I was never a big fan of these, probably because I'm so used to seeing them in hood condition. I now see the last echoes of the old-school bricklike Mercedes-Benz quality and styling. This was where the era of Mercedes-Benzes not being flashy ended.
W202,W203,W210 and even W220 had a reputation as awful rust-buckets in Germany(Problems with new water-based colours). The W201,older W124 and W126 were of much better quality.
I really like the look of the 80s/90s Mercedes. Rectangular, but with rounded edges. An unmistakable Mercedes shape no doubt. This era is definitely the last of the classic old school Mercedes, you can feel the sturdiness and quality of the vehicle, something that was lost in the 2000s and never returned to the brand as they went awat from building sturdy, quality vehicles and leaned more in to cutting edge trchnology that hasnt held up as well. Another interesting things about these older Mercedes that you touched on briefly, is the overall design, especially the interior. This car looks and feels older than most cars from '97, even though it has all the typical luxuries youd expect from a luxury brand in the 90s. But the window switches on the console, the thin door cards, simple and somehwhat dated (even for the era) looking cluster, the switchgear, seat design etc screams of a car from 10 years earlier. Idk how to explain it but i definitely got that feeling looking at this vehicle. Great vid as always Zack.
Mercedes reintroduced the inline 6 gas engine for some vehicles a few years back and currently still offers inline 6 gas engines on some models; primarily the GLE, GLS and E class models
I think the problem with this generation is rust. I’ve heard that they suffer pretty badly from that. Many people say that the w204 from around 2010 is pretty good since it’s supposed to be quite reliable…
Not just the last straight-six Merc but in my opinion, the last truly good looking, not overly styled Mercedes-Benz. I have never owned a car from this brand or a BMW but I definitely wouldn't mind owning one of these or a 190E or an E46 3-series.
1:47 there are still a few Mercedes-Benz models with i6 engines though, so it would be wrong to say that this is the last one. I think what you meant to say is that this is the last C Class with an i6 engine.
I usually love your videos man, but.. "the final year for *this* engine" does not mean this is their last inline-6, they make inline-6s to this day. Putting that right as the headline of the title is clickbait.
My sis still has her 99 C230. I love that car and if she doesn’t do anything with it I want it. I didn’t realize 97 was the only year with a 5spd with the inline 6. It was the same thing with the W210 E320
Auto transmission switch - W = Winter….. S = Standard…. at least that’s what I remember from the four cloth ring binder-bound handbooks I had with my 1999 C200. I owned my C Class for nine and a half years and it’s potentially my favourite car ever, but the trouble was it was made during the association with Chrysler and paint quality took a nosedive. The ‘new’ water based paint allowed rust to take hold and my C Class suffered quite badly. It’s remarkable the C280 you tested looks so clean.
Not that remarkable. Not all cars were affected. The problem was not limited to M-B. Water based paint gets contaminated in a way 'proper' paint never will. If it is, it will not properly bond to the metal and/or to the primer. It took M-B a long time to resolve this. If you were lucky and your car was painted with fresh paint, you had no problems. M-B also did a lot of warranty work on the paint. Often this is done well. I own a '98 W202 and clearly 2 doors have been repainted, no rust. However... by now they will rust at the jacking points, front and rear suspension mounting points and a few more spots. All Benzes do. Staying on top of the rust is an important part of my maintenance schedule.
I’ve seen good ones. Mine was Bright Silver which seemed to be one of the worst affected colours. When I bought it at five years old I was already aware of little spidery runs in several places in the middle of panels, but the front arches were the first to bubble badly. And getting the bubbled paint off to do repairs was like peeling plastic off - nothing like the old cellulose finishes on cars like my old Cortinas and Minis. I treated flaking underseal on a subframe mounting point up near the rear inner sill under the back seat, and also completely coated the rear IRS subframe with good old Waxoyl (sic) which after one winter had completely washed off! I did approach M-B at one point about a ‘goodwill gesture’ over the paint, but my car was just over 8 years old at the time and no longer supported. From about that point every autumn I did DIY touch ups which got bigger and bigger as the rust spread outwards, but my car was never ‘holed’ like some E Class cars I saw. I kept it tidy. But didn’t matter what chemicals I used - Por15 rust treatment, Hammerite rust converter, the rust on painted areas still came back. One of the reasons I parted with the car was the fear of rust coming back under the third replacement windscreen, since expanding rust had cracked the car’s second screen after two or three years. I’d had to take the car away minus windscreen from Autoglass and treat and paint the surround and return it to them for the screen fit, but was never confident I’d not get another crack from expanding rust. However I’ve got some regrets now I didn’t keep the car as a little used modern classic and get a budget paint job and keep it garaged when not driven.
Own a 1995 C180 Classic. A very charming car and pretty solid. Fix the bullshit biodegradable wiring harness and the early cars are a really competitive used Mercedes in terms of price, reliability, Mercedes-Benzness.
The C-class, W202 was introduced in -93 and had the M104, inline six up til -97. The E-class, W210 was introduced in -95 and the first two years had the M104 until they replaced it with the M112, V6-engine. That`s why the 210-chassies is the LAST Mercedes model with the inline six cylinder - before they now came to their senses and re-intoduced a new line of inline six engine model range.
Eh, in the hands of a strong engineering company like Mercedes, inlines and V6s are roughly equivalent. Mercedes back then used V8s in many more applications, so it made sense for them to have a six and an eight that shared an architecture. Today, though, Mercedes only uses V8s in their top models, and has even started purging it from smaller AMG models - which is why having a six that shares an architecture with their four makes more sense. This has never had anything to do with Merc "coming to their senses"; it has to do with business scaling realities. V6s made sense in the 90s and 00s, offering massive benefits in packaging, weight and weight distribution, and more.
Hear that you have never serviced a M112/113 with dual plugs on each cylinder..... I am not thinking of production benefits when it comes to cars. Am a consumer and will always think like a consumer. Look what all the "production benefits" has done to the three pointed star brand. When people look at buying a luxury car they look at T....la, Le....s and stuff that I don't want to mention by name. The Mercedes luxury brand has become a crappy commodity that ends up in a pile in a junk yard after 10 years. Not the kind of engineering I'm grown up with when my dad drove around with me in a W114. The whole idea of having the whole alphabet as a model range is a joke.
@@W124forever Well, the shape of the engine doesn't seem to be the root of your woes regardless - though if you really think a straight-six form factor is better on balance, I won't try and force you to think otherwise. I do get what you mean, though: brands shifting priorities can be a bitch. I own a Buick Roadmaster, a less "luxurious" or engineering-intensive vehicle than a Merc, but still a shining example of GM refinement, evolution and tradition at its best; to see what Buick has become today is an embarrassment to it. As a matter of fact, GM has no good sedans left at all, with the Cadillacs' non-Blackwing powertrains being consistently mediocre. It's a shame to see an automotive manufacturer fully descend into margin-driven consumerism.
A bit of history... The 190 (W201) was original nicknamed 'Baby Benz'. As it was the first relatively small car from M-B. It obviously lost that name when the A-Class was introduced. But the A-Class is completely different design, front wheel drive. The W201 was designed like the big Benzes: engine in front, rear wheel drive - a proper Benz. The W202 is more or less the next generation W201. They drive very similar. The W202 engines were not bad, they were actually better than the engines in the W201. However the W201 was better build. Probably one of the best build mass production cars ever. I used to drive a W202 when they were new, almost 30 odd years ago. I still drive a W202 today, a few years back I got myself a C180 (I'm from Europe and petrol is very expensive). Stay on top of the rust and they still make a great car. Cheap to run, parts are very reasonable. By the way, if memory serves me well, W stands for Winter and S for Standard (automatic gearbox).
I have a 1996 C220 in same color. It is a great car. 26 mpg in town 30 on open road. It has 196k miles runs great. Am its 4th care give. Was a high priced paid $500. Got it from a older friend. Also have a several other Benz cars and a 1980 Benz L1116 truck.
These are fantastic cars come out my best friend had this as her first car growing up, it was a 99 C280 with the AMG package. It just looked baller, she should have never sold it the proportions are perfect🎉
I was doubtful about their switch to V6’s until I managed an import repair shop and saw how great the 3.2 V6 was. I also had a 1998 E320 with the V6, and even at 230,000 miles it never needed a head gasket nor did it need a drop of oil added between changes. I generally prefer inline sixes to V6’s, but Mercedes did get their V6 right.
Best C class ever. This is such a great all around car. Great mix between modern and retro, good size not too big not small and so so common so so cheap and so so realiable
its always interesting how different USA sees those car sizes. alot of people here in Germany would have considered this a big car. my mom for sure would! she would not want to drive that. anything longer than a dacia sandero is big!
Oh how kewl, another Kardashian-sounding simp misusing the fluffword of the century: "literally". That word is pointless & silly 100% of the time it is used, unless stating something of literal fact. Go look up the literal definition of "literal".
@@joaquinfranco9012 yeah my wiring harness was replaced with a good one decades ago. The overheating is usually from a malfunctioning auxiliary fan, I believe. Hope my head gasket holds up fine. Looks like an easier one to replace though, although I've never done that type of job.
Same price as a 1998 Cadillac Seville SLS? That's crazy. I've been driving both and that's just night and day in terms of vehicle's class. And I'm from Central Europe, Poland, where to this day majority thinks that German cars are the best :D
If you were a store manager in 1997 you might have bought a new Maxima GXE for 23k and change or maybe (maybe) a loaded GLE for 27k. The C280 cost 35k in base form and adding options shown on this one would take it to 40k, -- 77k in 2024. Store managers don't spend that kind of money one a car unless they have really messed up priorities and/or a great fondness for debt. Mercedes of this era were still decently built, but it was starting to slip - finance guys replaced the engineers in control.
The console looks nasty. Old Mercedes like this have beautiful wood trimmed center consoles and they deserve to be detailed with air in all the crevices and polished . It’s just looks slovenly otherwise
W is wet S is stantard, no debate. But clever thing getting us to comment for the algorithm. I also had the same car check my 0-100-140 acceleration video.
The M112 isnt more efficient than the M104, that is a big lie. In fact, it almost has the consumption as the M113 V8. It was a bad move from Mercedes switching to V6, thats why you can enjoy the BMWs of that time more, they have lower consumption and in fact a more reliable and better engine.
I was never a big fan of these, probably because I'm so used to seeing them in hood condition. I now see the last echoes of the old-school bricklike Mercedes-Benz quality and styling. This was where the era of Mercedes-Benzes not being flashy ended.
W202,W203,W210 and even W220 had a reputation as awful rust-buckets in Germany(Problems with new water-based colours). The W201,older W124 and W126 were of much better quality.
I really like the look of the 80s/90s Mercedes. Rectangular, but with rounded edges. An unmistakable Mercedes shape no doubt. This era is definitely the last of the classic old school Mercedes, you can feel the sturdiness and quality of the vehicle, something that was lost in the 2000s and never returned to the brand as they went awat from building sturdy, quality vehicles and leaned more in to cutting edge trchnology that hasnt held up as well. Another interesting things about these older Mercedes that you touched on briefly, is the overall design, especially the interior. This car looks and feels older than most cars from '97, even though it has all the typical luxuries youd expect from a luxury brand in the 90s. But the window switches on the console, the thin door cards, simple and somehwhat dated (even for the era) looking cluster, the switchgear, seat design etc screams of a car from 10 years earlier. Idk how to explain it but i definitely got that feeling looking at this vehicle. Great vid as always Zack.
Mercedes reintroduced the inline 6 gas engine for some vehicles a few years back and currently still offers inline 6 gas engines on some models; primarily the GLE, GLS and E class models
they’re all hybrids
@@Zack-rm3xn Doesn't matter.
@@Zack-rm3xnnot a full hybrid , mild
These have to be one of the greatest gen Mercedes c class ever
I think the problem with this generation is rust. I’ve heard that they suffer pretty badly from that. Many people say that the w204 from around 2010 is pretty good since it’s supposed to be quite reliable…
@@walthefl w204 is definitely a much better daily driver for sure. a lot less issues
@@waltheflis your response to prevent your car from rusting, cars don't randomly get rusty
Not just the last straight-six Merc but in my opinion, the last truly good looking, not overly styled Mercedes-Benz. I have never owned a car from this brand or a BMW but I definitely wouldn't mind owning one of these or a 190E or an E46 3-series.
My dad bought it new back in 1997 and he drove it until passing away in 2014. I really missed his C280 Sport. It handled fantastic. Happy Motoring.
1:47 there are still a few Mercedes-Benz models with i6 engines though, so it would be wrong to say that this is the last one. I think what you meant to say is that this is the last C Class with an i6 engine.
I usually love your videos man, but.. "the final year for *this* engine" does not mean this is their last inline-6, they make inline-6s to this day. Putting that right as the headline of the title is clickbait.
No inline 6 in C class since this model... they were all V6
A V6 is not an inline 6
they’re all hybrids now
But this one was more reliable
It's not clickbait. It's just an error. Don't cry about it.
My sis still has her 99 C230. I love that car and if she doesn’t do anything with it I want it. I didn’t realize 97 was the only year with a 5spd with the inline 6. It was the same thing with the W210 E320
Auto transmission switch - W = Winter….. S = Standard…. at least that’s what I remember from the four cloth ring binder-bound handbooks I had with my 1999 C200. I owned my C Class for nine and a half years and it’s potentially my favourite car ever, but the trouble was it was made during the association with Chrysler and paint quality took a nosedive. The ‘new’ water based paint allowed rust to take hold and my C Class suffered quite badly. It’s remarkable the C280 you tested looks so clean.
Not that remarkable. Not all cars were affected. The problem was not limited to M-B. Water based paint gets contaminated in a way 'proper' paint never will. If it is, it will not properly bond to the metal and/or to the primer. It took M-B a long time to resolve this. If you were lucky and your car was painted with fresh paint, you had no problems. M-B also did a lot of warranty work on the paint. Often this is done well. I own a '98 W202 and clearly 2 doors have been repainted, no rust. However... by now they will rust at the jacking points, front and rear suspension mounting points and a few more spots. All Benzes do. Staying on top of the rust is an important part of my maintenance schedule.
I’ve seen good ones. Mine was Bright Silver which seemed to be one of the worst affected colours. When I bought it at five years old I was already aware of little spidery runs in several places in the middle of panels, but the front arches were the first to bubble badly. And getting the bubbled paint off to do repairs was like peeling plastic off - nothing like the old cellulose finishes on cars like my old Cortinas and Minis. I treated flaking underseal on a subframe mounting point up near the rear inner sill under the back seat, and also completely coated the rear IRS subframe with good old Waxoyl (sic) which after one winter had completely washed off! I did approach M-B at one point about a ‘goodwill gesture’ over the paint, but my car was just over 8 years old at the time and no longer supported. From about that point every autumn I did DIY touch ups which got bigger and bigger as the rust spread outwards, but my car was never ‘holed’ like some E Class cars I saw. I kept it tidy. But didn’t matter what chemicals I used - Por15 rust treatment, Hammerite rust converter, the rust on painted areas still came back. One of the reasons I parted with the car was the fear of rust coming back under the third replacement windscreen, since expanding rust had cracked the car’s second screen after two or three years. I’d had to take the car away minus windscreen from Autoglass and treat and paint the surround and return it to them for the screen fit, but was never confident I’d not get another crack from expanding rust. However I’ve got some regrets now I didn’t keep the car as a little used modern classic and get a budget paint job and keep it garaged when not driven.
I've always loved the old school Mercedes'.
Own a 1995 C180 Classic. A very charming car and pretty solid. Fix the bullshit biodegradable wiring harness and the early cars are a really competitive used Mercedes in terms of price, reliability, Mercedes-Benzness.
The C-class, W202 was introduced in -93 and had the M104, inline six up til -97. The E-class, W210 was introduced in -95 and the first two years had the M104 until they replaced it with the M112, V6-engine. That`s why the 210-chassies is the LAST Mercedes model with the inline six cylinder - before they now came to their senses and re-intoduced a new line of inline six engine model range.
Eh, in the hands of a strong engineering company like Mercedes, inlines and V6s are roughly equivalent. Mercedes back then used V8s in many more applications, so it made sense for them to have a six and an eight that shared an architecture. Today, though, Mercedes only uses V8s in their top models, and has even started purging it from smaller AMG models - which is why having a six that shares an architecture with their four makes more sense. This has never had anything to do with Merc "coming to their senses"; it has to do with business scaling realities. V6s made sense in the 90s and 00s, offering massive benefits in packaging, weight and weight distribution, and more.
Hear that you have never serviced a M112/113 with dual plugs on each cylinder..... I am not thinking of production benefits when it comes to cars. Am a consumer and will always think like a consumer. Look what all the "production benefits" has done to the three pointed star brand. When people look at buying a luxury car they look at T....la, Le....s and stuff that I don't want to mention by name. The Mercedes luxury brand has become a crappy commodity that ends up in a pile in a junk yard after 10 years. Not the kind of engineering I'm grown up with when my dad drove around with me in a W114. The whole idea of having the whole alphabet as a model range is a joke.
@@W124forever Well, the shape of the engine doesn't seem to be the root of your woes regardless - though if you really think a straight-six form factor is better on balance, I won't try and force you to think otherwise.
I do get what you mean, though: brands shifting priorities can be a bitch. I own a Buick Roadmaster, a less "luxurious" or engineering-intensive vehicle than a Merc, but still a shining example of GM refinement, evolution and tradition at its best; to see what Buick has become today is an embarrassment to it. As a matter of fact, GM has no good sedans left at all, with the Cadillacs' non-Blackwing powertrains being consistently mediocre. It's a shame to see an automotive manufacturer fully descend into margin-driven consumerism.
That interior design has held up well.. simple but modern for the most part..
That read out below the radio is the cell phone controls
wow...$81,000 adjusted for inflation. That is more expensive than today's E class. This car was still old school Mercedes though.
Wow. Beautiful interior.
I love the styling of these
A bit of history... The 190 (W201) was original nicknamed 'Baby Benz'. As it was the first relatively small car from M-B. It obviously lost that name when the A-Class was introduced. But the A-Class is completely different design, front wheel drive. The W201 was designed like the big Benzes: engine in front, rear wheel drive - a proper Benz. The W202 is more or less the next generation W201. They drive very similar. The W202 engines were not bad, they were actually better than the engines in the W201. However the W201 was better build. Probably one of the best build mass production cars ever. I used to drive a W202 when they were new, almost 30 odd years ago. I still drive a W202 today, a few years back I got myself a C180 (I'm from Europe and petrol is very expensive). Stay on top of the rust and they still make a great car. Cheap to run, parts are very reasonable. By the way, if memory serves me well, W stands for Winter and S for Standard (automatic gearbox).
I had a C200 1997 with the same colour and drove till 2012. The car is so reliable!
the look has aged well. traditional Mercedes style.
I have a 1996 C220 in same color. It is a great car. 26 mpg in town 30 on open road. It has 196k miles runs great. Am its 4th care give. Was a high priced paid $500. Got it from a older friend. Also have a several other Benz cars and a 1980 Benz L1116 truck.
The gearbox letters stand for winter and standard, its stated on the user manual
These are fantastic cars come out my best friend had this as her first car growing up, it was a 99 C280 with the AMG package. It just looked baller, she should have never sold it the proportions are perfect🎉
Had one exactly like this one. Phenomenal car in all respects.
I have the 1994 C36 😊 love it.
Favorite body style of C class. 😊❤
My 2005 BMW 1 series also has that 'rest' button. Never tried it though.
I'm glad Mercedes is starting to make Inline 6's again. Not sure why they ever decided to go with a V6.
I was doubtful about their switch to V6’s until I managed an import repair shop and saw how great the 3.2 V6 was. I also had a 1998 E320 with the V6, and even at 230,000 miles it never needed a head gasket nor did it need a drop of oil added between changes. I generally prefer inline sixes to V6’s, but Mercedes did get their V6 right.
to built them alongside the V8s in the same factory. easier and reduced costs.
Yes. M112 v6 was literally the same engine as the m113 v8 just with 2 cyl less. @@dmer-zy3rb
Best C class ever. This is such a great all around car. Great mix between modern and retro, good size not too big not small and so so common so so cheap and so so realiable
back then we called this THE BABY BENZ.
Now its the cla 😂
i have a 1999 c 280 sport. the sohc v6 the sport looks very nice
its always interesting how different USA sees those car sizes. alot of people here in Germany would have considered this a big car. my mom for sure would! she would not want to drive that. anything longer than a dacia sandero is big!
The C36 AMG is this same car, which were modified by AMG - The first ever production AMG
I have a question. Why is the C280 Sport uncommon? Is it more valuable? I have a 1997 which has only 117,000 miles.
Good car for ever.
Well preserved.
Those boxy shape Mercedes never die, they’re literally made to last forever from 90’s quality
Oh how kewl, another Kardashian-sounding simp misusing the fluffword of the century: "literally".
That word is pointless & silly 100% of the time it is used, unless stating something of literal fact.
Go look up the literal definition of "literal".
I believe the inline 6 is more reliable than the V6. I got the 3.2 i6 (same M104 engine) in my 1993 300E
The M112 had no major issues, while the M104 did. Overheating issues, biodegradable wiring harnesses, and head gasket issues.
@@joaquinfranco9012 yeah my wiring harness was replaced with a good one decades ago. The overheating is usually from a malfunctioning auxiliary fan, I believe. Hope my head gasket holds up fine. Looks like an easier one to replace though, although I've never done that type of job.
This style looks more upscale than the one that replaced it. However, the one that replaced it just looked better to me.
Same price as a 1998 Cadillac Seville SLS? That's crazy. I've been driving both and that's just night and day in terms of vehicle's class. And I'm from Central Europe, Poland, where to this day majority thinks that German cars are the best :D
Just got a 99' C280 with less than 7k miles
The heated seat option is rare as well. Must have been a northern ordered car
The car itself looks amazing
I only recognize this car from the best worst movie ever, loved learning more about it!
If you were a store manager in 1997 you might have bought a new Maxima GXE for 23k and change or maybe (maybe) a loaded GLE for 27k. The C280 cost 35k in base form and adding options shown on this one would take it to 40k, -- 77k in 2024. Store managers don't spend that kind of money one a car unless they have really messed up priorities and/or a great fondness for debt. Mercedes of this era were still decently built, but it was starting to slip - finance guys replaced the engineers in control.
1999-2004 Mercedes is Best Mercedes. 5 speed auto is a heck of a tank, 3.2's and 5.0's are equally as solid.
A lot of it looks like my W140 in small. 😉
Undisputably reliable. Neighbor had one. Abused and used for 5 years and changed oil maybe 5 times. Ran like a top...
Nice mercedes
Nice body style
Reliable
When the 3 digits in the MB's name actually meant the displacement not just "LoOk aT mE, BiG NumBEr" with a 2.0 I4..
Look nice
The console looks nasty. Old Mercedes like this have beautiful wood trimmed center consoles and they deserve to be detailed with air in all the crevices and polished . It’s just looks slovenly otherwise
When you review people's cars, you should ask them to remove the 4" of built of snot off the interior prior.
W/S=Winter/Standard
Super cute !
The W is for Wumbo
W is wet S is stantard, no debate. But clever thing getting us to comment for the algorithm. I also had the same car check my 0-100-140 acceleration video.
The M112 isnt more efficient than the M104, that is a big lie. In fact, it almost has the consumption as the M113 V8. It was a bad move from Mercedes switching to V6, thats why you can enjoy the BMWs of that time more, they have lower consumption and in fact a more reliable and better engine.
Maybe the last C Class with an inline 6…
Mercedes lost all their build quality and reliability at the end of the '90s
Body of it looks like a slightly nicer Corolla.
You looking at cars:👨🦯