My dealer and I spoke today and they confirmed the C230K as we know it in 2002 is gone for 2003. He indicated the pricing of keeping the current motor at the current price point was a losing battle for Mercedes. Not that I agree or disagree with that statement, just passing along what I heard. He indicated it is a 1.8 in the 2003 cars for reference. No other confirmation of colors, options or packages.

so i got a bargain??? i'm ok w/ that.

I doubt MB will change the C230K to C180K in US. As you can see, MB always upgrade the engine in US market from C280 to C320, E430 to E500 and S320 to S430.

The C180K motor is rumored to be an aluminum block (as opposed to the cast iron 2.3) with higher torque and slightly more HP. It's a new generation/design that will keep the low end offering costs down while opening the door for a new V6 (2.6 or 3.2 liter to be determined)

the 1.8 will twist harder

Smaller liter displacement with "Higher" horsepower than the current 192 hp. From all the rumblings everyone was saying around 160 horses.

What do you think? 200 horses from 1.8 liters? If the engine's going to be lighter, with more hp and torque, how can Mercedes go wrong with this design. Hopefully it will be quieter too!!

I still think they would port over one of the current European engines over into the U.S. models. For them to redesign a completely new engine, would be a little unbelievable.

This press release is very recent (early Feb) and says availability is mid 2002. Aren't we in the middle of the 2002 MY already? If so, new orders should be placed for these only, not the 2.3L.

They could mean mid 2002 for 2003 MY production, but I'm still reading it for this clue. What am I missing?

most press releases in my experience are referring to absolute dates, this is especially true if they cite "early" or "mid" part of a year. jus tmy guess we will see a late roll-out of 2003 C230s in early october.

the current 230k engine is more powerful then this new one, right? The new one just hase better fuel efficiency.

I am not sure if there is a MB kompressor model for the 180. I have a six month old C180 (W203). It does not come with a stock kompressor. Still looking for one, like those from Kleemann. Need a good and reliable installer too. My C comes with a 2 litre engine.
best regards,
Hanz

I've had more time to read this article, and I'm still confused... (quoting):

"The new four-cylinder engines from Mercedes have power outputs ranging from 105 kW/143 hp to 141 kW/192 hp...

In terms of power output and torque, the C 230 KOMPRESSOR (141 kW/192 hp, 260 Newtonmetres) is the star of the new four-cylinder engine line-up. This version, which Mercedes-Benz will install in the C-Class Sports Coupé, delivers a fuel saving of 0.7 litres per 100 kilometres compared to its predecessor."

Sounds to me like there will CONTINUE to be a 2.3L motor, IN the Sportcoupe, maybe in addition to a 1.8L, but that all of them are heavily redesigned (details too numerous to mention, see the article). What do you folks think?

That is what I got from the article also. The dealers never seem to have clear info on this. Speaking of dealers what happened to Renncpe he always has info on this sort of stuff?

Good, Benzo, I thought it was only me.

BTW, lately you've been changing avatars more often than my daughter's boyfriend changes jobs... almost. Time to change mine, too, but I'll never keep up with you.

Read the article again, very carefully.

Mercedes will be dropping all of its current 4 cylinder engines and replacing them ALL with 1.8 L units. The article says this right at the beginning: "The sophisticated 1.8 Litre engine is available in four guises...." They will ALL be supercharged 1.8 L engines. The first three models will have indirect fuel injection. They are:
- C 180 Kompressor (replacing present non-supercharged C180);
- C 200 Kompressor (replacing present C 200K)
- C 230 Kompressor (replacing present 2.3 L C 230K)

Repeat, they are all 1.8 Litre engines, the above ones being three of the four new versions mentioned at the beginning of the press release.

The fourth version of this new 1.8 L engine will be:
- C 200 CGI (supercharged, with direct injection).

Whenever I click on the link, it fails to load...

But maybe ignorance is bliss, I'm still happy I've ordered the 2.3L!

Spyke, page down when you load it. There's a HUGE picture at the top that takes awhile to load. But the copy should be readible before then. I had the same problem.

I too am having trouble accessing the website. It seems it is too busy, probably all of us trying to read it at the same time. Would it be possible for one of you techies to snag the text of the article and post it here? Thanks, if you can,.....oh, all right, if you can't.
Deb or Annie or Jo or whoever she is.

Right now, I think that server's getting hammered. I can't get to it in spite of a fat broadband pipe (and pretty good round-trip delays for ICMP pings - 31ms average, <1% packet loss).

Will everbody please leave that site alone?!