C180K or BMW318i

Hi Rod,

The simple answer is that I would not choose either of those cars. The level of performance offered by those tiny 4-cylinder engines is unacceptable in a car that costs $50,000 - $55,000.

The Lexus IS200 is the same price yet offers 6 cylinder performance, and of course top Japanese build quality.

Alternatively look at a 2nd hand Merc. Unfortunately you can't get a V6 W203 C-Class for that price, but you can definitely have your pick of the litter of E240s, or maybe even a slightly older (96-97) E280/E320.

"David Z" haute in die Tasten:

Which kind of $ you are referring to? A Mercedes C180k in standard configuration costs less than 30,000 Euro including VAT in Germany, which is about 36.000 US-Dollar. I agree with you that this is awfully much for a 4-Banger, but 55,000 Dollar will buy you a nice smart convertible in addition.

Frank

Well, I think less cylinders is kind of advantage if you pay taxes for the car based on cylinder number, as it's in Australia, as far I know.

I am of course referring to Australian dollars.

There are no taxes based on the number of cylinders a car has.

Sorry, my mistake. I'm neither in Pert nor in Australia. A friend from Adelaide told me so. And I also saw it on the Web:

Thats not a tax, its a registration fee. And thats only in South Australia. Here in Victoria there are no such fees for extra cylinders. In any case, an $82 savings per year is hardly much of an advantage and would certainly not persuade someone to buy a 4-cyl over a V6.

I'm absolutely agreed with you. It was just a not very clever remark from my side. Here in Germany I pay much more to drive a larger (for the European standards) engine.

performance,