TLP

Well my first post. I have been reading for the past couple of days on this site as I am considering a C320 purchase. I have read the C&D articale as well as many others on the C-class, I have compared the cars in question, the 330, A4, as well as the Jag -X-type, and lastly the C320.

To be honest I thought the Merc would be a complete no go, (the cars more for the wife) however My wife loves the looks. So do I. To me thats every bit as important as performance. Dont get me wrong I dont want a c220. So heres my take.

330 is a better performance sedan its not even close. ( I am not a troll)

I felt the Jag-X-type was a great value and damn near as sporty as the 330, every bit as fast, with that hint of different I kinda like.

The C-class just does something for me though, the Ash leather and brilliant silver paint, I like it, I like it alot, I have also been told the the c320 now comes with the manual trans, the litreture I was given confirms this but it does not list a sports pkg for the C320 ?????? If this is the way Merc goes then they will continue to lose.


Sorry for the long post!

MBZman

TLP, I pretty much agree with you on every point you make, although my brother has an x-type 3.0 and I wouldn't recommend it. The C-class has offered a sports package in the past and its sales were so poor they dropped it to $800, now I believe they don't even offer it. It's sad but true, financially it's not worth MB offering the package. Let's face it, the C-class is the second best selling car in its class with the ES300 right behind it. BMW sells more than twice as many 3's, and that's not about to change. Anyway, having said all that it would be nice if you could order a sports package.

TXTiger

The Jaguar X-type is a rebadged Ford. I test drove one when I was shopping as well, and was surprised Jaguar put their "leaper" on the hood. It was full of plastic on the inside, and can easily be mistaken for a Taurus from the rear. The engines were rough, albeit powerful, but not nearly as refined as other European manufacturer's engines (or Jaguar's other engines). Apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way, as Jaguar has had to rely on incentives to move them off the lot.

TLP

Yes the Jaguar is a rebadge Ford and the Ferrari 360 Modena is rebadged Fiat. You can easily mistake the 360 for a stilo from the rear. Dont get me started with the glorified VWs from Stuttgart. Mercedes hell there nothing more then Taxi cabs, every where but her in the union where the owner of a C240 European Sports touring DTM champion can easily raise his nose above a lowely Tarus! ( which said Tarus would probably lap faster, out auto cross and out accelerate in the stop light grandprix that C240)

I would suggest you rethink your comments, as thats truly not the case. The car it shares its metal underpinnings with (the Ford Mondeo) was a ETC champion three years running as well as a BTCC in its first rendition, and also made European car of the year in both old and evolution form. You sound like a volkswagon owner talking about a Mercedes Benz!

However you are correct and speak the truth, parts content it does share about 11% of the same things. Most of that is the metal underpinnings that require them to be the same lenght and close to the same width, however the Jag has a bit more length.

I also read the consumer reports where the car they were given fell apart, I read car and driver and how the auto tranny up and down shifted at the worst times, I read EVO and how they picked it over the C320 Sport with wide rubber, and said it was a close second to the BMW330i. Then I decide to drive one Last week for quite a while and was very impressed.

TXTiger

It's a good thing this is a free country and we're all free to choose what cars we like or don't like. And it's a good thing we're all free to think what we want and are free to express those feeling. So in response - I will not rethink my comments. If my comments don't sit well with you - so be it.

dxp

What do you mean by sharing metal underpinnings
with ETC and BTCC Ford Mondeo? Those race cars
have absolutely nothing to do with the production
car being sold under the same name, except the
general shape and dimension. This is exactly
what every car manufacturer wants to achieve...
the impression (or illusion) that the Ford Mondeo
a consumer buys off the dealer's showroom floor is
somehow the derived from the racing cars. Nothing
can be further from the truth (at least in the
ETC and BTCC series).

dxp

Matt230K

This has nothing to do with the post above about race cars because it's true that the production versions will not drive anything like the race cars. But as far as street cars go, I have heard that the Mondeo is actually a nicer car than the Jag. I haven't seen the Mondeo and don't know a whole lot about the Jag either, just going by what I heard. Just because it is Jag instead of Ford does not automatically make it better.

FrankW

The X-type is definitely a Jag. maybe not the door panel, but definitely with the quality of the dash board, and the seats. Other than the platform, the X-type is nothing like the new Mondeo. First of all, the Mondeo is a front wheel drive car, and the X-type is AWD with 60% percent of the power routed to the rear wheel. Second is that the X-type's chassi rigidity is improved almost 20% from the Mondeo chassi because Jaguar did not want people to think it is a Ford.

btw the previous generation Mondeo race car is basically striped down version of the production Mondeo with stronger welting point, and roll cage put in to improve the car's rigidity. Other than prototype, most touring car is based off the production model. They might have different engine mounting point to improve the weight distribution, but they are simply production cars that are striped down to bare bone with crazy racing technology.

CRB

Are you some kind of psyhic or was this just a lucky guess.