Our cars.

Met up with Drew and his very lovely girlfriend tonight in Atlanta. We did dinner at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants and then did a peer review of sorts on our cars, him driving and riding in my 05 C230K and my doing the same in his 07 C230. His girlfriend was the epitome of patience as we literally spent hours comparing every last detail of our cars. As it turns out there are a lot of very subtle differences between the 05 and 07 cars, for example:

1. The 05 has a menu option in the info display for error messages. If there are none, this screen says "No Messages." The 07 doesn't have this menu at all unless there is a message.

2. The 05 and 07 factory turn signals in the front are not the same color. Mine are whiter, his more amber.

3. The 07 has no antenna on the rear window.

4. The 07 alarm is louder.

The list could go on. I knew of the big differences but was surprised at how many of the details were slightly different. Andrew can add his thoughts here in this thread when he gets back but overall I think we both walked away impressed. I have been a pretty vocal critic of the 2.5L V6 and 7G combination. After driving Andrew's car, I think the one I've driven a few times was running regular unleaded as its mileage was worse and the performance was not up to par with Andrew's. The V6 sounds great and feels more "right" in the car, but Andrew liked the instant torque from my C230K and the noise it makes. Mine definitely pulls much harder off the line, his better suited at highway speeds - like I've said all along. We were in agreement that the 05 is the crisper handling of the two as it is lighter in the nose and has stiffer bushings. He liked the heavy steering in my 05, I preferred the lighter touch of his 07.

A couple of oddities are that our cars are not the same color but it is so close I hardly see the point. My paint code is 744 and his 775.

The strangest thing of all is that both of our VIN numbers start with WDBRF but the door stickers say this:

My 05: "Passenger Car manufactured in Germany 01/05"
His 07: "Passenger Car manufactured in Brazil 01/07"

Anyone know why it would say manufactured in Brazil but have a VIN with a country origin of Germany? If his car is a Brazil-built W203 that might explain some of the build quality inconsistencies his car has that mine does not. He pointed out himself a couple of times that my car seemed to have somewhat better build quality.

A final observation: My car is two years older and has 86,500 miles to his 47,600. Before tonight, I'd have said my car hasn't aged at all. My car is in great shape overall (he'll back me up) but his younger car definitely made mine feel slightly old. His still smelled distinctly Benz where mine doesn't anymore, his headlights revealed that mine have very slightly yellowed, his doors shut with a little less rattle, my steering wheel leather is patina/shiny from use where his feels/looks new.. his car just made me realize that, while very gracefully, my car is aging in spite of my efforts to preserve it.

I had a great time tonight, Drew!

I don't understand the VIN thing - Cintoman with his vast data base might comment. I was not aware that Benz was importing any Brazil built cars into the US in 07 - they did not have the contract. I wonder where Johnand's car was built?

Maybe this car was a German CKD kit car assembled in Brazil.

What does CKD stand for? It is definitely odd. I can't imagine why it would have that sticker if it wasn't built there especially since mine does state Germany.

Do we want to know what yours smells like?

At some point, your car, like you, will just have to try to age gracefully. It happens to the best of them.

Stuttgart Germany, as I thought all late W203's were:

Matt,

Glad you and Drew could meet up and drive each others cars. Nice to see you get a better impression of the M272. Seems you are coming the conclusion I have come to with lots of seat time in my 07 and my friends 05. The C230K has more off the line grunt. I think the difference is more in the throttle programming and not the torque differences. The M272 equipped cars programmed throttle lag is much more pronounced than in the C230K. I do believe the overall performance is better in the M272 though. No doubt the C230K will always beat the M272 for efficiency.


I like you, prefer the steering feel of the 07 vs. 05. As far as aging, the only signs of it I see in mine, are the paint. The paint still shines like crazy, but is so chipped up in the front end, it looks like a 10 year old car. The wheels are really starting to look beat up too. Also, the fabric door belting is showing some wear from entry and exit. I am on my 3rd windshield and it is about ready for replacement. Other than those things the car still looks and feels new.

CKD = Completely Knocked Down in the auto industry.

Sounds like you love birds had a good time too bad Drew's girlfriend was there or else the story would have been extremely longer (don't know if story would but something definitely would have been longer ) and more detailed

Matt with STAR you can program the alarm volume to be louder. On mine it was set to 30% (if I recall correctly). I jacked that up to 90% and it's extremely loud.

I wanna take a trip to east coast and hook you east coasters out.

John the W203s weren't made actually in Stuttgart. Bremen and Sindelfingen, I believe. It does appear Drew has a Brazil built W203, but it isn't bad. His car is very nice and he takes fantastic care of it.

We had the opposite experience of you on throttle. My throttle seems more laggy than his 07. The performance is extremely close with the advantage being off the line for the 05 and highway the 07. Drew did say he felt the 05 had more "usable" power. I really liked the newer feel of everything in the 07, though. I was also envious of the rear lip spoiler and AMG exhaust on the 07. We had such a good time.

John - I agree with Phil, your car looks amazing!

Matt, I meant Bremen, I just had Stuttgart on the mind from the pic. When I ordered my car, I got updates from the factory in Bremen as to it's status.

Weird, that you noticed the opposite on throttle.

Thanks for the compliments on the car. It was a good weekend, as I got my man cave and my W230 cleaned!

Oh, I see..the Coupe drivers get snubbed again. Man, and I could have gone for Mexican for dinner last night too! I think a coupe parked behind your cars would have improved the picture.

Seriously, very interesting comparison! Matt, as always it was an interesting read!

Damn Mike.. sorry! Let me know when you want to do dinner and I'll drive down and we'll go. I really like El Nopalito in Cobb Place off Barrett Parkway. That's where I took Drew.

My mind hits the gutter every time I read this sentence for some reason.

Drew and I should have raced, but there were too many cops about. It was funny to me that I preferred the engine sound, steering feel, and overall feel of his 07 while he seemed to prefer those in my 05. Maybe we should have traded?

Still not a big fan of the 2.5 M272 with the 7G because as I felt and Drew noted, it bogs too often - caught in part of the rev-range where it has no power and it hesitates to down shift. This is annoying. Now with a 6MT it would be a different story.

You are a sick man

You know that saying, "The grass is greener on the other side" I did debate whether to get an 05 used before I ordered my 07. They both have their subtle differences, but in the end either one is a great car to own.

Tell Drew he needs to beat on his car more often so the adaptations don't get lazy Seriously, I hate that sometimes too. My way around it is, I am getting good at predicting it, then I tap the shifter to downshift. Actually I find I use the shifter a lot more lately too in heavy stop and go traffic for the engine breaking.

Just picking on you, Matt. But next time you guys have time, we can park all three and get some good pictures. I know the restaurant, so pretty much any time - it is close for me.

Some of the menu option differences are also attributed to MB completely taking out phone pre-wiring in the 2007's. All previous cars had the pre-wiring and were also pre-coded from the factory.

744 vs 755 is the changeover from Billiant Silver vs Iridium Silver, the latter being nano paint.

Is bdgdl still driving back?! Or is he napping w/ Karo again?

I got a text from him 45 minutes ago and I assume that was when he was leaving. He should be on the forum tonight sometime.

John, I rarely use the shifter to control the changes in my car. It has such a stupid lag and makes the shift rough sometimes. I don't think Drew could beat on his car much harder than he already does. He has CAI and even though it doesn't do much for power his car sounds fantastic so I think he pretty much keeps his foot in it. I can't remember if he said he sometimes locks out 7th gear or not, but that might be a solution at times.

Mike - Are you sure you want to put your coupe next to a Sport sedan? I mean.. the coupe looks good if you don't know what a sedan looks like.

HOME!!!

Where are the rest of the pictures?? Matt, send me the pictures and I'll take out some of the grain.

It was very great meeting Matt, he's a great guy! As far as another meet with Mike (and Trey), it only took me 4 hours to get to Atlanta on the way up, so it's not that bad to do. It was a little longer on the way back, though.



I had to go through Atlanta during rush hour to go back to the Coke Museum (I bought a defective cap and had to exchange it). I sat outside and idled for about 30 minutes of that, so...

Matt was pretty much spot on about the comparison between the two cars. He left out, though, that we have different rear-view mirrors.

Matt, it was great to meet you! Thanks for dinner and for showing me a great time.

Hey the little Coupe needs to meet the big brothers! And I can always try to talk my wife into bringing her SLK. At least it will match the color scheme you guys have going.

wish i could have made it going to get some time off in the coming month or so i hope. the funny thing is that my mom and sister are in Atlanta right now
oh well

and you went to the coke museum without me that is just cruel i hope you both had some vanilla coke for me

Take some time and come on down....

Matt didn't go. Victoria and I went the next day... and we did not even TOUCH the Vanilla Coke! Horrid stuff.

Matt was way too sore from his tubing incident to get out of bed before late in the day, but I am glad I popped some pain medicine and took the time to meet Drew. I really would have liked to have done Coke with you guys.. Okay that didn't come out right. I agree that Vanilla Coke is the weakest link... yuck. I hope the Mexican restaurant was up to your standards. I love the place but it's not really authentic. Noel and I had countless date nights there and I've not really gone back much since we split - it was nice to break that sort of "mold" and feel comfortable there again, I appreciate the help that you didn't know you were being. I'll say it again, Victoria was extremely nice and deserves to be nominated for sainthood based on patience alone. I hope she didn't feel that I snubbed her as some have in the past.

Trey I'll be available to meet you when you come down to GA, too. We will have more to compare as our cars are very different. Another thing is that Drew's CD changer has no problem playing MP3 CDs but mine won't recognize it - I think that's documented on the forum here.