German Car Zone

Lol, everytime there is one of these comparisons, we hear, "oh, wait till Merc gets the new engines".

^ Well it's the truth actually,the current engine goes back to the days of W202 and it's still goin strong but hey the new one just released and it's a bitching one

Should the A4 had been included, I'm quite sure it would have won the test. Autobild seems to have a thing for Audis.

BMW dials are perfect as they are. They don't try to pretend to be anything else than they are, fine instruments. They present the important information in the most easily understood way. In a business where a lot of things seem to change with every generation it's good that there is something permanent.
They can be updated (with taste), like in the new 7er, keeping the general outlook the same.

To be fair, that is a common line after any comparison test involving the Germans regardless of the winner.

It takes a LONG time to develop engines. MB was caught on the back foot when it was dealing with Chrysler. I'm sure within 2-3 years they'll be hitting back hard.

Well one thing is for sure, the 1.8l in our C200k so thoroughly outclassed the 2.0l unit in our loan 320i (The X5 was in for service and warranty work) it wasn't even funny. I felt sorry for the BMW.

I'd take the C any day. The ownership experience so far has been unbelievable. The car is just so thorough and well resolved in everything it does. This might not shine through in brief tests, but when you have it for the long term. That's why both 'Wheels' and 'Car' are in love with their long termers.

But then again, the engines is the real weak spot of the current C-class line, in that respect, the 3-series is better in every segment. Give the Mercedes better engines and it will not be gimped anymore. Sure, it will not make the car more dynamic or more of a drivers car but the dear points lost in consumption over power round will not leave it four car lengths behind anymore.

^Yes, I do feel that the new W204 has a few things over the competition that simply can't be evaluated over a brief test like this. I feel that come 15 years from now you will see more W204s on the road than any of its competition. Not because it outsold them, but because it out lasted them. Mercedes returning to it's roots I think.

And who does not get really happy when one spot one of these:



My parents had one of these in the early 90's, last time I checked it up it had over 700 000 kms (about 440k miles) on the clock.

May be, but I don't see many times BMW has to resort to that excuse - may be some some small 4 cylinder engines, not sure which ones, we don't really get here in states, so I am not really aware of them.

Clocks look like crap, window buttons look like crap on that place, the dashboard is kinda 'meh' with all that plastic, the steering wheel is of terrible design, but, worst of all, the pop up nav screen. It just screams cheap afterthought. BMW's solution with two completely different versions of the dash is much better. The whole interior looks much better to me. The difference in exterior is much smaller, though the 3er looks obviously better and newer.

Will be interesting to see test of the C250 CDI