paid, but they also strive to find wrinkles on a infantry face. Even eagerly buying a C-class, they sometimes grumbled by either the smoothness of the course disappointed, then there was not enough sports, then the decoration is old-fashioned ...
With such customers you have to hold your ear in a little: you will take off your hand a little from the pulse, run away to the competitor. That is why in Stuttgart they decided to engage in these very whims.
Cut carefully, but confidently Perhaps the main thing is that the Europeans appreciated in C-class, the ability to imitate the largest, most solid and expensive Stuttgart car. You will refuse such a trump card, admirers will not understand.
Looking at the sedan sparkling with black metallic, I admit, I was very surprised. And where, excuse me, restyling? The front part, other headlights, wheeled wheels, side moldings, bumers have changed in a completely new way, aerodynamic overlays on the thresholds appeared, one of the Daimler-Coisler representatives came to the rescue. And yet, not possessing the visual memory of Sherlock Holmes, I will not find these ten differences in life. Who, tell me, will mention that the chain had not three, as it is now, but four chrome strips on the radiator grille, the discs in the base were not 16, but 15-inch? Unless the optics with transparent lenses and the front bumper with a slightly more aggressive air intake will take the special signs of an updated machine.
While I am a seat for myself with the help of an electric drive, everything is not enough to clarify with innovation in the cabin. The devices, according to the creators, are now made in the style of expensive chronometers. Huge, like on a S-class, a speedometer-dominant sunk into oblivion.
In the center is the screen of the on -board computer, which has become more clearly: both pretty and with good.
I got a job, turn on the turn signal, but instead I touch the clumsy cruise control switch. They say that this lever, like the overloaded left-handed steering switch (control of long-red light, turns and wipers), and the floor pedal of the manual brake, many fans of the Mercedes-Benets honor as a tribute of tradition. Perhaps that is why they decided to save them in Stuttgart? But the central console of plastic surgery did not escape. New, much more convenient than before, climateistan and stereo system in the C-class have long been asked.
And yet, from the first kilometers, much more well -abstracted appearance and a changed salon, I was delighted with a completely different circumstance.
Effective climateistan is now even in the basic configuration
Speedometer and tachometer of the same diameter of the sign of the new dashboard
The laid back of the rear sofa will have to order for 379 euros
It will shine longer
It is no secret that fans of the Mercedes-Benets began to complain about the fragility of the brilliance of cars in recent years. This is especially noticeable to those who often use mechanical sinks. The Germans tried to solve the problem. Cars are now painted with a new enamel with microparticles of silicon. In such a paint, the molecular structure of the substance is neither less, nor less. The resistance to mechanical influences has increased, as stated, by 40%.
Movement is life! In any, notice, age. And if the movement also gives pleasure ... The previous C-class had everything for this: an independent suspension, a rather sharp steering wheel, good sound insulation, enviable dynamics. That's just other entertainers, the car seemed (and not without reason) hard on the go.
Slowly, like in the theater, the light goes out. Go. Or maybe I only thought it? If you move smoothly, there is a feeling of unreality of what is happening. It seems that I stayed in place, and the surrounding houses went. You need to eat, as the experienced used to say.
Fortunately, everything does not last long. After three or four seconds, the salon is filled with a piercing squeak. This melody will stop only if you fasten. Be it in your opinion, the right German car. I insert the belt into the lock. Everything, no more sound. 40, 60, 80 to say that you are swimming, and not go, it means not to say anything. Pits, potholes, cobblestone framing the tram tracks, the car passes without telling any muscle of my body about this. Here it is, the sweetest innovation of C-class has become a much more comfortable suspension.
A little stronger to squeeze gas. Bravissimo! What are eight seconds up to a hundred. It seems much faster. The speedometer is already shining with white-blue light at 120. A mixture of complete silence and high smoothness of the course is a real drug for sibarite.
Eh, now, probably, in the first fast turning, the German will lean, swim out of the turn and get out of all the pluses of a mild nature along with rear -wheel drive joys. It didn’t happen! It draws a trajectory in a almost 90-degree left left/h like a pattern. There are rolls, but hardly more than the recognized athletes from BMW, and under an increase in gas, the car does not think revenge on the tail. Even faster, and the next turn, the ESP system very politely refuels the car. The softness of movements and the ability to very quickly pass turns just like that of the Mercedes E-Class or Saaba-9-5. What was treated by the chain that its road habits can now be compared with the best business sedans?
The secrets of Teutonic healers
The recipe for symbiosis of sports controllability and high smoothness is called direct control (direct control). The front suspension equipped with new ones, by 22% softer supports of the lower levers, altered supports of the transverse levers of the rear suspension, as well as about 7% (up to 14.5: 1) a reduced gear ratio in the steering mechanism and other characteristics of the shock absorbers here are the secrets of German engineers .
We taught the car to quickly pass turns without loss of comfort, saying masters say. A hundred kilometers were already added on the odometer, and I did not notice how quickly I ended up in the familiar places near Moscow. Now the advertising video, where the racer of Formula 1 Kimi Raikonen dashingly lays a virazh for a vihge on his Mercedes, not paying attention to her girlfriend’s chatter about a pink elephant, I no longer consider an exaggeration. This car is really capable of fascinating.
The operating volume of the C230K engine is only 1.8 liters
Moreover, the excitement infects not only the chassis. Reasonably reasoning that the power does not exist, the chain was equipped with a 230-compressor with a new engine. Do not think that this is the old (1999) candy in the new wrapper 2.3-liter 192-horsepower engine from SLK and CLK. The power of the new heart is the same, but it was already removed from a volume of 1.8 liters. 107 horses from a liter result worthy of sportsmen. A mechanical compressor with high performance of the pump, an intermediate cooler, four valves per cylinder, a duet of forged balancing shafts, the variable phases of gas distribution and, in addition to a very high power volume, this beast will supply 26.5 kgf. m. Mg from 3500 to 4000. This Bavarian 2.5-liter six. And why overpay for V6 now? The traction stock is at 120, so 220 km/h.
The client is always right As if specifically for high-speed voyage along the dark winding suburban roads, the S-class is now equipped with rotary fog lights. There are also new items here, which, in the best traditions of genetic engineering, migrated to the shop with large Stutgarts. Lovers of high speeds should like the voice control of the radio. On the rear window, you can order a curtain with an electric drive. Very convenient, but how expensive! 568 euros for the curtain on the window is almost a record for cost.
Yes, this sad Mercedes tradition of the high cost of custom -made equipment, alas, was not eradicated. However, in Russia they are trying to fight with her. Cars appeared in the configuration of a special series with a fixed set of our most popular options for profitable savings for C230K approximately C2200 price. The result was not long in coming. The line was lined up for three months. And who will now say that the principle does not harm! Is it good only in medicine?
Special series The owner of the 143-horsepower sedan C180K can become for 29,900 euros. C200K (163 pp.) And C230K by 2500 and 4600 more expensive. A full-wheel drive C240-4Matic (170 hp) 40,900 euros, diesel C220CDI (143 hp) 34,900 euros and, finally, top-end, very temperamental C55AMG (367 l.) 73,900 euros. However, dealers take such cars only to order. In salons, you will often find a special series of disks made of light alloy, alarm, heated front seats and stereo systems prepared specifically for Russia: C180K 31,900 euros, C200K 37,500 euros and C230K HAVING 39,900 euros.
BEHIND
High image, excellent sound insulation, high smoothness and acute controllability, economical, painful engine in a wide range of revolutions, the possibility of individual electronics adjustment, abundance of subtitle equipment, generous equipment by means of security
AGAINST
Many of the necessary options only for surcharge, ergonomics, requiring addiction, high price of maintenance and repair
Mercedes-Benz C230 Kompressor
Total information
Body (number of places/doors)
Sedan (5/4)
Equipped mass, kg
1490
Length x width x height, mm
4526x1728x1426
Base, mm
2715
Front/back, mm
1505/1476
Speed, km/h
236
Acceleration time 0100 km/h, with
8.2
Fuel consumption, l/100 km highway/city
6.4/12.8
Engine
Location
The front is longing
Design
gasoline, 4-cylinder, in order
Diam. cylinder x Piston stroke, mm
82.0x85.0
Working volume, SMZ
1796
Compression ratio
8.5: 1
Power, L.S. at rpm
192/5800
Twisting, kgsm at rpm
26.5/3500-4000
Chassis
Transmission
rear -wheel drive
Transmission
Automatic, 5-speed
Suspension:
Independent, with stabilizers of anti -resistance stability
in front
Three-leaf with McEferson racks
behind
Mollycent
Steering
rhealenic type with hydraulic power steering
Brakes
disk, in front ventilated
Tires
205/55 R15
Alexey Sergeev, photo of Maxim Goncharov
Source: Magazine buy a car [12/2004]
