C180 petrol vs c220 diesel buyin advice

[nl166]

hi
I am looking to buy c180 petrol or C220 diesel, looking at 2011 or 2012 models less than 35k miles done. This is my first MB. My budget is around 13k , so most realistic is C180. I am doing 11-12k per year and about 6.5-7k is motorway travel. I am not sure if higher price for C220 justified by saving in fuel, road tax. At the moment I am thinking it for keeping it for 4-5 years.

Are there any known issues with these two models , any real mpgs for the two,
( on paper c180 42 combined, c220 55+ combined). What about the servicing costs? Any advice appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

[John Laidlaw]

had a C180K for a couple of years and it ran beautifully, the only niggle I had was track rod ends which was a surprise after only 25k.I heard about timing chain issues at higher miles but didn't suffer any issues there.My average mpg hovered around 40 which didnt seem to alter one jot whether in comfort or sport!

 

[John Laidlaw]

oh sorry, your mileage is borderline on the diesel issue. if you can get a decent blast in to keep the dpf in order weekly you should be fine.
The thing with diesels is the torque, once you've had one you would miss it going back to a 'small' petrol engine.All about personal taste, I do like diesels but some folks prefer petrol

 

[television]

As above this mileage is always a boarder line as to go diesel or petrol. the 204 is a good car. I am not into diesels but they could be the best option engine wise.

 

[JBell]

Is it a 180k or a 180 CGi, for £13K I would look for a 250CGi

 

[MBDevotee]

I'm with the others.

I think borderline whether you'll make sufficient savings on the fuel to justify the dearer diesel car to be honest, I suspect you'll get 40mpg out of the petrol, I doubt you'd get 55 out of the diesel as they do seem to get a fair bit less than the manufacturers claim whereas the petrols are never far off...

Just buy the one you like the most - diesels will also cost a lot more to fix IF they go wrong, but on that mileage both should be pretty reliable.

 

[V6Matty]

as others said, you right on the edge for mileage where to start to see benefit of diesel, on the motorway yes you will get much better and that covers half your mileage from what you say but what is the other half made up of, is it just very short journies, less than 10 miles say or is it longer (long enough for the car to get hot) 20-30 miles, if the latter then your still slightly better going for a diesel but only very very slightly once you get into servicing costs and everything else. only down side that i've heard of and others will correct me if i'm wrong but the 180k does have a timing chain issue once you get into higher miles, and if you keeping it 5 years you could be looking at an expensive fix if it does fail, saying that its a risk as with any second hand car.

 

[grober]

Also be careful there were quite a few 180's that are in effect 160's as Mercedes quietly reduced the 180 engine size down to 1600cc along the way - power was kept the same by I assume increasing fuelling and turbo boost. What effect this would have on long term engine life -if any- I don't know.
http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...edia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_M_271&prev=search

 

[ernieh]

From about MY 2012, the C180 had the 1600 cc 274 Turbo engine which for 2 of us with luggage on the m/w has ample power. Overall fuel consumption (8k miles) is around 35 mainly local use with longer trips thrown in. I've seen 45 on a 400 mile m/w trip.

I am not aware of any long term issues with this engine, which I think was fitted to the B Class before they fitted it to the C.

There were also 1.6 and 1.8 271 versions of this engine as noted above and these have been prone to cam chain and sprocket problems.

Ernie

 

[nl166]

Thanks all for the reply. I am looking at vehicles which have a mileage less than 40000 miles. Are there any timing chain issues with that mileage?

Any idea about the servicing costs? With the current feedback I am leaning towards a petrol. I am in West London and I am hoping to buy from Car giant. Any one has bad experience there?

 

[JBell]

I am in West London and I am hoping to buy from Car giant. Any one has bad experience there?

There is an excellent review of Car Giant in the "Introduce yourself" section

 

[Neil H]

I would certainly err towards petrol at that mileage though I'd definitely want to test drive to make sure it had enough grunt.
Word is that diesel is going to come under sustained attack by the environ'mentalists' in the coming years so assume prices at the pump will continue to rise.

Plus, if you want the car for 5 years, there should be less to go wrong with a petrol.

 

[L John]

All good advice on this thread, as already stated, diesel needs a good run every so often to get hot or they can have DPF issues.

If it's borderline I'd always lean towards petrol for several reasons, diesel would have to be a confident winner to get me to go there.
I had a diesel car once and we were never a good pals, sure it was ok on the run but embarrassing starting it from cold (2.2D Laguna, I shuddered even typing that!).

Six pot diesels are great but you're not looking at those.
Someone was telling me how refined and quiet his Jaguar diesel was, "you wouldn't tell it from a petrol", he said.
He started it and I said, "it sounds like a bag of spanners and it's smoking".
"Oh well it's cold at the moment", he said".
Denial is quite a skill, he was still confident diesel was greatest thing ever.

Diesel grunt is nice and 6 pot diesels are a different animal to Farmer Browns tractor engine (which seemed to be the same engine fitted to the Jaguar).
I'm not anti diesel but would advise to look at it realistically before deciding, as I'm sure you are.

 

[Frontstep]

Yes drive them both before you decide I am a diesel fan but each to his own.
A real world fuel figure would be helpful from someone for you.

 

[nicko44]

If you look at HonestJohn real world mpg you will find around 35/36mpg for the C180 and 47mpg for the C220. This probably improves to 45 and 55 respectively on a good run.

I am also considering returning to the Mercedes fold and am actively considering a one year old 204 series, either the C180 1595cc petrol turbo estate or the C220 2143cc turbo diesel estate, both in auto. I have driven the C180 and found it surprisingly lively with a very nice ride and good steering. I've not tried the C220, but I did spend some weeks driving my grandchildren to school across the Cotswolds in a C350CDI estate and thought it was just about the perfect car with huge effortless performance and a really nice comfortable driving position.
However now that I am a few years older I am quite happy with more gentle performance and I believe the C220 will be quite fast enough with clearly a lot more grunt than the C180. On the other hand it will certainly be noisier and with an extra 110kg to carry around on the front end compared to its petrol cousin I do not expect it to handle as nicely.

My preference is generally for petrol, but you will just have to try both.

 

[JBell]

I did spend some weeks driving my grandchildren to school across the Cotswolds in a C350CDI estate and thought it was just about the perfect car with huge effortless performance and a really nice comfortable driving position.

That is why I bought one

Had a W203 C220CDi before and round town I would get 30mpg (same as the 350CDi) and on a run 45mpg (350CDi has got me to 42mpg)

 

[L John]

Had a W203 C220CDi before and round town I would get 30mpg (same as the 350CDi) and on a run 45mpg (350CDi has got me to 42mpg)

Petrol is cheaper than diesel and my 350 petrol best MPG on a run was 42 as well. Average is around 30 unless I've been a bit playful and then it's 20mpg.

I think people with diesels generally looking for MPG.
Driven the same, is there really much difference between a 350 petrol and the 350 diesel of same year manufacture. Performance are similar.

 

[JBell]

Driven the same, is there really much difference between a 350 petrol and the 350 diesel of same year manufacture. Performance are similar.

Not much, Diesel will be faster through the gears due to massive Torque figures.

Road tax is different, CDi is £205 and Petrol is £485 which would pay for an extra 250 litres of fuel

The hardest thing would be to find a 350 petrol

 

[nicko44]

I've been looking at a 2013 reg C350CDI estate and that is classified as only 159gr CO2....and that is running on 17" wheels. So the road tax now comes out at £180, not bad for a powerful car. Combined mpg is now rated at 47.1 whereas 5 years ago this car was showing 199gr CO2 and combined mpg was 37.7.

I wonder if this is a genuine improvement or just a fiddle.

Road tax may not be a huge item when measured against depreciation but it is just the fact that it is goes straight into the government central coffers that is so annoying.

 

[JBell]

I've been looking at a 2013 reg C350CDI estate and that is classified as only 159gr CO2....and that is running on 17" wheels. So the road tax now comes out at £180, not bad for a powerful car. Combined mpg is now rated at 47.1 whereas 5 years ago this car was showing 199gr CO2 and combined mpg was 37.7.

The facelift improved the engine and dropped the figures and increased the power so all good