eightintelect

hello everyone,

i'm new to Mercedes-Benz, but have been into tuning european cars for some time. Mainly a VW guy, ive had a 1986 GTI (first car), a 1998 GTI vr6(euro bumpers, jetta front end, smoked e-code headlights, weitec coils, staggered brock wheels with stretched tires, etc., etc.), 1988 VW Scirocco (corrado G60 engine swap, euro bumpers, shocks and springs, exhaust, headers, chip, etc. etc.), 1998 BMW 318ti hatchback ( KW coilovers, 18" M3 wheels, exhaust, etc. etc.), and a few other misc. Volkswagens with lots of work. sorry to write a book, i just needed to show where my background lies. In my experience with these cars, the european version is the way the manufacturer intended the car to look and function, and then they make changes to account for american safety standards/emissions/etc..

The question i have is this....what are the major aesthetic/functional differences between american and european W203's. i am aware of the rub strips without blinkers, the split mirror glass, the euro license plate tub, and a few other that are slipping my mind at the moment. Are the american and european bumpers the same? are there body styling/engine options that never made it over the pond? what else on the car differs?

e1000

there are some options that were never available here such as Keyless-Go, power folding mirrors, Parktronic, and Climatronic. Otherwise, the Sport Sedans are essentially the Avantgarde trim sold in Europe. The US also got the larger of the engines along with the 3 different versions (at different times) of the C230.

Buellwinkle

If you need some euro parts, contact the euro pimp, Steve at mbenznl.com. He also comes to the U.S. once in a while doing installs.

eightintelect

great, there are a few companies based overseas that i have ordered from in the past that i plan to contact as well to see if they can get Mercedes parts. Is there a list of what is available for our cars and where to find it?

The aftermarket for the C-class Mercedes is almost embarrassing.