The Mercedes-Benz C32 AMG falls into that category of ”Oh yeah, they made those” probably because of a few reasons. The first one being it wasn’t particularly good or impressive at any one thing. It’s extremely bland, even by conservative Mercedes standards, and you’d be hard-pressed to pick this out of a lineup to recognize it as an AMG car. Aside from some slightly different bumpers and some split spoke AMG wheels, the C32 looked just like every other pre-facelift W203 out there. The power part for this car isn’t anything to write home about with a supercharged M112 V6 that was then shared with the Chrysler Crossfire SRT-6. It did make a respectable 349 horsepower but torque was down with only 322. I think the biggest reason these things are often shoved aside and not really desirable is because the car that replaced it, the W203 C55 AMG, fixed everything that was wrong with this car. The C55 got the big V8 that made almost 400 lb·ft of torque and had a bunch cosmetic updates that made it look different from every other W203 out there. So now that these C32s are 15 years-old, where do they stand?
Tag: C32
It’s been two decades since Mercedes-Benz absorbed AMG as their in-house tuning firm. Each year, more and more fast Benzes have appeared with the infamous badge on their posteriors, tipping off that extra juice under the skin to the casual observer. One AMG model that I feel went a bit unloved was the C32 AMG. Sandwiched between two V8 AMG C class models in the US market (the W202 C43 and W203 C55), the C32 offered more punch via the way of a Kompressor, or supercharger, as was the case with a number of AMG and non-AMG models in the Mercedes lineup at the time. A lot of early W203 C classes, including the C32, have been run hard and put up wet, but this C32 for sale in New Jersey appears to have led a fairly pampered life by the looks of it.