AMG_55

anytime
good luck
the 350 is a very nice car, i havent driven it, but i read a lot of mag's
no replacement for displacement

Basenji Boy

My wife just got a C280 for about $37k out the door. The 3.0 liter is a great engine - pulls hard from 2k rpm on up, sounds very nice, and is very smooth. The new V6's have counterbalancers - they're very refined engines compared to the japanese V6's and everyone else's inline 4's. The non-staggered 5 spoke 17" wheels are a $950 option. The 7 Speed Auto is very entertaining and does a great job of keeping the engine in its powerband. It does shift a lot but I don't see why that's a problem fo some one coming out of a peaky, small engined car with a manual transmission. I do note the firm 2 to 1 downshift during some operating parameters, though. I hope this goes away with break in or a software patch...

Yeah, I know that the C280 is a "Luxury" model but that just means the suspension is a little softer. I find it to be a very good compromise between handling and comfort, and I drive a Mazda RX-8, BTW. The C280 feels quite fast to me. I wish the wife would have gotten a C350 Sport but that would have been around $40k... way to much for this class... I would have pushed for a 330i for that kind of dough. (Inline six, new body style, etc.)

I'm glad that MB does not offer the C-Class with inline fours in the US. Fours are an entry level engine IMHO, and regardless of how much HP and Torque they make with tacked on super or turbochargers they are not as smooth and refined as a V6, especially a V6 with a countebalancer.

That being said, I'm always going to be an inline 6 fan. I'm still bummed out that MB stopped making gas inline sixes... Thank God BMW is staying the course. The inline 6 is the best all around engine out there. Smoothest, best sound aside from a V12, which is two inline sixes joined together.