anonymousmoose

So we all love our w203s, of course

But how about this for a bit of a fun, social thread...

What do you least like about the/your W203?

And don't list your faults or service-costs, it as it doesn't count. No one likes problems or costs. Lets try to keep it for features or the way the car's designed.

I'll start;

• I think the auto-headlights are over sensitive. If it had an adjustment, would be nicer. As soon as I go under a bridge of some shade, they go on and then off again when I'm in the clear. I head its not good for the long life of bi-xenon lights.
• Mercedes bluetooth doesn't have a re-dial option

Thats about all I can think of right now It is a great car! The more I drive it, the more I understand how enthusiastic everyone here is about the w203.

CanadianSteel

A little more cabin room would be nice, as well as maybe 30 or 40 more HP, 201 HP is a bit underpowered. But then again thats what the C350 is for. Other then that i'm still happy with my W203

tommy

Well, my least favorite thing is the lack of reliability, but since I can't talk about that, it would be:

1) Footbrake placement is really dumb, especially a manual transmission
2) Speaking of that, the manny feels like it's from 1985
3) HVAC is overly complicated. I'd much prefer a 4-speed fan with direction buttons.
4) Sunroof one-touch open is two-touch.
5) Paint is of very poor quality, and car's going to have to go back for some bodywork soon. Rust is coming from everywhere now.
6) Way too heavy.
7) Cassette player. Seriously?

That's off the top of my head. I still love my car, but it's got a good amount of misses in the design of details.

BTW - if you haven't driven the Fiat 500 yet, you should. Very fun car; went to their studio in SoHo yesterday, and did a test drive around the area. Light clutch, and a surprisingly enjoyable drive. Abarth, here I come.

Boom vang

My beefs would be the nickel and dimed items that Mercedes adds as options that cars like the Accord or company's like Hyundai come as standard items. At least now MB has learned and the new C comes with items we take for granted but for the W203 in the year my car was born they were expensive add ons

-leather (should a premium car come with vinyl??)
-CD player (who uses cassettes even in 2004?)
-no fold down rear seats (gladly trade my remotely flip down rear head rests for that)
-no pass through (how am I supposed to buy a broom or shovel or curtain rod??)
-metallic paint (get real, they manufacture Iridium or Brilliant silver in oil tanker quantities)
-sunroof (again lower priced cars come with it as a standard item)
-1 accessory outlet (not convenient if you have a GPS, phone charger and radar detectors)
-full power seats, (what about power fore and aft instead of bargain basement manual lever)
-heated seats (cars less than half the price came with them standard)
-aux input (not even an option and the iPod was already out for a few years prior)
-variable speed intermittent wiper (every japanese car I had one could dial in the delay in the intermittent mode)

As far as functional beefs:
-a foot operated parking brake is STUPID in a manual car, at least add a hill-holder feature that Subaru pioneered in the 1980's
-more power would be nice, engines always seemed underpowered save for the C32/55

petez1125

I dis-like the rain sensing wipers. Mine always seems to go crazy, like wipe really fast when it is not raining that much. I would prefer having a setting for low speed instead of just for speeds two and three.

phister

the low hp & tq on the M272 engine.

NOCSUCOW

Cheap looking gauge cluster on the prefacelift cars.

e1000

That I had to sell it.

anonymousmoose

Another Benz on the horizon?

C230 Mulac

i've only a few:

-no sunroof
-need more power for m272!
-bix should be standard for this car in 2006
-little bit more headroom in the rear, some of my tall friends are a little cramped when the car is full
-ipod hookup

other than that, car is great. i guess tommy's may be a little different cause it's older but my manual feels great, car drives well and handles amazing. i just wish i had my sunroof, bix, and more power

Crna Mechka

Those damn squeaking noises, and the fact that it takes a lot of new parts and hours of labor to repair.

Besides that, I hate the layout of the power window/seat buttons. It's just not practical for a person to have to bend over just to reach them.

Oh, and also, the ashtray can't be removed unless the shifter is in D or lower (on a Automatic) but that's a minor issue.

tommy

Exactly. They did update the manny mid-stream, and you're the happy recipient of it. Consider yourself lucky.

e1000

I think so, I think after the M I'll go back to a Benz of some flavor.


Have you tried the iPod integration?

C230 Mulac

have not but i've seen some people have done it. is it just an adapter that you hook up through the glove compartment?

e1000

It's a controller box and a wiring harness. You end up with a plug in your glove compartment and control your ipod menu via steering wheel inputs. The ipod menus are relayed back to the display in your guage cluster. Worked well for me. The ONLY thing to watch out for is the earlier versions of the kit had low volume which was remedied through a small in-line amp device specific for the kit.

LILBENZ230

Stupid foot operated e-brake
Range display is wildly inaccurate at times and updates too often, should be more consistent like other cars. Real world range for me is 360 miles to a full tank of mostly city, mostly highway I get 450... After every fill up the car says 454 on the range display.

W203E35

The foot brake.

anthonyy

+1 need more leg room...

ndun

Definitely the foot brake

MIKESV8

holy crap the crappiest window switches in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm very very surprised no one mentioned them yet. my sister's 02' c240 had the drivers window control fall off and i'm very afraid to use mine now because they feel cheap and i don't want to braek it.

C230 Mulac

whats wrong with the window switches, i think theyre nice, maybe the ones before 2006 were different?

i think we can all agree that the one thing everyone hates the most is the foot e-brake lol

Norwichdelta06

2007 C230.

No damn AUX. My friends 2004 Sentra comes standard with it..

ncmudbug

The thing I dislike the most is the position of the brake pedal (I have a 6sp). The 6sp is not as fast a shift as I'd like. I also wish it had a power outlet that was hot when the car was turned off. My one touch sunroof is only one touch as long as I hold the button down. The windshield wiper sensor seems to be overly sensitive sometimes (but then I've never owned any car with a windshield wiper sensor before). I don't like having a bunch of button blanks and buttons that don't do anything. I don't like fake spare tires (but I do like the extra storage in the trunk). I haven't been impacted by it yet, but replacing front rotors with every other pad change suques!

One gripe I have about most cars is that when you turn on the wipers, your headlights don't go on with them.

I know we're griping here, but on the other hand, I like the 33mpg I got on a trip I took to the mountains this past weekend ! The power is adequate for me (speaking of my 2005 C230K). I'm not crazy about pleather but it certainly doesn't seem to be the sweat inducing plastic I remember when I was younger.

I don't know why so many people don't like the parking brake but then I don't live in San Francisco. I almost never use mine.

Overall, I really like mine! I haven't liked a car this much since my Probe GT (ok, that was only one car ago, but you could go a lot further back and still not get a car I liked as well.

Outkasted24

Yes, Yes, And the faulty Sunroof & Rear Sunshade

KillerPancake

Creaky, squeaky, rattling interior - should be put together better for a Benz! And, in a far second place would be lack of variable intermittent wipers, followed by the less than melodious M271 engine sound at startup and when cold.

But don't get me wrong, I do love this car!