Hi All,
Recently picked up a C320 CDi Sport Auto (w203 ’55 plate), and used this forum a lot to do my research, so thought I’d give something back. I couldn’t find much information from owners on the w203 320 CDi’s, so thought I’d share a few of my thoughts after 2 months of ownership in the hope that at least one person reads this and benefits from it! As a bit of backstory, I was moving from a 2 litre naturally aspirated petrol Mondeo, and was looking for a car with a nice interior as the number 1 priority as I was looking for a motorway mule for a 100 mile round trip to work, and test drove Volvo S40 2-litre diesels (manual and auto) and Mondeo 2.0 and 2.2 diesels.
The good:
First things first, as far as I can tell, when this was released this was the quickest diesel saloon out there, if not the quickest production diesel (depends on source). This car is QUICK. I’m not the drag racing type and frankly I rarely kick down more than one gear but a quick look at the stats will show you it will see off a Mondeo ST, Octavia VRs (petrol mind, not the slow-with-sporty-wings diesels) and other similar quick saloons. There is tonnes of power, and it really does put a smile on your face with the delivery – smooth and not brutal, feels like you can control it if, like me, you’re not an aspiring racing driver. If you’re trying to convince yourself to go with the 220 CDi, don’t take the 320 for a test drive, you won’t bother even trying the 220 (I didn’t!)
Secondly, and this is the icing on the cake, for it’s performance it’s a very efficient car... in the right circumstances. Around town you’ll do just under 30mpg if it’s congested, mid thirties if its flowing. On an 11 mile 30 min drive (town->motorway->town) I get low to mid 40’s, 44 mile 1 hour drive to work I get mid to high 40’s, and on a decent 80-100 mile motorway run I’m in the low 50’s. This is driving around 70mph or as traffic permits. Dependant on who you talk to they reckon the trip computer is 1-3mpg optimistic, I’ve done the brim-to-brim calculations a few times and I say its only 1mpg higher – may depend on the car / driver though so I’m not saying this is always the case (don’t want to start an argument!).
Thirdly, this is a good looking car, with an awesome interior. I’ve got the sport pack with black leather, the interior is a lovely place to be if you’re planning on racking up the miles (and is in fact the reason I chose to look at the car – the engine sealed the deal). Passengers say the back is comfy too. Back middle seat isn’t huge but the back bench will take 3 fully grown men at a push. The rims on the sport model are really cool too. The sound-system is cracking, and if you have the multichanger in the glovebox there’s space for the CD covers next to it, which to me is such an excellent idea.
The nit-picky bits:
The ****** handbrake – foot engaged, hand released, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it... liveable though.
The accelerator pedal is very soft. This means hitting bumps can cause you to press it a little bit harder, then you come off, causing a yo-yo effect. I get this particularly bad on a regular drive where I ascend a steep hill then turn left slowly – the gearbox kicks down to first, which is like hitting the brakes, which means my inertia causes me to press the accelerator, which lurches the car forward etc. Liveable as long as you know about it (I come well off the accelerator before the turn now).
The little strips of aluminium on the interior just below the window look lovely but are prone to little dinks from what I assume to be seatbelts being released too violently.
There’s no cupholder in the front for anything bigger than a coke can. 1 litre bottle of water? Nope. McDonalds medium drink? Nope. Protein shaker? Hah! I’ve resorted to using the cupholders in the rear centre armrest which isn’t ideal.
Rear parking sensors – someone clearly had a really good idea “why don’t we put them so you can see them in the rear view?” – doesn’t quite work for me in practice. I tend to turn my head to reverse, and the parking sensors aren’t really in the direct sight line. Really a minor issue though, gradual onset, only beep when close (which I much prefer to the constant beeping ones), decent amount of clearance, the sensors themselves are excellent.
The bad:
When you buy a 320CDi, you are essentially buying two cars – before the temp sensor hits 65’C, it sounds like a diesel, not quite tractor-like but there’s no doubt whats under the hood. After 65’C though, it’s silky smooth, to the untrained ear it could be a straight 6 petrol (doesn’t sound like a v6 petrol to my ear). The throttle is more responsive, the mpg goes up, the gearbox shifts better, just an all-round better car. As far as I can tell this is because the fuel map runs extra rich up to 65’C to get the engine warm. This is important to know for two reasons – one, if you are test driving one of these, make sure it’s warm before you pass judgement. Two, if you are planning on using this car as a city run about, this isn’t for you. Runs of less than ~5-10 minutes and it won’t heat up past 65’C, which means you’re getting terrible mpg and it can’t be doing the engine/dpf any favors.
And finally the one thing that’s really the fly in the ointment for me – the suspension. With the sport pack, the car rides low, REALLY low. I have to crawl over speed bumps to avoid scraping the engine undertray, and with 5 blokes in the car you will scrape every speedbump no matter what you do. The ride is similar to the engine in that it has two “modes” – bumps less than ~2 inches? Rides them out lovely, no matter the speed, no complaints at all. Bumps more than 2 inches? Feels like someone swapped the springs for blocks of wood. I didn’t really get a handle on this on my test drive. If speed bumps are on your daily commute, make sure you test drive over some. It corners brilliantly, the suspension has definitely been set up well, but it’s just too much for me. Each to their own though.
Verdict? Well I wanted to write this before anything went wrong (touch wood and all that) in case the bills cloud my judgement. If I did it all again I’d have the same interior, the non-sport suspension, the same wheels (love them), and the engine... well my head says 220 CDi, but really I know it’d be the 320 CDi every time
Russ
Recently picked up a C320 CDi Sport Auto (w203 ’55 plate), and used this forum a lot to do my research, so thought I’d give something back. I couldn’t find much information from owners on the w203 320 CDi’s, so thought I’d share a few of my thoughts after 2 months of ownership in the hope that at least one person reads this and benefits from it! As a bit of backstory, I was moving from a 2 litre naturally aspirated petrol Mondeo, and was looking for a car with a nice interior as the number 1 priority as I was looking for a motorway mule for a 100 mile round trip to work, and test drove Volvo S40 2-litre diesels (manual and auto) and Mondeo 2.0 and 2.2 diesels.
The good:
First things first, as far as I can tell, when this was released this was the quickest diesel saloon out there, if not the quickest production diesel (depends on source). This car is QUICK. I’m not the drag racing type and frankly I rarely kick down more than one gear but a quick look at the stats will show you it will see off a Mondeo ST, Octavia VRs (petrol mind, not the slow-with-sporty-wings diesels) and other similar quick saloons. There is tonnes of power, and it really does put a smile on your face with the delivery – smooth and not brutal, feels like you can control it if, like me, you’re not an aspiring racing driver. If you’re trying to convince yourself to go with the 220 CDi, don’t take the 320 for a test drive, you won’t bother even trying the 220 (I didn’t!)
Secondly, and this is the icing on the cake, for it’s performance it’s a very efficient car... in the right circumstances. Around town you’ll do just under 30mpg if it’s congested, mid thirties if its flowing. On an 11 mile 30 min drive (town->motorway->town) I get low to mid 40’s, 44 mile 1 hour drive to work I get mid to high 40’s, and on a decent 80-100 mile motorway run I’m in the low 50’s. This is driving around 70mph or as traffic permits. Dependant on who you talk to they reckon the trip computer is 1-3mpg optimistic, I’ve done the brim-to-brim calculations a few times and I say its only 1mpg higher – may depend on the car / driver though so I’m not saying this is always the case (don’t want to start an argument!).
Thirdly, this is a good looking car, with an awesome interior. I’ve got the sport pack with black leather, the interior is a lovely place to be if you’re planning on racking up the miles (and is in fact the reason I chose to look at the car – the engine sealed the deal). Passengers say the back is comfy too. Back middle seat isn’t huge but the back bench will take 3 fully grown men at a push. The rims on the sport model are really cool too. The sound-system is cracking, and if you have the multichanger in the glovebox there’s space for the CD covers next to it, which to me is such an excellent idea.
The nit-picky bits:
The ****** handbrake – foot engaged, hand released, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it... liveable though.
The accelerator pedal is very soft. This means hitting bumps can cause you to press it a little bit harder, then you come off, causing a yo-yo effect. I get this particularly bad on a regular drive where I ascend a steep hill then turn left slowly – the gearbox kicks down to first, which is like hitting the brakes, which means my inertia causes me to press the accelerator, which lurches the car forward etc. Liveable as long as you know about it (I come well off the accelerator before the turn now).
The little strips of aluminium on the interior just below the window look lovely but are prone to little dinks from what I assume to be seatbelts being released too violently.
There’s no cupholder in the front for anything bigger than a coke can. 1 litre bottle of water? Nope. McDonalds medium drink? Nope. Protein shaker? Hah! I’ve resorted to using the cupholders in the rear centre armrest which isn’t ideal.
Rear parking sensors – someone clearly had a really good idea “why don’t we put them so you can see them in the rear view?” – doesn’t quite work for me in practice. I tend to turn my head to reverse, and the parking sensors aren’t really in the direct sight line. Really a minor issue though, gradual onset, only beep when close (which I much prefer to the constant beeping ones), decent amount of clearance, the sensors themselves are excellent.
The bad:
When you buy a 320CDi, you are essentially buying two cars – before the temp sensor hits 65’C, it sounds like a diesel, not quite tractor-like but there’s no doubt whats under the hood. After 65’C though, it’s silky smooth, to the untrained ear it could be a straight 6 petrol (doesn’t sound like a v6 petrol to my ear). The throttle is more responsive, the mpg goes up, the gearbox shifts better, just an all-round better car. As far as I can tell this is because the fuel map runs extra rich up to 65’C to get the engine warm. This is important to know for two reasons – one, if you are test driving one of these, make sure it’s warm before you pass judgement. Two, if you are planning on using this car as a city run about, this isn’t for you. Runs of less than ~5-10 minutes and it won’t heat up past 65’C, which means you’re getting terrible mpg and it can’t be doing the engine/dpf any favors.
And finally the one thing that’s really the fly in the ointment for me – the suspension. With the sport pack, the car rides low, REALLY low. I have to crawl over speed bumps to avoid scraping the engine undertray, and with 5 blokes in the car you will scrape every speedbump no matter what you do. The ride is similar to the engine in that it has two “modes” – bumps less than ~2 inches? Rides them out lovely, no matter the speed, no complaints at all. Bumps more than 2 inches? Feels like someone swapped the springs for blocks of wood. I didn’t really get a handle on this on my test drive. If speed bumps are on your daily commute, make sure you test drive over some. It corners brilliantly, the suspension has definitely been set up well, but it’s just too much for me. Each to their own though.
Verdict? Well I wanted to write this before anything went wrong (touch wood and all that) in case the bills cloud my judgement. If I did it all again I’d have the same interior, the non-sport suspension, the same wheels (love them), and the engine... well my head says 220 CDi, but really I know it’d be the 320 CDi every time
Russ
