Folks:

I thought some comments regarding my recent purchase of an ’02 C32 might be in order for the horsepower junkies on this forum.

My pristine 1993 400E with only 113K miles was recently rear ended by a moron in a Jeep Wrangler at a stop-light. I had swapped the rear dif for the 2.82, lowered with K&R springs and removed the resonator. After driving many other cars over the past 18 months or so, I had decided several times to keep it. It was black on gray with some decent chrome 16” wheels and 215 series rubber. Fortunately the Jeep owners insurance company gave me a fair price of $10.3K, which I think is better than I could have got if I had sold the car myself. It was the 3rd Benz I had owned – a ’78 280 SE, and ’88 300E preceding it.

I had been shopping for awhile, thinking I could do better than the 400E. My first choice on paper was the C32, but only a couple had come up for sale in Colorado in the last year and a half or so, and all over $40K – out of my price range. In the mean time I drove an ’02 E55, ’98 C43, ’95 V12 S class coupe, ’97 S500 S class coupe, ’94 E500 (Chipped and nice body kit!) new E350, ’02 Jaguar XJR, (The supercharged model.), Nissan G35, ’02 Audi S4 (Manual and auto.) and S6 2.7T, ’96 S6 4.2, Subaru WRX, ’00 VW GTI V6 with a seriously leaned on motor, as well as a turbo Volvo, Lexus GS400, etc.

I didn’t find anything that caught my attention like the C32. A local dealer had one for sale at $40K with only 25K miles. When the price came down to about $35K, I figured I owed it to myself to drive it. I am so glad I did! It is fundamentally a C class, which means the quality of construction and the fit and finish is not up to E , much less S class standards. But the AMG tuned supercharged 3.2 litre is FAR faster than ANY of the above mentioned cars – forget what you have read! There is a tiny bit of lag off the line, but once above about 5 MPH, the C32 is as fast as the fastest pure sports cars. It does not have a huge back seat, but no one in my family is over 5’8” and it has a real trunk.

I have also driven an ’03 Ferrari 575M, custom turboed Mazda Miata, ’69 Mustang Shelby Cobra 428, ’96 Porsche Carerra, ’90 Porsche 911, Nissan 300ZX turbo, and Mitsubishi Eclipse GS-T. In terms of straight line acceleration, the only cars on this whole list that can beat the C32 are the Ferrari, 96 Porsche, and the turboed Miata. (That car was WICKED fast!) And the C32 would hands down be the easiest car to drive fast – just punch it and go. And it has brakes and handling to rival anything!

So if you are looking for a 4 door sports car, it would be very hard to beat the C32. No doubt, for the same money you could take an S4 and do some pretty serious engine mods to get to 400+ HP, but at the end of the day, it still looks like a bazzillion A4’s on the road! (Of course, some would say that the C32 looks like a bazillion C class’s on the road, but I think they look a lot better than the Audi A class cars.)

Please email if you have questions or post comments.

Thanks – Mike

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Mike in Denver
'93 400E Now DEAD - Rear ended and totalled.
Replaced by '02 C32 AMG - FAST!

How many HP does a Turbo Miata cranks out? So u say they're as fast as Porsche and Prancing horse.

A C32 puts out 349 HP or so?

Thats nice for a small body C.

They also stuff C55, 5.5 V8 into it too?

The turbo Miata was an early 90's with a custom turbo out of Grand Junction. (Western Colorado.) I guess the guy out there does only Miata's. The owner said it was 250HP. Custom intercooler, 18" X 245 series rubber. It could EASILY spin the rear tires from a stop, and was just ridiculous after that. Keep in mind that an early Miata was only about 2200 lbs curb weight. The Porsche I drove in Houston, so not a fair comparison to altitude in Denver, but if I had to pick 0-60 between the Miata, Ferrari, and Porsche, I'd go with the Miata. It was also REALLY loud, handled great, and rode like an old buckboard.

I have not driven a new C55, but they say it is about the same as the C32, but with a bit more torque, which is to say - FAST!

Mike

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Mike in Denver
'93 400E Now DEAD - Rear ended and totalled.
Replaced by '02 C32 AMG - FAST!

Some folks shoe horn 5.0 litre Ford eng into Miata too.
That must be fun.

With 2200 lbs anything 200HP will make it fly!

Another bloke says he tried to Dyno his C32 but the rear brake just wouldn't let go. It only reg 250HP and brakes cut in, smells burning rubber!
But he said he can keep up with M5 so his car isn't under performing.

Sometimes a bigger engine C55 may upset the f/r balance then harder to drive too.