Primeraman

I was curious about the interior changes they made in the 203s. My friend had an early 200? w203 before the interior redesign. I noticed when I rode in it that there were a lot of squeaks and rattles and it just felt poorly built on the inside. Now I now the visual changes that were made and I must say the C55 looks like it is better built, but do you members with the new interior still get the squeaks and rattles????



Dave

Primeraman

No responses???

kjb55

Not a one. Rock solid.

zcct04

what he said - C55 feels rock solid.
No experience with C32 to be able to compare.

Slater126

I've driven both and didn't notice any more squeaks or rattles from our '02 and '04 W203s versus the '05 and up models I drove. Nor is there much quality difference. The interior and dashes are identical except the gauges and the center dash (radio and climate control). If anything, I feel the material on the pre-05 cars looks better. The seat heater, et al. buttons on the center portion of the dash look cheaper on the later cars, and the cross hatch aluminum trim on the early cars looks better to me than the plain aluminum on the newer models. Plus, MB should have changed the amber back lighting on the buttons, radio and climate control to match the white and blue dashboard lighting! That just looks weird to me.

jgsx

I've extensively driven both the prefacelift and postfacelift W203s. They are both excellent. I personally feel that the prefacelift center interior has a superior feel and look, but neither has ever squeaked or rattled. The postfacelift has a better looking cluster.

rory breaker

Funny, I find the prefacelift to be terrible. Looked like I was driving a Firebird from the 80's. I test drove a 32 and 55 back to back and immediately knew I couldnt buy the 32 based on the interior look vs. the 55.

rory breaker

Judge for yourself...essentially (except we dont get the digital climate readout in the C55):

C55 -



C32 -

Tump43

+1! I even pissed off my dealer by not buying the C32 they found for me. I had to go with the C55. 30K miles, no squeaks rattles or rolls. Rock Solid. Everything is perfect but for the driver's seat heater. Need to go get a second one soon.

mrman_3k

+1, now I'm looking for a C55. My big decision now is silver or black...

spr

I have zero rattles other than the glove box which was fixed under warranty. The c32 cluster is a real killer, however there is some guy that replaced it with the CLK and on cluster which is even pimper than the c55's. Very nice. I don't think that the rest of the interior looks as good in a c32 but that's subjective. The digital climate in a c55 is a 2007 EUR and MEX deal only. I still want to swap it but hear there are 3 different ones and they don't all work. That benzNL guy said he'd try them at a small cost but never got around to contacted me to do so! doh!

DarkXerox

Oooh pics of the CLK cluster swap?

rory breaker

Id love to know more about the digi climate control on that C55 and if its possible (read: EASY) to just swap it out.

Also, what is that hump on the middle of the dash of both cars?

jgsx

Yes, COMMAND 2.5 (postfacelift) looks much better than COMMAND 2.0 (prefacelift), but I think that both are awful, so I'd swap it in either vehicle. I dropped in an AVIC-Z and put in a CLK cluster. The center console I was referring to was all of the trim and buttons. I don't like the postfacelift cupholder or those square buttons. The C55 analog climate control looks pretty cheap too. Not too bad, but after seeing the prefacelift ones, I think that was a downgrade. But yes, out of the box, C55 is better overall. The C32 cluster is UGLY (wtf were they thinking!?)!

ScottW911

Parktronic read-out. Not available in North America. Some have retro-fitted through Steve or Sunil, though.

Primeraman

Thanks for the responses. I think part of the reason the interior seemed to rattle was the car was just poorly maintained overall.

Primeraman

I definitely like the C55 interior better.....mostly the cluster. Not hating on the C32 at all though.