Mercedes-Benz C350 Sports Coupe | Spotted
Remember the 3.5-litre, rear-drive, Mercedes hatchback? Not many do. Now it's £4k...
Mercedes is now legendary for its ability to cram cars into niches that don’t seem to exist. Only Benz could have made cars like the R63 AMG (the whole R-Class range, really), the Maybach S-Class, the V12-engined SLs and so on. They’re still at it today in fact, with cars like the seven-seat GLB 35 AMG, the pair of CLA Shooting Brake models, and the almighty four-door GT63. They must all sell in tiny numbers, yet Mercedes persists. And that’s great, because it keeps line ups diverse, gives buyers alternatives to the norm and, in cases like the ’63, creates some epic cars. You do you Mercedes, and keep up the good work.
The niche busting is brilliant news for the secondhand buyer, too, as it means all manner of curios crop up a few years down the line. The C350 Sports Coupe is the perfect example of that. Nobody really needed a small hatchback-cum-coupe with a 3.5-litre V6 and 272hp, but Mercedes made one anyway. Very few were sold (exactly because nobody needed one) yet now the C350 is rare, interesting, fast and flippin cheap - this one is £3,895.
Some background on the C-Class Sports Coupe, first off. Presumably having seen how successful Audi had been with creating a smaller, more practical model in the 1990s with the A3, Mercedes followed suit at the dawn of the millennium with a three-door C-Class. Which then forced BMW’s hand somewhat, and the 1 Series came a few years later. The Audi and the BMW continue to this day, the C-Class SC indirectly replaced by the A-Class now as the entry point to the Merc range. Two decades ago some were wary of cheapening the Benz brand with something like a C-Class hatch - back when the A-Class was expensive and innovative - but the strategy worked a treat for Mercedes. Not only did the Sport Coupe run for more than a decade (later as the CLC), at one point 40 per cent of customers were so impressed by their baby Merc that they returned for a more senior model.
Anyway, the C-Class in question. The C350 arrived in 2005 to replace the C320 that had served as the flagship at launch, but it was much more than a mid-life facelift. The switch from 3.2-litres to 3.5-litres (a very strange thing to write now looking at a car of this size) meant a healthy jump in power from 218hp to 272hp, which would be competitive in a hot hatch today. Crucially, it made the Sports Coupe more powerful than both the BMW 130i and Audi A3 3.2. With the new seven-speed auto as standard as well, replacing the old five-ratio ‘box, performance was properly brisk: 0-62mph took 6.4 seconds, and the top speed was 155mph. The result was a decent little bruiser, if lacking the final bit of driver reward with no manual gearbox or limited-slip diff. No matter; Autocar called the C350 Sports Coupe ‘a genuine rival for the BMW 130i’ at the time, which sounds like praise to us.
But it was expensive, making the C350’s task even harder when a lot of people coveted the Sports Coupe just for the three-pointed star - a C180 sufficed for most. Back in 2005 it was £28,000, or £45k (!) in today’s money. Which makes this one look even more tempting at less than £4k. Yes, you’ll have to pay the more expensive road tax and, yes, this probably still counts as Merc’s less than brilliant build quality era, but don’t forget about the good stuff. It’s only done 72,000 miles, the MOT history isn’t too scary, the outside scrubs up pretty well and the interior benefits from a huge sunroof, which surely won’t have been a cheap option. Even the leather looks alright. For a car that’s 16 years old and is for sale at £3,895, it’s hard to think of much to gripe about. We love a Q-car at PH, and fast cars really don’t come much more unassuming than the V6 C-Class Sports Coupe. Long live the slightly mad Mercedes!
SPECIFICATION | MERCEDES-BENZ C-CLASS SPORTS COUPE
Engine: 3,498cc, V6
Transmission: 7-speed auto, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 272@6,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 260@2,400-5,000rpm
MPG: 28.3
CO2: 239g/km
Year registered: 2006
Recorded mileage: 72,000
Price new: c. £28,000
Yours for: £3,895
In any case all cars like this with a medium amount of power but £600+ a year RFL and mid 20s economy for soot chucking rep mobile performance are a really hard sale, I just got rid of a 2006 Volvo V70 T5 because the modest performance just didn't match the running costs. It may be a rare curio but I can imagine it'll be around for a while at £4k.
Basically medium sized petrols make no sense, if you're going to suffer those costs you might as well get something that can really move. My litmus test is "can it outdrag an MX5" and at 6.4 to 62MPH no it cannot. It's not slow but nor is it £50+ a month tax fast.
I know what you mean - the seating position also gives it away.Plus, like you say…. Slush box on the engine
We have CLK 220CDI, bought cheaply, its now a bit of a fixture, everyone quite likes it despite it being slow and a bit ponderous.
Though, poster MNStewart who is a bit of an expert on these does reckon the 350 V6 is the sweet spot, with the AMG versions being a bit too much for the platform having had various examples, so it is plenty quick enough without being ridiculous.
£4k for this is madness, it is on Autotrader with the £615 RFL shown
When I was buying a few years ago I was also quite shocked at how many of the brackets and fixings on a W221 S Class are incredibly crusty on all of them, and it's far from rare to see them blistering with rust on doors and wings. There were also plenty of cheap crap components that failed with tedious regularity once I owned the car.
I will grant you that the post 2006 cars did mostly make it out of warranty without a major failure or needing bodywork at least and the 2nd owner probably did ok with most of them, which is a big improvement, but the lack of real quality is very obvious when they get to 10+ years old.
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