©32

http://www.mercedes-benz.com/omb/amg.../c55/index.htm

Bilal

pics...

Turbo2

Looks amazing...my only complaint is the lack of the "V6 Kompressor" badging on the quarter panels, obviously it no longer has the Supercharged V-6 but that was one of my favorite features of the old C32. Allowed others to realize its relation to its bigger and badder brothers.

Side note- The picture of the wheel/brake caliper is absolutely amazing...just found my new wallpaper!

©32

Thanks for posting the pics Bilal...

...I am planning on selling my 2002 C32.

Tough choice between

C55

-OR-

SLK55 + other car fo 'family'



Moreover, the Euro makes it even more expensive to own one now...

If we're talking about the value of my C32... does it increase with the Euro??? (I don't live in the US BTW)

A new C55 would almost cost $20,000 extra!!!

It would really help so I can negotiate a trade-in.

Any comments?

Harris

I would say DEFINITELY a SLK55 + ???

It doesnt worth it in any aspects to get a C55. The car is not faster than a C32, its also heavier. You are paying most of your money for cosmetic changes.

xscream

Is there place in the engine compartment for it to become a C55 K?

CynCarvin32

All this time I have been looking forward to an AMG W203 that did not suffer from serious brake fade when driven on canyon roads. The C32 was less the great once the pads were 8k old and at 50% (12k) the car would just go up in smoke.

The SLK55 has 6 pot brakes up front and 4 pots in the rear but the larger and heavier C55 has the same old 4 pot 13.6 inch brakes as the C32 (same terrible twin piston fixed calipers out back too).

Does this seem right? Am I the only one that is lost?

Any thoughts?

rrf

Nice new "look" items: speedo/tach, quad pipes, front hood, front bumper.
Some look worse: Steering wheel and shifter
Some are a a sideways move: new "squared off" console, front lights, blue mood vs orange.

New performance items: 18inch wheels, wheel-mounted shifters, larger Comand display, ....NA V8 vs SC V6. Changed 1st gear ratio slightly.

But they really missed the boat on these opportunities: larger gear selected display (who needs the PRND?), larger gas tank, no spare (due to quad pipes), a better suspension, wider tires. And as Canyon said better brakes.

The C55 is the type of upgrade that would interest my wife more than me. Fun to look at, but sorry, I wouldn't dream of selling my C32 for this C55. I'm too cheap and my wallet is closed. Sure if I didn't already own nearly the same thing. Heck my car can probably spank its booty, stock.

To be fair let's wait for the actual Nurburgring times and the slalom tests till we talk trash about the lack of suspension improvements, we are only guessing on that.

Maybe they can hire some of us as consultants next time

lap

you are not alone...

FrankW

I thought the front brake looks the same in the picture. how are they different from the C32?

IMO the grill should be larger on the C55, and its long overhang makes the car looks funny. I do wish the C32 has those larger front opening on the bumper tho. They look more aggressive.

MadC32

I REALLY love my C32.. Also love the sound of the Kompressor.. but the C55 looks just bada$$..
Too bad you can only choose between the black and grey seats.. no more black/blue - red combos...

jleung88

I am going from C32 to SLK55, not even thinking about the C55, not much of a difference. Also wanted a convertable. I wonder which one would come out first...?

DL_AMG

I like everything on the new C55 but I don't like the new price and the problems MB have design into this car...too many electronic parts that will fail. I will wait till next C-class or just go with E55 (not the 1st yr production of course).

Accomplice8

I take it that there may be some bugs to be worked out of the 2003 E55s?

Kevin

Pierre32///AMG

I am with you...too,
having a ML55 as a multi-purpose car ..just make me think on a convertible coupe than a 4 door sedan..... Believe me not even the E55 attract me that much with my "C35" performance...
…..and lets see how a SLK55 with 7-G,

which just stock is a half a second quicker than a stock C32 0-1000 m (1 km), does with UD pulleys, filters & chip (near to 400 hp & 400 tq).... not even mention Kleemann...that based in my estimation a SLK55 K it has to be within and SLR and a CL65 performance. with just (60k + 13k) 73k invested.

s4iscool

SO, how is that quad exhaust setup? Looks like two mufflers in the rear for sure...wonder how they fit the passenger side

bensitto

Lovin the F1 style shifter in the steering wheel!
My buddies E55 has that and I love it.

That SLK 55 looks hot!

moomeh

how about the c30 cdi amg? is that ever going to come over to the states any time soon? that is what i want. if not, c55 isn't bad IMO. looks very nice.

norb

What sucks is they did some cost cutting with the grill, its like any other car now, where the grill doesn't go up with the hood. MB is doing away with what makes MB unique. Other car makers envy the star and grill but MB keeps trying to delete it!

MadC32

The C30 CDI is going out of production in November 04, because Mercedes is bringing a 300 CDI engine into the C-Class. The C30 has 231 hp and 540 Nm torque. 0-60 is in about 6.6 seconds. Since it's a diesel I really doubt you'll see that thing statesside.

moomeh

well, i hope the 300 cdi is better than the c30. i did hear some reliability issues. i still would like to get one into the states. but i heard the states have a different type of diesel fuel than europe that wouldn't let the engine run properly or something like that. looks like i'm moving to europe!

NastyAluQuadra

The new C55 looks great.

I loved my old C32 estate, but the C55 is clearly the car it should always have been. I really like the way the 80mm plus in the front bumper changes the styling and the feel that this is how it should have been from the start. Why the C32 was left on 17" rims eludes me.

The C55 gets a good write up in this weeks Autocar, though at an estimated 48kGBP its gone up a fair bit. There's been a fair few suspension/steering tweaks and there's even a rumoured "track suspension" option designed for the nbring. They reckon the only reason the 32Komp engine ever existed was that the V8 would never fit in the old SLK hence they reasoned that they may as well put the required V6 in two cars rather than just the SLK.

mbphreak

Those side vent gills or whatever you call them on the front bumper looks like aftermarket japanese/rice car bumper if you ask me. looks really clunky.

Other than that, it looks beautiful.

Mr.PS

Wow that looks awsome the quad pipes look incredible. The interior looks great the greatest is the 7500rpm redline imagine the engine note at that rpm.

Bilal

The redline for this 5.5 V8 engine is 6700rpm...You could probably never hit that in 7th or even 6th gear simply because they're mainly overdrive...


if Mercedes used ALL 7 gears and made you get top speed out of redlining 7th gear, then across the board the car would be SIGNIFICANTLY mroe faster than what it is now...mch like a ferrari engine and gearing...

But then longevity and harshness would come into play, and thats not what a Mercedes is about...

I'm willing to sacrifice some comfort in order to have a significantly faster Mercedes-Benz, particularly if it has an AMG badge on the trunk...