Four Season C240 4Matic Sedan

Author's Rating:

Pros: Permament 4WD, Mercedes Safety & Luxury, Highway Comfort

Cons: 3-Month Wait, Non-negotiable MSRP, No In-Dash CD Player

The Bottom Line: 
For class-leading comfort, luxury, and safety, the C240 4Matic Sedan offers the best value for your money.

Author's Review
When I began shopping for a new car recently, I had pretty much narrowed-down my decision to a couple of cars even before I stepped foot into a dealership. My maximum budget was $450/month and, leaning towards a lease, this could translate into quite a wide range of vehicles depending on the programs being offered at the time. Having driven a '99 Miata for nearly five years, it was time for something safer, more comfortable, roomier, and able to get traction through snow. So right from the beginning, only vehicles with front wheel drive or all wheel drive (4WD) would be considered.

These parameters quickly eliminated the Lexus IS300 (nice car, too bad the taillights look like every modded Honda Civic now!) and Infiniti G35 (the car enthusiast's model-du-jour to challenge the BMW 3-Series, but again those taillights look too trendy for me). Acura's new entry-level sedan, the 2004 TSX, looked nice in the press release photos but won't be available until Summer '03 and will not be available with anything but a 4-cylinder engine.

I've always appreciated German engineering, their attention to detail, thoughtful features, safety and durability. My instinctive choices were the VW Jetta GLX as a cost-savings option, the Mercedes C240 4Matic and Jaguar X-Type 2.5 as barely-affordable luxury options. But I wanted to confirm my instincts by driving everybody's favorite, the BMW 325xi. And after doing so, I can appreciate why the BMW receives such rave reviews: it is taut, firm, with a high level of handling performance that begs to be driven as 'sportily' as possible. But I already own a Miata, so my new daily driver needed to emphasize comfort above performance. And I was less-than-satisfied with the 325's new taillight design which seemed to dull the specialness of the original light configuration. As many industry followers already know, BMW's design seems to be going backwards lately, rather than forwards. I am skeptical that the redesigned 3-Series, due in 2005, will be as attractive as the current incarnation was in 1999.

I have test driven the X-Type on a number of occassions (and written a review about it, too) and found it quite pleasant. I would have been happy with the Jag, but I still preferred the firmness of the German cars. I visited my local VW dealer and talked some numbers on a Jetta GLX and found, to my surprise, that there was not much difference in a monthly lease between the Jetta, Jag, and Mercedes. This was due to VW's low residual values which increase monthly payments in leases. The Jetta GLX with the 200-hp VR6, as I have written in a review here, is wonderfully fun to drive and I was quite dissapointed that this vehicle could not offer me the cost savings I had expected to find.

Then there were two. Subsequent trips to my local Jag dealer revealed some high monthly payment quotes and a relunctance to build a vehicle based on the well-advertised $349/month lease program. Further research indicated that some Jag dealers are better than others, and that it would probably be necessary to travel around to find a better dealer. That didn't appeal to me very much, so I checked out my local Mercedes dealer. This was August 2002 and the press release announcing the 4Matic's availability in the 2003 C-Class had just been released a few weeks ago. The salesperson I spoke with was already taking orders with deliveries expected in October or November (to be fair, 4Matic production would not begin until late September). After taking a test drive, I talked some numbers and even though the residuals and interest rates were not determined for 2003MY cars, I was assured that our vehicle would be within our monthly budget. Compared with the higher-maintenance Jag dealer experience and the marginal cost savings of the Jetta, my experience with Mercedes was much more satisfying and cooperative with my needs.

So that was it. I placed an order for a 2003 C240 4Matic, Black exterior with Java interior, with a one option: the "Sunroof Launch Promotion" ($600 sunroof instead of the normal $1,000). That was the Friday before Labor Day Weekend (August 2002). The car did not arrive until Tuesday before Thanksgiving holiday (November 2002), three months later! That's a long time to wait for a car, and many customers would have lost patience and gone shopping somewhere else. Even I, as dedicated as I was, had longings to go back to Jag or VW for a quicker solution. But I'm glad I didn't.

I've been driving my new C240 4Matic for a week now and I can't imagine spending all of the money on a lesser car. I haven't tested the 4Matic in snow yet but I expect its operation to be seamless (if its not, I'll update the review!). There are so many thoughtful features, I can't go over all of them, and its a mystery why the Japanese haven't simply copied the ideas after all these years (they are, after all, the foremost experts in cost-efficient manufacturing). The C240's 168-hp V6 engine is robust and adequate at the same time: it feels more powerful and refined than any 4-cylinder engine, but its no neck-snapper either. The 5-sp automatic transmission shifts smoothly and seems to adapt to my various driving habits as best as it can. The cabin is supremely insulated from road noise, not quite as deaf as a Lexus, but just a hint of whats going on outside. Seats are comfortable, if a little flat-and-firm, but its that firmness that results in long journey comfort. The dual climate controls are a welcome feature for anyone who is married. The multifunction steering wheel contains controls for the audio system and trip computer screens which offer less distraction than console-mounted controls, but still a distraction nevertheless. There are 30-some information screens that the driver can display, and navigation isn't always intuitive as some screens are nested as subselections. Now having firsthand experience with the trend to computerize automobile functions, I can see why so many people are complaining about the unnecessary complexity of it all. German automobiles used to be known for their simplicity, but not anymore.

My primary use for the C240 is commuting to work, on highways and secondary roads. And it does this very well. 80 mph in the C240 feels like 60 mph in most other cars. The Autobahn breeding trait is still alive and well. I won't be flinging it around country roads and switchbacks, and most Mercedes owners aren't targeted in this manner, either. If you are looking for a more multipurpose vehicle, I would probably recommend a BMW 3-Series, especially when equipped with a manual transmission or SMG.

There's not much to complain about. Besides the pre-production long wait which is no longer a factor, I found there is no possibility of price negotiation for this car right now. Most all Mercedes are in high demand, and only during a model's last cycle year before it is redesigned will there be any willingness to negotiate. For a $34,000 car, it would have been nice to receive a standard sunroof, heated seats, full-power seats with memory settings, xenon headlamps, and metallic paint, as is the trend for some competing vehicles in this class. And there is no in-dash cd player offered at all, standard or optional. The $2,000 COMAND system is over-the-top for such a simple function, so I disregard it as a real solution. For the younger demographic of the C-Class, the lack of an in-dash cd player can quickly sour a good deal, especially when there is very little apparantness that separates the major players. And as a long-time Mercedes fan, I miss the exposed shift gate and metal shaft, now replaced by a boot-covered shifter with a thicker shift knob, looking all the while like a manual transmission shifter (some new-to-the-brand owners may like this, but I always liked the 'ol Mercedes 'box).

Overall, I am very satisfied with my purchase and I look forward to three uneventful years of service during my lease term. For updates, visit my website (http://homepage.mac.com/james_bratek) and click on the Automobiles link where I'll be posting a running log of events of my ownership experience.