(first posted 3/15/2018) When I saw this odd, faded yellow C-Class, I thought, “Wow. Pale yellow might have worked on Benzes in the 1960s and 1970s but it sure doesn’t work on a 1990s one!” And then I spotted that little Esprit badge and I remembered Mercedes’ selection of “themes” in the 1990s and 2000s, something which I first saw in a brochure when I was a kid. I thought it was a cool idea then and I think it’s a cool idea now–certainly more so than pale yellow paint!
Somehow, I found that very brochure amongst my vast (and sadly disorganized) collection of old brochures and magazines. Mercedes continued offering different themes for many years but the concept was at its peak in the 1990s.
In its first generation (series W202), the C-Class could be had in most markets – including Europe and Australia – in either Classic, Sport, Elegance or Esprit themes, regardless of which engine was selected. These served somewhat as trim levels, with small variations in feature content, but each had a distinct visual identity. Mercedes continued using some of these theme names into the new century and also introduced the concept of different grille and badge designs, depending on if you wanted a “sporty” or “elegant” look up front.
The featured car is a C180 Esprit, ostensibly the youthful, fashionable theme with a lowered suspension and brushed aluminum trim and rather garish fabric designs inside. This was in contrast to the staid Classic, which had a more subdued interior color palette.
Sport was the most outwardly, well, sporty of the four themes and also came with a lowered suspension; Elegance offered copious amounts of wood and leather in its cabin. In Australia, Esprit was the cheapest, then Classic, Elegance and Sport.
This C200 Esprit is painted a much more appealing color, which better suits the youthful purple fabric inside. Incidentally, I haven’t sat in one of these W202 C-Classes since the fifth grade. Even as a kid, I remember thinking how cramped the back seat was in these. From memory, that C-Class was a Classic. Boring.
Today, there’s still the potential to customize a C-Class to your liking by adding the Exclusive or AMG-Line packages. But that’s not quite the same concept as these defunct themes, which I’ve come to appreciate even more with time. Are you a fan? What theme is your favorite?
Looks like a mini w140. it’s nice!!
The first MB built down to a price. I drive an Esprit back to its owner and could not believe the sub korean car interior quality. Shift lever gaiter came off in my hand?. Model goes for clunker money today . Utter junk!.
“C” class. For CHEAP.
That light yellow paint might work if the car was more monochromatic. But light non-metallic paint colors look simply awful on newer cars that are festooned with black plastic anti-brightwork.
I was not paying attention at the time – were these various trim levels offered in the states? The only ones I can recall ever seeing might have been the Black And Silver Group.
‘anti-brightwork”!!! Love it.
Or “darkwork”.
I don’t believe these trim levels were offered in the States, no. Interesting that you’re the first American I’ve heard use the term “the States”… Aussies seem to use it all the time.
In fact, around early 1996 I was looking at a U.S. version C280 Sport at the Mercedes-Benz dealer near my office in Houston. It had “carbon fiber” trim in place of wood on the dash and console, wider tires, firmer suspension, and a quicker steering ratio than the standard model.
I cannot remember the upcharge for the Sport package but it seemed incredibly modest for an option on a Benz. I did drive the car and found it to be noticeably more taut than the standard C280 if not any quicker.
That said, I instead talked myself into getting a CPO 1994 E320 sedan in a beautiful turquoise Mercedes-Benz called Beryl, like the gem stone, with the color code 888 (considered a lucky number in some cultures). The interior was parchment leather.
Overall, I believe I made the right choice. The W124 was, for me, worthy of all the praise ascribed to it. I had two young children then who I am sure appreciated the relatively greater rear seat room over the W202 as they grew rapidly over the ensuing years.
I can confidently say I have very never seen a W202 is anything other than silver, black, or maroon. So this is kind of refreshing to me, but I’m a sucker for cream/pale yellows.
These really were trash though, which is too bad because I like the styling, which was still to me classic Mercedes, before the googly eyes and ovoid shapes proliferated the lineup
Actually, that plaid in the Sport version looks very similar to the plaid fabric they just announced as available again from the 1950s 300 SL. I kind of wish that fabric interiors were popular again. Leather is getting boring.
These remind me of the Chrysler Highlander interiors of the 1940s.
No, no, those are blue and red plaid. The Blue/White and Red/Green are TOTALLY different.
Please reset the sarcasm filter to normal levels after reading my post.
Thank you.
Volkswagen has continued to offer plaid fabric in its Golf GTi and Polo GTi. I love it, I’d take it over the leather. I believe you can also have heated seats with the fabric, too, which is good.
Looks like German taxi beige to me.
But if I had to buy one car to see me out, it could well be one of these, in the right spec.
Exactly!
Lincoln seems to be pursuing this type of offering with their Black Label trim, which allows buyers to choose from a number of different options, like this one:
I thought about mentioning the Black Label Lincolns but I demurred because it’s been discussed on here before and Black Label cars always look the same on the outside, differentiating themselves on the inside.
I love love love them though… except the Yacht Club theme on the new Navi.
Awesome – I had no idea before this that Mercedes-Benz had attempted this “youthful” type of package stratification across this line!
In like the yellow color of the featured car, but to Cavanaugh’s point, it would look way better to my eyes if monochromatic.
Oh no? Well, shush; don’t tell the German taxi people!
The American market never got taillamp lenses like the ones shown on the main (yellow) feature car in this post; I think those, with the amber turn signal section, better suit the car than the only kind we had (smoked-colourless turn signal compartment).
It is almost amusing to see and hear the scornful tones adopted by some Mercedes devotées when talking about the C-class—making believe Daimler had never before built to a price, etc.
The American market never got taillamp lenses like the ones shown on the main (yellow) feature car in this post; I think those, with the amber turn signal section, better suit the car than the only kind we had (smoked-colourless turn signal compartment).
Like Mercedes-Benz, BMW had the same idea of assigning the amber-coloured lens to the vehicles with smaller engines, engines with fewer cylinders, or lower equipment level. The clear lens denotes larger engines, engines with more cylinders, or higher equipment level.
I always found that here in Australia in the 1990s, a car was given clear turn signals at facelift time, or vice versa. Like it was just a nice, cheap, easy way to freshen a car’s styling a little, perhaps in combination with a different grille pattern.
The German automakers’ trims levels is a larger and more general topic that I find truly fascinating. Much like the Japanese automakers “channels” of retailers.
Am I a fan?
Bah humbug, to me this nomenclature stuff emerges sticky from the quagmire of modern wank-speak. Weasel words that dominate our lives, so much so that we start adopting them. Such as when folk lose their livelihood because of some corporate idiocy: “downsizing” (sacking) , “restructuring” (more sacking), “optimizing” (selective sacking), “re-launch” (skeleton staff after sackings), what is said is either not what’s meant or sometimes anything at all. The list of these pious dishonesties is literally without end.
I mean, what is a “Classic”? Classically under-equipped for the outrageous price? And “Esprit”? How does an even harder ride and higher price amount to vivacity and wit? Next, one of my favourite irrits, “Sport” (which actually means “we’ve finally added some alloys”, and a higher tag yet): even if it had sweat-pant seating and a built-in baseball cap, it is patently not an activity, still less a skill. And finally “Elegance” (what, the others are coarse and crude?), which means the highest price of all and finally the back electric windows that should’ve been on the entry level but-we’re-back-to-placky-wheel-covers.
Corporate colonization and bastardization of the language, say I.
Here, all for a not-bad car (none rust in Oz) that was very solidly shelled and quite good-looking, but utterly ruined by the 1.8 vibrator and auto that 90% were sold with. Ridiculously unrefined, 0-62mph in 13 seconds, and a mere $75K+ for the top-line one (y’know, the non-coarse one). No wonder they were paying pin-brained marketeers money to come up with empty terms. It covered up the embarassment.
Apart from that, no, I don’t have any strong opinions on the matter really.
This rant is a classic, or possibly an Esprit.
Sporty with a touch of elegance, I’d say.
Thanks for the laugh, Justy! “Wankspeak” is a word I’ll definitely have to use; I generally just call corporate lingo “wanky” in general.
From memory, the C180 was better-equipped than the truly spartan 190E. I just didn’t see the appeal of either of them, really. If I didn’t care about outright feature content, I would have gone for a BMW 318i and enjoyed better dynamics. Otherwise, the Japanese and the Aussies gave you a lot more metal for the money.
The C-Class has become more desirable with time though, although now they are everywhere, outselling the next best selling executive sedan (the 3-Series) by something crazy like 5-to-1. Mercedes is building the largest car dealership in the southern hemisphere right in Brisbane, 5 storeys tall with a 6 (!) star restaurant and a museum.
Some of commentators have compared the pale yellow to the German taxicab colour. I would like to differ…
The colour used by German taxicabs is actually called Hellelfenbein (light ivory) or RAL-Farbe colour No. 1015 as stipulated by the federal law (get ready for impossibly long name, yes?) Verordnung über den Betrieb von Kraftfahrunternehmen im Personenverkehr (I ain’t gonna translate that into English).
RAL 1015 Hellelfenbein looks exactly like the car in the pics. I ran a specialist taxi cab workshop in Cologne, Germany for 8 years, this colour will eternally haunt me!
There were ever so slight differences in the shade between various car makers, but it was always described as “Hellelfenbein”. The regulations have since been largely relaxed with most municipalities allowing any other colour, but many drivers/owners have decided to hang on to this quite distinctive colour for their workhorses for their quick identification from a distance.
I had an E-Class in the Elegance spec, with the same light tan and burr walnut as the pic. It was a great place to spend a few hours. Indeed, per Merc’s blurb, it was “consistently geared to stress relief” at all times (except when the electrics packed up).
Interesting, Mercedes-Benz and Pontiac both offered a model with the trim name of Esprit. In both cases they were mid-level trims with the only sporting pretensions being the name.
I like the idea of naming trim levels instead of cookie cutter XL, LE, TL, et all type names.
And I do like that pale yellow, but it does make the inexpensive C class look (borderline) cheap. It’s the shade of yellow you would have expected to find on an 80s-90s Corolla.
“Completely baffled by these strange windee things”…Jeremy Clarkson’s review of the C-Class…
I like that color. It reminds me of the yellow paint on the Volvo 850 T-5R.
Ford is attempting a similar thing now with the new Fiesta. Four trim themes, each with their own slightly different interiors, exterior trim, bumpers etc. without a clear hierarchy e.g. no “this item is available from this trim level up”.
I remember those trim levels, the forerunners of today’s Classic, Elegance and Avantgarde, and I did see a yellow C-Class in a Mercedes taxi brochure I had when these cars were new. That covered all the models in the range that could be obtained in taxi form, including the factory limousine conversions of the W124 E-Class. I rode in one of these cars a year ago – granted it was over 15 years old, but I have seen Toyotas and Nissans of similar vintage with interiors that held up better. Kinda disappointing really.
I have a question. Which one of those four has the softest suspension and softest brakes?
I’ll take a C-Class Classic with manual transmission and any exterior color but it absolutely, MUST have the mushroom interior color. Lol! Said no MB buyer in the history of MB.
Olver Twist is right. This is n o t the notorious German taxicab colour “Hellelfenbein”. The car in the first image is painted in “Lichtgelb” (light yellow). A colour only available from 1993 to 1995 and only for W202 “Esprit” models. MB colour code # 691.
Taxicab “Hellelfenbein” has got MB colour code # 623 – and in fact is identical with RAL 1015.
You can say the taxi colour is a light “creamy” tone whereas “Lichtgelb” has a slight tendency towards “citrus”.
Here, to compare, a cab in RAL 1015 (not a W202 but a W140). Image taken from the www.