In June 2000 I was in Germany and drove one of the very first C Class cars to hit the German dealers in the Stuttgart area. The engines are small in the Euro delivered cars, but it was a blast to drive.

I came home and told my wife that if they were to sell me one of these cars with a manual transmission in the US I would buy one. Soon after I got my Star magazine in which they announced the 6 speed manual would be sold in the US in the C240. I was one of the very first to buy one in the US and took delivery in very early October 2000.

The car was a FABULOUS driving car. Any complaints about the shifter or the clutch are baseless, made by people who have very little experience with a manual transmission. The car felt faster than it really was. I could get in the car and drive 7 hours and be very rested when getting out.

I can offer no negative criticism whatsoever about any of my behind the wheel experiences with the car. The negative criticism all has to do with electrical system failures. It had lots and lots of trips to the dealer. My brother in law and long time friend was my tech at the dealer so I know quite well about the massive amount of labor and parts that went into repairing this car during the 3 1/2 years that I owned it. One of the last trips to the dealer involved two days labor and many parts. Had the car not been under warranty I expect that it would have been at least a $4000 repair bill. Then a rear window riser failed. While on the way to the dealer to get the window riser replaced, the instrument cluster began flashing instrument cluster failure messages and all sorts of errors on the screen.

I had a chance to bail out and I did. It was a real shame because I really loved driving that car, but if I had kept it after warranties end, I was afraid that I would be looking at major unexpected expenses.

The C320's now have the six speed available and there are some around. If you get one, I hope that you have much better luck than I did.

BTW. I know that my car was built in Germany and I think that all the 203 cars that reach the US market are made in Germany.

Best of luck,