I have been following my ol' pal Adlis K on a hunt for another car to replace his tiny (but very nice to drive) Mazda MX-5 Roadster. For the past few weeks we have been scouring Motor Trader and other on-line sites for a coupe with rear seats. The reason for Adlis K wanting a change is the need for rear seats. But I honestly think that he is just itchy for a new ride as he has owned a total of six cars since 2005.
Anyway, good for him as he does get to indulge on his passion for motoring. But folks, in order to indulge the way he does one must actually have a decent paying job that allows such liberties. If you are just sitting on your arse and not trying to find some way of becoming slightly wealthy, you will never even get the chance to catch a whiff of the tailpipes of the car pictured above. So there you have it, a moral to this story right at the start of this article.
And now for the actual reason for this little article - a usable 2+2 coupe around the RM200,000 price. We've come to conclude that for around this price a Malaysian can buy the following gray imports - the BMW E92 3series coupe (320i or 325i in M Sport configuration at about RM185K), an Audi A5 2.0TFSi in basic, small 17inch wheel and tyre combo (at around RM210K), a Mercedes CLK200 or CLK280 in AMG Sport spec (at around RM188K). The new cars include the VW Scirocco 1.4TSI (at around RM195K including insurance which VW never seems to advertise in their adverts) and the sublime Peugeot RCZ (at RM220K or thereabouts).
What we found out is that usable rear seats can only be found in the Scirocco, the BMW and the Mercedes Benz. To some extent the Audi A5 has such seats, but this larger car isn't spacious at the rear. It may be bigger than the BMW or the Mercedes, but it is actually smaller inside. But the car is actually more refined. I suppose this is because the A5 is newer (launched in 2007) than the Mercedes (launched in 2003) and the BMW (launched in 2006).
The RCZ is actually a 2 seater, and if you want to ferry people in its rear seats make sure they are small children or hobbits. If you want to carry full sized adults, you must chop of their legs or break their legs to make them fit. But if you like torturing people, I don't see why not.
Anyway, whilst the VW Scirocco is a nice car to drive and is very well made, it isn't a coupe per se. It still has that hatchback looks instead of having all out coupe styling. I actually don't quite like this car because it looks like a 1990s Honda Civic EG hatchback with wide arches. Trust me. It does.
Anyway, that leaves the BMW E92 coupe and the venerable and slightly old Mercedes Benz CLK. The BMW 320i is a decent enough car but that 2.0liter 4 cylinder is lame against the Audi A5's 2.0liter TFSI engine and lame even with the slightly noisy 1.8like Kompressor that the CLK200 uses. It is lame because it makes less power than both cars and even though its handling is sublime (at this price range) is isn't enough.
The Audi and Mercedes are slightly more inert in feel and other driver/machine interaction but to the normal road user, you won't be pushing any of the cars mentioned above. 95% of the time the cars will be used to plow through the streets of Kuala Lumpur fighting traffic instead of fighting bends. And even the time used to attack such bends most of you Malaysians out there won't even know what the heck an apex is or what the correct line is. In this case, that final 5% of tactility would never be noticed by most of the people who bought this car. All they would feel is that the car is fast and quiet at speed. Sometimes, what they'll say is "Wahh, my car so good that suddenly I am going at 200km/h without noticing". And because of that, it actually makes no difference whether you 're driving the 'Ultimate Driving Machine' or something slightly lesser, like the Mercedes Benz CLK280.
I really like this car. It may not be as capable as the BMW in the bends or as slick as the Audi A5 but it is actually quite a decent cruiser with its 3.0liter V6 engine. With 230bhp or thereabouts it is entertaining enough and those fat 245series 18 inch tyres still does not allow oversteer in the dry (assisted by traction control which you cannot fully turn off as I presume since its a Mercedes Benz from a certain era). So it has enough poke to keep you entertained as does its V6 soundtrack (slightly muted but this helps its overall refinement). Handling isn't on par with say, the current W204 Mercedes C-class. That car is a better car to drive than this which rolls (and lurches) a bit more as it is based on the W203 C-class chassis. But again, this isn't a deal breaker, it still is a good rear-wheel drive coupe especially with the v6 engine.
And the rear seats are good. It isn't claustrophobic and even a chubby boy like me can fit in it well. I especially love the rear windows that wind down giving the car that classic Mercedes Benz pillarless look coupe. The car is a 2006 model and whilst the CLK came from an era where Mercedes Benz wrongly decided that it need not build cars that last a thousand years (like the W124 and the W201 cars), the interior still felt good even if it did look slightly outdated compared to the current crop of Mercedes Benz cars. Exterior wise, that AMG line bodykit makes the car very nice to look at.
The only problem is that if one were an older adult, entering and exiting the rear seats will make you look slightly undignified. But then again, the rear seats are for the occasional passenger. Who cares about their dignity if you OWN the car.
But anyway, the hunt is still ongoing for Adlis K. Car hunting is indeed fun.
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