New Vehicle Review

The C240 is really a darling little car - I say little, not because it's small, but more as a term of endearment. And of course it's classy - hey, it's a Mercedes after all...hellooo!

To me, this would be a great car for a younger "bizban" owner. What's "bizban"? You know, a business-urban person. If you never heard the expression before, that's okay, I just made it up. Anyway, that's why I say it's a good car for Will or Grace: young twenties, good looking, fun people who want to make a bit of a statement.

The car handles excellent. It feels elegant and the interior is typical MB reserved high class. It's got lots of power and is fun to drive. The engine is a 2.4 liter V6 which delivers168 horses at 5500 rpm (is that good?). On the downside however, the shifting was a bit sticky (well that's what happens when your suntan lotion spills over the gear shift console...just kidding).

The 240 is quite roomy: in fact The Auto Channel's 4 Car Compar-a-Graph shows that the C240 has more front seat headroom that either the BMW 330i or the Audi A4. It had as much front seat legroom as the 330i and slightly more than the A4. For trunk space, the C240 is practically a cavern compared to either the 330i or the A4: 15.3 cu. ft versus 11.0 and 13.7, respectively. Although for me, most days all I cart around is my beach chair, an itsy-witsy teeny-weenie bikini, and that bottle of suntan lotion that spills everywhere.

The C240 is also a great parking car. It fits easily into all parallel spaces (don't you hate those), and gives you plenty of door swinging room at the shopping mall parking lots (yea!).

The price is the best part. The base is just $29,950, which, amazingly, is less than the BMW 330i, the Audi A4, and the Lexus IS300.

My only suggestion to MB is that they need a greater range of exterior colors - perhaps an opalescent white. There's nothing wrong with quality basic black and white and gray, but the bizban crowd is crying out for more.

Here's how I rate the C240 (the more palm trees the better):
Overall performance -
Value -
Feeling -
Look -

More Information:
www.mercedesbenz.com