its design was very radical and solid. and never Car Manufacturer would do that only Mercedes does. (yes Hyundai has same still car do not remember now but it is horrible ) .

It is now classic design .for my thoughts W203 is Legend in all Mercedes's History.

 

they spent 1.2 billion engineering this legend... i like that this car is almost wholly metal, rather than plastic like some of its counterparts from hyundai, toyota, and honda.

Plastic breaks and allows energy to travel through it, metal crunches and absorbs energy while its passing, which do you want?

 

If it so great why Mercedes kill it so soon? SHould have keep ot until 2010 donat ya think? Still its a keeper, but I gotta fix the damn squeaking noise and falty elec systems first.

 

2001-2007 When they designed the w203, it was I'm guessing around 1999 or 2000. How much technology has changed since then? For example, the rendering capabilities in video cards would play a huge roll in computer engineering limits. Video cards have now started taking up two slots, I'm used to just one lol. I'm sure this plays some role in the engineering process used by mercedes-benz.

Can anyone confirm this?

 

7 years on the same mass volume car design is a long run. BMW uses the same cycle but Honda and Toyota are on a 5 year run. While the basic shape of the 911 is the same as the that debuted in 1963, we can hardly say it is the same car. The only cars that seem to have a long run at MB are the SL models but they are low volume and have to spread out the R&D costs.

Most of time it comes down to just plain and simple economics, an old design costs more to manufacture and with most car companies run by bean counters, the bottom line is the gospel. With advances in new materials, hi strength steel, and manufacturing processes, many of the components or pieces needed to make a structure can be combined or eliminated resulting in lower raw material costs, and labour to put it together ect. They want to make as big as possible the margins.

I remember taking apart my bumper structure in my 1986 Mazda 626 turbo, the amount of screws and various materials and components to make up the complete item is mind-boggling. Today's modern car is much simpler with many of the components moulded in and instead of multiple rows of plastic egg crate blocks linked together it is replaced by a simple styrofoam piece.

We all heard of the term over-engineered, todays cars companies objective are to make it as cheaply and simple as posible yet providing a similar performance.

Here is a real world example: take apart a 1980's VCR and compare it with one made today (the same can be done with a 1990's DVD player and new one) You will notice that many of the parts have been eliminated and although the electronics do more, the IC boards have fewer things on them as many of the chip serve to do multiple functions.

The other reason is marketing, sales peak in the second year of production and then fall until there is a minor face lift but that lasts for 1 year and then it is down hill from there. By coming out with something that looks better or flashier, we feel the urge that we must need it and that old is boring and tired. It is funny that the second highest purchase item that we spend money on is replaced more often than our appliances in our home or the bed we sleep on, not to mention a lot of our clothes or the tv we watch. Car companies got us by the short and curlies

 

whether its domestic or foreign, car companies are existant to make money first, then make cars second.

 

Yep, but some of the aren't even very good at that, GM & Ford have posted massive financial losses.