Orlando Sentinel's view

A LOT OF MERCEDES FOR THE MONEY

When Mercedes-Benz introduced its all-new C-Class sedan for 2001, the company promised that a two-door coupe would be available for 2002 with a base price of under $25,000.

That announcement was greeted with some skepticism. A typical reaction: “Will that include tires and an engine?”

Now that the 2002 C230 is here, we can report that yes, it does include tires and an engine. And pretty much everything else you need. Mercedes has resisted the temptation to charge extra for equipment that ought to come standard just so it could lure customers in with a bargain-basement base price.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t possible to equip a C230 so the sticker climbs over $30,000, but you don’t have to do that to buy a nice car. Assuming, of course, that your dealer isn’t adding on its own markup, something that is hardly exclusive to any brand.

The test model indeed started at $24,950, which did not include $645 in transportation fees, bringing the price to $25,595. Optional equipment on the test car took the bottom line to $28,305, but those options were legitimate — $1,410 for leather upholstery and $1,300 for a five-speed automatic transmission, replacing the entirely competent six-speed manual. I could cheerfully live without both these options.

That leaves a still very well-equipped car with air conditioning, cruise control, a garage door opener, remote locking with an alarm; front, side and side curtain air bags; four-wheel disc brakes with anti-lock, an AM/FM stereo with a cassette player and weather stations, handsome 16-inch spoked alloy wheels with P205/55R-16 all-season radials, a trip computer, Mercedes’ Electronic Stability Control system that aids handling in emergency situations, and power locks, mirrors and windows.

Which is a whole bunch of Mercedes for the money.

Add to that the TeleAid system, which is Mercedes’ answer to General Motors’ OnStar, the satellite-linked emergency communications system. TeleAid normally adds $750 to the price, but there’s a special promotion going on that waives that cost.

Mechanically, the C230 is powered by a 2.3-liter, four-cylinder engine with double overhead camshafts. It is “Kompressor” equipped — that’s Mercedes’ term for a supercharger. A supercharger is, to oversimplify, a fan turned by a belt that pumps fuel and air into the engine under pressure, which increases horsepower. It works much like a turbocharger, but a turbocharger fan is powered by burned exhaust gas coming from the engine, rather than a belt. Both are used mostly to make smaller engines perform like bigger ones — the C230 engine has 192 horsepower, which is plenty healthy.

This 2.3-liter Kompresser engine has never sounded particularly sporting — I once described an early SLK230 as sounding like a “flatulent pickup truck with a hole in the muffler” — but that would be extreme in describing the C230’s exhaust note. Acceleration is brisk, aided by a perceptive transmission that downshifts reluctantly when you floor the accelerator, typical of Mercedes, but once it downshifts, you go.

Brakes are excellent and handling is reasonably sporty, though the steering could be a bit more precise. The ride is very good for a comparatively small car. The wheelbase (the distance from the center of the front wheels to the center of the rear wheels) is 106.9 inches, the same as for the C-Class four-door sedan, but the coupe’s overall length is 171 inches, more than seven inches shorter than the sedan. A Honda Accord coupe, by comparison, is 186.8 inches long.

Inside, the C230 has plenty of room up front, and rear seating is surprisingly generous, once you perform the typical two-door gymnastics to climb back there. The hatchback design makes for plenty of storage space under the rear window. Fold down the rear seats, and there’s a whopping 38 cubic feet of room.

Outside, the C230’s styling, while not quite dramatic, plenty distinctive. It doesn’t automatically advertise itself as a Mercedes, but our black test car got its share of drive-by admirers.

The aforementioned Honda Accord coupe, in its top-of-the-line EX V-6 model, lists for about $26,000, with features and horsepower that are roughly comparable to, but certainly no better than, our $28,305 Mercedes C240.

Previously, plenty of customers have been willing to spend a lot more to get a Mercedes. Now that you have to spend only a little more, get used to seeing more and more of these little Mercedeses on the road.

Base price: $24,950

Price as tested: $28,305

EPA rating: 21 mpg city, 28 mpg highway

Details: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive coupe powered by a 2.3-liter, 192-horsepower supercharged four-cylinder engine.