About once each year I get to drive a car that makes me wish I had been smart enough to get into med school, or had become a rock star, or at least had a rich, old uncle who loved me like a son - whatever it would take to afford the car that caught my fancy.
Catching my fancy this week is the 1997 Mercedes-Benz C280 Sport, as fine a (smallish) four-door sedan as has ever graced the Knudson garage for the usual weeklong perusal.OK, I know what you're thinking. There goes Max again, singing the praises of another fancy-schmancy luxury car that no one can afford unless his or her last name is Gates, Trump or Buffett.
I feel your pain, but man does not live by Chevy Cavalier alone. (Neither does woman, for that matter.) Sometimes we have to examine the wheat so we can tell it from the chaff, the Dove from the Hershey, the Bruno Maglis from the Thom McAnns.
Sure, I know, a compact sedan priced north of $40,000 should be great; anybody can make a great $40k car; the trick is making a great $16,000 car.
But Mercedes-Benz didn't invent status - although that three-pointed star on the hood may define it best - and status is always expensive. If newspaper reporters can afford it, by definition it has no status.
It's hard to justify my case by simply pointing out the performance, features and luxury appointments that make the M-B worth 40 large.
True, it performs well, but 0-60 in 8.1 seconds can be had in other cars for less than half the Mercedes' price. And power windows/doors/outside mirrors, sun roof, leather seats, cruise control, CD player and such are also available on rides priced closer to $20,000 than $40,000.
Moreover, traditional luxury-car buyers will be shocked at the lack of interior space and the small size of the trunk in the C280. Cadillacs and Lincolns have been bought as much for their living-room-like accommodations as their luxury appointments.
The C280 is more the size of a guest bath, but it must be remembered that the C models are M-B's entry-level cars. One must spring for at least an E-class, or, even better, an S-class Mercedes if one wants to stretch one's legs and avoid hip contact with one's back-seat companions.
Here follow some random entries from my notebook made during my week with the C280:
- The ignition key folds into a sleek holder. At the push of a button it snaps out like the blade on a switchblade knife. The holder also has a button that, when pushed, locks the doors, rolls up all the windows and closes the sunroof, all from outside the car. Also, the ignition key slot is in the dash where it can be easily seen and accessed, not in the steering column where it can't.
- All cars have headrests, but the M-B's front headrests raise and lower electrically via a button on the door. The rear headrests must be raised up manually by the rear passengers. When the passengers exit, the driver pushes a button on the dash and the headrests drop down, clearing the view out the rear window.
- Mercedes has somehow created the windproof sunroof. You can barrel down the freeway at 70 mph with the roof open, and your hair will remain unruffled.
- The C-car's cruise control is the most precise, easily used device of any car I've driven. You can drive the car with it from 20 mph on up.
- The instrument panel is sheer perfection; along withh a digital clock, it includes a digital thermometer that tells you the outside temperature. The automatic climate control is the first one I'veencountered that truly works.
- The steering wheel telescopes rather than adjusting up and down; this is much more useful.
- The mono windshield wiper is unique to Mercedes and does the job so well I wonder why every other car has two. Besides, it's fun to watch as it does the macarena, stretching up to cover all the glass.
- The gated shifter for the four-speed automatic transmission takes a lot of getting used to. It's the same system used by Ferrari, Jaguar and other exotic marques, but it's still harder to find the right gear with it than it is with the more prosaic system found in most cars.
- The M-B's headlights are so bright and powerful they make the lights on my Acura seem like a couple of D-cell flashlights getting ready to burn out.
- The seats, and their six-way power controls, are as good as it gets. You could drive this car nonstop to Boston and not get tired . . . well, not too tired.
- It figures that this car, with its German pedigree, would require pricey premium fuel even though it's only a 194 horsepower, 2.8 liter six cylinder, rated at 20 mpg in city driving and 27 on the highway.
- When you're stopped on a hill waiting for a red light, the M-B doesn't move. You don't have to hold the brake or the accelerator to keep it from rolling back.
Base price of the C280 is $35,400. If you just went with the base car you'd have a might fine automobile, but my test car had $5,700 worth of options. Combined with destination charges, the bottom line on my car was $41,565. The options included $600 for the "brilliant silver" paint job (worth every dollar); a glass sunroof; the trunk-mounted CD changer; a split fold-down rear seat; a $1,875 package that included automatic slip control, heated front seats and headlight washers; and a $790 package that included a firmer suspension, special tires and wheels, and an adjustable steering column.
In the C class, Mercedes also offers a four-cylinder engine in what they call the C230 and a limited edition (only 200 will be imported to the U.S.) C36 in which the engine has been massaged to produce 276 horsepower and 0-60 times in a very speedy 6.2 seconds.