Giannis

buy yourself a dictionary

Imhotep Evil

Well in other words, if MB wouldn't have put CGI in the 3.5 (vs. 3.0) then they'd be left without a competitor to the 3.0 I6 TTI with its enhanced power output and torque figures.




Not when considering:

a) they're behind
b) offer poor value
c) this is not were the grand battle is, the 2 to 2.5 litre diesel is; that's were the vast majority of sales come (again advantage BMW);




Ah, sorry, but the bimmer wins at handling, as is always did. BMW also has the tradition/heritage and therefor perception on their side.

MB will simply bang their head into the perception wall and be left with cars stuck on dealers stores.

I now this coming the dealer boys themselves. It's not the case everywhere, but on sporty appeal BMW and Audi are on a higher level of perception who can tip the scale (severly), regardless of how good MBs offerings are.

The great challenge will be the next A4, the Merc probably lost the battle before it even begun.

The Artist

^once again where is the proof of dealers complaining about the C..
this is the 2nd time ive heard this twice now.. without seeing it

merve_extreme

A 3 series is not dynamically superior to a C-class,the C-class handles as well as any 3 series.What the 3 series offers over the C is that it offers more feel,more precise steering for the driver.

That makes it a better drivers car but not a better handling car.Most drivers would run out of their abilities long before any of these cars reach their handling limits.

what Mercedes offers unique to this segment it that the car handles very well,has decent feel for the driver but has the ride quality from a class above.A typical Mercedes.

PC Valkyrie

I agree with you 100%, but unfortunately, that will unlikely take away sales from the BMW 3 series, where you've got all the "sport" aspect covered: image, driving feel, AND actual handling ability. MB is sorely lacking in the image department when it comes to being hip and sporty for the typical 25-40 year old age bracket.

shonguiz

I highly doubt about that, all tests i have seen that compare the cars ' ability to avoid obstacles and max speed at corners always gave the edge to the previous gen 3 series over old C class.

Centurion

What damaged the c-class was the pre facelifted W203 which is a a very disappointing premium car. The other reason why the 3er has been selling more is linked to the price for these cars. When the E46 was around the 316i had a price just above 20k while the cheapest c-class was listed at 25.6k. 5k difference is pretty for a young person looking for a small sedan. The 3er has simply been of a better value.

The new C is pretty pricey. 28.7k for the 180C here in Sweden, add the elegance package, leather, CD-disc changer, metallic paint, automatic tranny and your final tag will easily reach 35k, and that's only for the C180.

merve_extreme

i am talking of the current W204 C-Class,also the facelifted W203 was a much better car than the Pre-facelifted one.

100% agree,that car promised so much but failed to live upto the expectations.

Agree,Mecedes lacks the youth,sporty image.But they are addressing that by providing 2 different models.This C may not have high impact on the 3er but it will set a entry point for Mercedes cars as being sporty and youthfull as well as being supremely comfortable.

Just_me

but yet I havent seen single test were C-class had a faster laptime than 3-series or higher slalomspeed than 3-series, correct me if Im wrong?

although in real life we wont notice a difference if we are an average driver but put these two cars in the hands of pro-drivers and the conclusion will show 3-series is a better handler. I'm sure of it. Dont take it wrong, new C-class handles better than most cars but test their limits and there is only one winner.

Also I have driven the new Volvo C30 and that cars handle better than people will handle. Actually there arent many bad handling cars on the market today, if any.

PC Valkyrie

I agree that the E46 3 series always had slightly higher skidpad numbers and slalom speeds than the W203 C-class, but the difference was very small, especially for the facelifted W203. It wasn't a night and day difference.