First of all I have to say that people who caused me to drive this car instead of my ///M3 must be ashamed of themselves..
Here is the story that lead me to pass to the Dark Side:
Actually, I'm still a big ///M fan and planning to go to Germany in November to buy myself an 04 M3. However, in the mean time, I bought this CLK320 which is a 2002 MY. I bought it as a second hand car at 19,500 km. It has Nav., leather, sunroof, telephone and so on; lack of Xenon and electrical seats though.
It is a nice car and we bought it to replace our 03 Cherokee Liberty which we used about 10 months and had enough of it.
OK, here is my review:
I must admit that built quality of Mercedes is better than BMW. Eventhough I didn't like the trim quality (feels more like a plastic instead of wood), the car is solid and noise free inside. Actually, E class has way better part quality and interior design; especially better trim (my father also has a 03 E320 CDI) It is very obvious that CLK is built on C class platform. E class has better details touch such as soft lightining on roof panel, better design armrest, better A/C control buttons and so on.
I like the color screen of NAV on Merc. way more than BMW's screen. The color scheme of the Merc. Nav and menu is way better IMO.
How about the ride and drive quality??
Actually, I find the CLK better than I expected. The car is more chuckable than E class; can be thrown to corners. In the last 8 months, we owned 02 C200 komp., 03 E320 CDI and this 02 CLK 320. This one is very nimble and lively compared to others. Further more I can throttle steer the car out of corners and can keep the car sideways for a few seconds out of corners (although not as long and not as wild as M3.) M3 is the King on this job.
3.2 L engine has 218 hp, 320NM of torque. It should weight about 1650 kg (not sure though) so it is no match against M3 in terms of performance and handling of course.
Good sides are, it attracts more attention. My girl friend likes it more. Also there is no B-pillar and rear windows can be lowered fully so when you open the 4 windows, you feel like driving a cab with a hardtop on (our 96 CL500 had the same style)
I guess it will be a nice car for my mother and sister. Furthermore I bought it at a very good price.
Finally here are the pictures:
Linear Mode
