Automotive Trends

Kompress This

     Let me start off on a good foot. Mercedes deserves credit for having the initiative to produce a model at a price range that is accessible to a larger crowd. Granted, the C230 Kompressor costs about as much as a mid to full-size domestic product will. However, for $25K, you can have the Mercedes name along with the attention to detail and engineering that goes along with it.
     The C230 Kompressor sport hatch is basically a C-Class sedan with several feet whacked out of the center of it. Minus the rear doors and trunk, throw on a glass hatch opening and you have it. From the front end the Kompressor retains the Mercedes aura, however sliding around the side reveals a profile that is neither intriguing nor as pleasing to the eye as one would expect for a Mercedes. The rear end looks especially cheap. It just doesn’t possess the elegance that the rest of the line up does. One editor commented that it was as if someone had slapped a Tri-Star badge on a Cavalier while we weren’t looking.
     The biggest disappointment was in the propulsion. Underhood resides a 1.8L Supercharged four-cylinder, not a 2.3L like the badge suggests. Exec Dye was quick to point out that his Mt. Dew displaced more cc’s. Though, we still held our faith as this little three door hatch certainly wasn’t going to require much to move it. According to numbers and physics we should have been right, however we found that the engineering defied physics a little. Don’t get us wrong, the Kompressor will scoot through traffic as long as you are keeping the tach needle pointed far to the right. Low rpm launches were not the forte of this little Merc, as one editor found when he was shown up by none other than a Toyota Sequoia at a stop light. Of course, I was the one driving that Toyota, but that is another story. Low end torque is simply nonexistent in the Kompressor. In fact, we had to check under the hood to see if it wasn’t a turbo under there instead of a supercharger. We actually experienced what felt like severe turbo lag. After much debate and discussion we determined that the four cylinder was just too small for the charger placed on top of it, too much power was being lost getting that super spooled up. Though, wait for the revs to come up and you will find the power band. At 3500 rpms the torque kicks in for a total of 192 lb-ft, but the band is short and is gone again at 4000. At 5800 rpms the 189 horses show up to play. However, most of the herd is gone again before the fun begins. And of course the Kompressor had an automatic so it made matching revs to gears that much harder. Even using TouchShift we found the car second guessing us and shifting early-something you can’t afford to do in this car.
     Considering Mercedes reputation, the interior was disappointing; considering the car was entry-level luxury, it wasn’t half bad. Sport bucket front seats are wrapped in, not sumptuous cowhide, but cloth, and they were printed with a weird pattern at that. Aside from the seats the rest of the interior follows suit with typical Mercedes fashion with a nicely wrapped leather steering wheel and shifter and power everything. One should really take a moment to learn the multiple dials, gauges, buttons, and switches as there are a bunch of them.
     While we criticized the C230 Kompressor pretty hard, taken as a whole, we still find the car appealing. In a world used to Mercedes cars exuding high luxury and high performance, it may take some time to get used to the little Kompressor. Is it part of a scheme for higher sales volume? Yes. And if it takes little cars like this to keep a company profitable so that they can continue to build the high-end dream machines, then I say it’s worth every bit. Name one other car the size of a Cavalier that features respectable build quality, and rear wheel drive for around $26,000.