Ride Report - Mercedes C180 Kompressor (Germany)
 

Got this car on a 10EUR/day upgrade from a mid-size.

Interior - fabric seats, *excellent* front legroom (I'm 6'3", and I didn't need to have the seat all the way back, which is a first for me). Rear seat legroom was acceptable for people under 6' tall. I'm fairy broad-shouldered, and for a small/mid-size car, the width was decent. Dual-zone climate control, CD player. Audio quality was good, and it had speed-sensitive volume control which was well-tuned (ie not like US Fords which have it). Road noise was well-controlled, even at 200+ km/hr - people in the back seat could here me talking at a normal conversational volume. The trunk was large enough that it would have accomodated two 26" suitcases + 2 21" rollaboards, although I only had 1 of each.

Engine - this little sucker moved. There's a little bit of turbo lag, but this car's got some zip to it (I'd estimate 0-100 km/h in around 6-7 seconds), both off the line and at speed. On the A7 autobahn, I was able to get up to 230 km/h and still had a little room to go (I'd guess it'd do 250-ish). At high speed, the car still felt rock-solid - no jitter in the wheel, and when I needed to drop 100 km/h in a hurry for the guy who didn't move over in time, the braking was excellent. Transmission was the semi-automatic type - 5 speeds available to choose from. I didn't use the semi-auto much, but when I did, it seemd to shift pretty quick compared to other semi-autos I've driven.

Fuel economy - in 500 km of driving that was about half autobahn, half B-roads, I was better than 8 L/100km fuel economy according to the trip computer. This was about 15% better than similar driving conditions in the VW Passat wagon I had on my last trip. Requires "super" (mid-grade in Germany) unleaded fuel, which added 0.02 EUR/liter.

Random stuff - it's got one of those weird laser "keys" that just has a little IR window. Stick it in, the steering wheel unlocks, then turn to start. The cruise control isn't like in a US car - it's a speed limiter. You set the limit speed on the trip computer, and then, even if you floor it, the car won't exceed your setpoint. Take your foot off the accellerator, and it will slow down, though.

Overall, a fun ride.

I'm pretty sure it's mechanically supercharged, not exhaust-driven supercharged (often referred to as turbocharged).

Speed would be interesting. I had the E200 (which is the same engine) and couldn't get it to do more than 231km/h, and I had a long stretch of flat out driving (was driving from FRA to AMS). I guess the larger car pays a significant penalty.

Steve

The C180 Kompressor is indeed supercharged -- in fact, IIRC "kompressor" is German for supercharged. I'm a fan of MB's Kompressor engines -- I drove our US-market C230K at a Mercedes track event a while back, and that was enough to make me strongly consider buying one.

I'm not sure if all Euro-spec Mercedes have the 155 mph speed limiter, but from looking on the UK website, the E200 seems to be drag-limited to around 143 mph.

I rented a C200 recently (from Avis, but I think Hertz has them too), and thought it was a great car. It's was a Diesel with a 6 speed manual trans. Not as fast off the line as the C180K, but was surprisingly strong at highway speeds in 6th gear. Did 200kph without too much trouble, but I drove mostly 140-150 or so.
Put 2700km on it, mostly Autobahn, and got about 6.25l/100km (roughly 38 mpg).

Would gladly rent one again, and wished we had options like this for a reasonable price in the States.

Check out the prices of that car in Europe--or for that matter MOST European cars. Not even close to what we in the US would consider to be 'reasonable.'

Under $500 US for two weeks seemed pretty good to me. In most places in the US, Hertz would give you in a Taurus for that, at best.

My rate wasn't nearly so good. Base rate was 42EUR + 10EUR upgrade. Then, 16%GST + 19% local tax (Hannover's a convention city). All in for 890EUR for 2 weeks. That did include CDP (or its EU equivalent).

I typically rent about 85% from Hertz and 15% from others (mostly Avis). I checked both of them for this trip and Avis had a great rate for a "Standard - Audi A4 Avant or similar", using the D005297 AWD code from the Avis forum here, which gave a rate of US$496 for 13 days, all in, but not with any optional insurance. I think the C200 CDI was an upgrade, although the agent didn't say anything about it. On their website, the next class up is a "Premium - Mercedes C220 CDI or similar", so this car seemed about half way between. The Premium was priced about 25/week more, but I had reserved the standard because I felt the Avant would handle our luggage better. We did end up having to put some luggage in the back seat, but with two adults and one child, it worked out OK. Even though the rate was quoted in dollars, the final charge was in Euros, EU 396, bottom line.