[00:00] This is a 2003 Mercedes-Benz C32 AMG wagon, and it's a rare AMG car that you almost certainly don't know about.
[00:13] This was the top trim AMG C-Class at the time. Right before they gave us the C63 AMG, there was this, the C32. The sedan model is tremendously rare.
[00:26] The wagon was never even sold in the United States, but today I'm here with this one, and I'm going to review it and show you all of its quirks and features.
[00:39] Before I get started, big news! This C-32 AMG wagon is currently for sale, and it's being auctioned live on Cars and Bids. Like I said, these were never sold in America, and this one was imported here
[00:54] and fully federalized to comply with U.S. regulations. It is a long and difficult and expensive process, and I suspect this is the only C-32 wagon in the United States right now,
[01:06] and you can buy it on Cars and Bids. So, once you finish watching this video, click the link below to visit the live auction for this C-32 wagon, where you can bid on it and buy it only on Cars and Bids.
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[01:52] Visit Mothers.com to find out more and to purchase Mothers products. All right, time for the quirks and features of the C32 AMG wagon, starting with a little overview of exactly what this is.
[02:06] So, the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, as you probably know, is a compact kind of entry-level luxury car in Mercedes-Benz lineup and has been since it came out in the early 90s. This is the second generation C-Class, the 203 chassis, that's what they called it in Mercedes-Benz code,
[02:22] and it came out in 2001. Now, the first generation C-Class, the earlier model, had AMG versions, the C36 AMG and the C43 AMG, and they were pretty cool.
[02:35] Then, after those cars, C-Class was redesigned, and then came this, the C32 AMG. The numbers actually went down. And so you're thinking, C32, that doesn't sound like a full-level AMG model.
[02:51] It sounds like sort of a lower, mid-tier AMG. No, no. This was the top-of-the-line AMG C-Class in its era. with what the C63 AMG represents today, it just had a smaller number.
[03:06] And the reason for the smaller number is that the C32 AMG had a smaller engine. This car hailed from the era where the numbers in a Mercedes-Benz model referred to the engine size.
[03:19] However, even though the C36 and C43 had higher numbers, those cars were naturally aspirated. aspirated. The C32 had a smaller engine, but it was supercharged, and the power was strong. This
[03:34] engine made about 350 horsepower and roughly 330 pound-feet of torque. Back in 2002-2003, those were really strong numbers, particularly in a relatively small car like the C-Class. In fact,
[03:50] The zero to 60 time for this call was in the high four-second range, which is really impressive for a C-Class from 25 years ago. They were serious about performance and power, even though it was only badged as the C-32.
[04:05] Worth pointing out also that this engine has the plaque on it with the signature of the engine builder, just like all the other real AMG engines, because this, even though it was a supercharged V6, was indeed a real AMG engine.
[04:21] By the way, other fun fact about this powertrain, it made its way into other AMG models like the SLK32 AMG, but it was probably most famous for appearing in the Chrysler Crossfire SRT6.
[04:33] Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz at the time were joined as one, Daimler Chrysler. They shared powertrains, and that Crossfire used this Mercedes AMG engine, even though it was, well, a Chrysler Crossfire.
[04:47] By the way, on to the quirks and features, starting with probably this car's biggest quirk of all, which is that it's here in the United States in the first place. So, the C32 was really rare.
[04:59] Like I mentioned, Mercedes-Benz sold the sedan version of this car here in the United States, but even then, it was tremendously uncommon. Mercedes only built around 6,700 C32 sedans for the entire world
[05:12] during its short production run in the early to mid-2000s. There's not many. Now, the wagon never sold here in the States, and it's even rarer. Mercedes only made about 1,500 C32 AMG touring models like this one for the entire world.
[05:29] Now, once a car becomes 25 years old, it's pretty easy to import it to the United States and register it here and drive around. But this car is not yet 25 years old.
[05:41] And so when it came here, it had to go through a process that we call federalization. In other words, changing the car and modifying it to meet the federal government standards in the United States in order for it to be legal.
[05:54] It is a lot easier for an imported car to just wait until it turns 25 rather than go through all the hoops to make it legal in America. But for this particular car, they did all the stuff.
[06:07] That means a lot of subtle little changes all throughout the car in order to make it U.S. legal. As an example of something that had to be done, this car on the passenger mirror, the words there, objects in mirror are closer than they appear.
[06:20] That is a U.S. government mandate on U.S. market cars. It is not mandated in the rest of the world, and so car companies don't put it on the mirror unless they have to. But if you're going to federalize a car to meet U.S. specs, you've got to add it to your passenger mirror.
[06:36] Same deal with this little orange reflector in front Other countries don have a requirement that has a front side orange reflector but the U market does and so you going to federalize a car you going to have a front side orange reflector in front Other countries don have a requirement that has a front side orange reflector but the U market does and so if you going to federalize a car you got to put in an orange reflector. This car actually went a step beyond just federalization, and it's legal
[06:54] here in California. It has this label, a California Bureau of Automotive Repair certification label, saying that it's not just been altered to comply with U.S. standards, but also to California standards, so this car is legal here too. This car is a unicorn, and like I said, I wouldn't be
[07:09] shocked if it's the only legally registered C32 AMG wagon in the United States. Pretty special. Now, one thing made it a lot easier to get this car federalized and legal in the U.S. compared to
[07:23] most under-25-year-old imports, and that is Mercedes-Benz sold versions of this car in the States. What I mean is, they sold the C32 sedan, and so the engine had already been certified for
[07:35] compliance by the U.S. EPA. The engine, the fuel economy, emissions, all that stuff. Plus, in this generation only, Mercedes-Benz sold a C-Class wagon in the United States, and that means the body had
[07:48] also been certified for the U.S. market in terms of crash testing and other compliance stuff. And so, you bring over this car, the engine's already good, the body's already good, you still have to make a lot of different changes, but you don't have to go through the trouble of like completely going
[08:03] through the process from beginning to end all yourself. But regardless, you're probably wondering why. Why go through all the trouble to get this car imported and legalized in the U.S. for a
[08:16] Mercedes C-Class wagon? Who cares? The answer is it's an AMG C-Class wagon, and it's a car that Mercedes-Benz has never sold here in North America. Since 2005, Mercedes has offered E-Class AMG high-performance wagons here in the States,
[08:32] but they have never given us any generation of AMG C-Class wagon in any form. So if you want, like, the fast wagon thing, but you don't necessarily need the size or the heft of the E-AMG,
[08:45] a C-AMG wagon is pretty cool. And since they didn't give it to us, whoever brought this car over figured, I'm going to do it myself. And indeed, the wagon-ness of this car is a pretty cool trait.
[08:59] You pop open the tailgate, and you can see there's a decent amount of space back here, a lot more than what you'd get in a sedan. And yet, you still have the sort of smaller car driving dynamics of a C-Class, but the practicality of a wagon, it all makes so much sense.
[09:13] One drawback is, because of the really sloping roofline on the back of this generation C-Class wagon, You can see there, it robs a little bit of cargo space for your very largest items. But you still do have pretty good cargo space back here, which is nice to have, of course.
[09:30] And there are a few interesting quirks and features. You pop open the floor, you lift on this handle, and you have a lower floor that is flat. Not particularly a large area, but if you have something that is flat and narrow and valuable,
[09:45] you can put it in this little space under the floor. This is for your layer map collection. Also interesting back here, over on the left side, there is a first aid symbol, and it looks like a button.
[09:59] And indeed, when you press it, it pops open this interior carpeted panel to reveal a first aid kit, which is kind of a neat idea. You push it open, it works. Interestingly, over on the other side, there is also a button over there, but this one is unlabeled.
[10:15] And when you press it, it pops open the corresponding panel on this side, except it's just mechanical stuff in here, nothing that you would want easy access to. And yet it's there. It would be a lot cooler if that was like a hidden storage compartment with that button.
[10:29] But instead, it's just a hidden mechanical compartment, and the button's placement doesn't make much sense. And next up, we move into the passenger compartment, where there are actually a lot of quirks and features, quite a bit to say in here.
[10:41] starting with the fact that when this car came out, the interior was a little bit controversial, because this generation of Mercedes-Benz got some complaints for being not quite as high-quality,
[10:54] or as upscale, or as formal and business-like as previous-generation Mercedes-Benz models. The thinking was there was more plastic in this interior, it was a little more, like, stylish instead of focused and upscale,
[11:07] like you'd expect from a Mercedes-Benz. And indeed, those criticisms are true. It does lose a little bit of a high quality of previous models, but to be honest, it also gets a lot more modern in here compared to the square 90 degree angle setups in previous Mercedes-Benz cars.
[11:24] This felt like a pretty big leap forward into a newer era, even if the quality wasn't quite on the same level. At least, that's how I've always thought about it. And indeed, this particular car does have some pretty modern touches, considering that it's approaching 25 years old.
[11:41] As an example, it has adaptive cruise control. You have your regular cruise controls on a stock coming off a steering column, which was common to Mercedes-Benz models at the time. But in the center console, you have this dial, which can adjust your adaptive cruise control following distance.
[11:57] and the car would speed up and slow down based on vehicles in front of you, which is now very common, but back in the day, especially on a C-Class, it's tremendously rare. There's even a little pixelated black and white display. You can see it here in the gauge cluster that shows your exact following distance
[12:13] as you're dialing it up relative to where that car in front of you is located. That's a pretty cool touch. Also a pretty modern feature in this car is a push-button starter. It's on the top of the gear selector.
[12:25] You could get in the car and then sit down and press that button with your thumb and slide it into gear with the rest of your hand and feel really cool. But just in case you weren't ready for push-button starting, this car also has a traditional ignition lock switch where you can stick in the key and twist it.
[12:44] You could do either. You could push-button or shift. It was your personal choice and preference. Now, the interesting part is that when you had the key in and turned it on that way, that disabled the button on top of the gear selector from working.
[12:58] So that meant you couldn't turn the car off with the button after having turned it on with the key. You basically had to make a choice when you got in the car, and you couldn't change your mind later. Next up, we move on to the center console, which you can see here, pretty standard when you look at it.
[13:14] But there is this button over on the driver's side. If you press that and lift up the center console it will actually rise into a higher position so that it can be a better positioned armrest for more comfort which is actually a pretty clever trick Less clever is the fact that
[13:31] when you open the center console, it is almost completely taken up by some sort of mechanical or electronic component, so there's no real storage in there, even though it is your center storage compartment. That's definitely quirky, and so is the seat memory control. In most cars, seat memory
[13:48] 1, 2, 3, you press the one you want. In this car, it's a switch. You switch between 1, 2, and 3. Instead of pressing a button, you change a dial. I guess it makes sense. I've just never seen it before.
[14:01] And again, kind of weird and quirky. Also quirky in this car is the parking sensors, which actually I love. The front parking sensors have a display screen. It's located here, kind of at the front part of the dashboard.
[14:13] And when you are approaching something, These lines sort of light up from the side, more and more of them, as you get closer to an object, so you know exactly how far away you are. In back, there's a similar parking sensor setup, but it's on the ceiling of the car.
[14:27] You can see it here. It seems like an odd placement, but it's really visible in your rear-view mirror. That's why they put it there. And so, when you're looking in your mirror, you look back there, and again, you can see the little lights lighting up to show you exactly how far away you are.
[14:42] It's actually kind of genius. Another thing I like in this car is the interior color. Most C-Class models have pretty basic interiors. This one goes a step further with a sort of nice brown, very rich brown in the seat centers.
[14:55] And you can also see it on the door panels. Adds a touch of class and quality to this car. You pair that with adaptive cruise push-button start. This must have been a pretty expensive C-Class back in the day. But one weird C-Class quirk in the gauge cluster, you can see on the tachometer,
[15:12] It says V8, proudly announcing that this car is powered by an 8-cylinder engine. Big power. The only one problem is it isn't. This is a C32 AMG with a supercharged V6.
[15:26] But I'm told that when this car was imported and federalized, the cluster had to be swapped in order for all of the electronics to work with all the U.S. government regulation stuff. And so it was easier to use a cluster from the next generation car,
[15:38] which did have a V8. And so that's like the one thing that isn't exactly perfect in here as it should have been. You have the V8 cluster. But if that helped all the electronics work well, then it was certainly worth it because they do.
[15:51] This car actually works perfectly. No warning lights, no Mickey Mouse stuff. Everything feels and seems exactly factory with the exception of that V8 badge. And that includes the center control stack, the infotainment system, which, as you can see, is a lot of buttons.
[16:06] Everything works perfectly. Like I said, just maybe a little bit outdated. There's a backup camera, and it works, but again, a little outdated. Not exactly the top-down camera with the red and yellow, depending on how far you are.
[16:20] Not exactly on the level of today's. Yeah, same deal with the controls for the infotainment system itself. Not a touchscreen. You're just pressing all these buttons in order to make adjustments and go through menus.
[16:32] Probably not something you're going to use very frequently in today's world, but at least it works. And, by the way, speaking of an odd electronic control in this car, the microphone for the voice control system.
[16:44] Yes, this car has voice control. Again, tremendously well-optioned car. In order to activate the microphone so the car is listening to you, you pull on this stop coming off the top of the steering column from the right. You pull on it, and then you can start talking to the car and telling it what you want.
[17:00] Now, this was an early rudimentary voice control system. Probably does not work all that well. And it's certainly not as easy as saying, hey Mercedes, like in new Mercedes-Benz models, pulling the stock. But that's how they did it back then.
[17:12] And next we move on to the back seat, which, to be honest, is pretty cramped. There's actually more space back here than I expected, given the dimensions of the car. But it's still pretty tight for an adult. I have the front seat pretty much where I would sit, and it's hard for me to also sit behind it without my knees kind of being squished, headroom's pretty tight.
[17:30] But that's kind of what you knew you were getting when you got a C-Class instead of an E-Class. some backseat space, good for kids or smaller adults, but you wouldn't necessarily want to use it for family transport with a large family of big people. Now, there are some nice touches
[17:44] back here, like, for example, the brown seat centers from up front are carried over into the back, and they still look good back here, too. Again, adds a touch of quality in here. Same deal on the door panel, this ruffled brown leather makes it look pretty nice and pretty luxurious.
[17:58] Also nice to see center climate vents back here, so even rear seat passengers get a touch of climate control air. Not something you necessarily would expect on a C-Class, but it's nice to see it. One drawback is that the center tunnel in this car is exceptionally high up off the floor.
[18:16] This is like the driveline components bringing power to the rear wheels, and it really raises up, which really steals legroom from a potential center passenger if someone wanted to sit in the middle. They don't have a lot of space for their seat.
[18:28] But if you wanted to skip the center passenger altogether, you totally could. And then you get access to an armrest, which adds to your comfort. And there's even cup holders here of two different sizes.
[18:40] Like I said, very luxurious vehicle. And finally, I want to cover a couple of interesting facts that I bet you don't know. Even the real AMG enthusiasts out there probably don't know about this AMG C-Class.
[18:54] Starting with body styles. I mentioned sedan and wagon. Everybody knows those, Mercedes-AMG, a lot of cars in those body styles. But did you know this AMG C-Class was also offered as a coupe, a hatchback coupe?
[19:07] Back in this era, Mercedes-Benz also made the C-Class as sort of a coupe-y hatchback situation, sort of like a Mercedes-Benz Acura and Kegla. And there were a very small number of C32 AMG hatchback models that were made.
[19:23] Never sold in the U.S., and even then only a handful in Europe, but they are out there, and they are weird. Also weird about this car, Mercedes-AMG made a diesel version.
[19:35] It was called the C30 AMG, and it used a turbo-diesel five-cylinder engine that only made about 230 horsepower, but around 400 pounds-feet of torque.
[19:47] It is, to this day, really basically the only diesel car that AMG has ever made. The C30 diesel AMG on the W203 body style.
[19:59] Absolutely bizarre Anyway those specs out of the way You might want to know what happened next After the C32 it was replaced well by the V8 Like I mentioned from the gauge cluster the six was gone
[20:12] Initially, it was called the C55 AMG, and then when this car was redesigned in 08, it became the C63 AMG. And Mercedes-Benz has used a V8 in the top version of the AMG C-Class ever since.
[20:27] Well, up until some recent troubles. Anyway, back to this car. Very special, unique, quirky, and I'm excited to get behind the wheel.
[20:43] Let's drive it. All right, driving the C32 wagon. C32, people think it's like a low-level AMG car. It's not. This was the best they were doing at the time.
[20:55] And I've always been interested in this car. This body style of C-Class, people don't love it. It was sort of a departure from the original C-Class, which was a lot more teutonic and, like, well-built.
[21:07] And the thought was that this was sort of rounder and more, like, of the times, not quite as Mercedes-Benz, and, like, a little less quality. But it was a much better car. Like, the tech was better. The interior design was better.
[21:19] It was much newer. The suspension tech was better. Like, it drove a lot better than the original C-Class. kind of regardless of any of that stuff. And so I actually really, really want this exact car,
[21:32] but with the V8 as my next car to replace my new E55 wagon in a few years. It's not going to be legal for like three and a half more years. But when it is, that's my plan. I just love this size of car, and I love this powertrain,
[21:46] but I also love that V8 that's in the C55, which came later. So let's talk driving experience. This car is wonderfully sized. I just love cars this size, and I love cars with about this much power.
[21:59] One secret about this powertrain is that even though it's just a V6, whatever, this was one of the more reliable AMG powertrains. It was reliable in the Crossfire SRT6. It was reliable in the Apple K32. It was reliable in this car.
[22:12] And everybody wants a V8, et cetera. But if you look at the numbers, the C55 that came out after this is not dramatically more powerful. In fact, I think it's only 10 more horsepower and more torque, but not even that significant there. The acceleration figures are not that different.
[22:26] I think Mercedes-Benz just wanted to go with the V8 because all the other AMGs had a V8. They kind of wanted to get all the cars in line. They were making the powertrain, and it just made more sense. And honestly, probably because competitors had a V8. But this is actually a damn good engine.
[22:38] So, let's talk C32 specifically. First off, powertrain. This thing is better. It just is. It's just playing quick. Like, it gets up and goes. And part of the reason is because it's a pretty small vehicle.
[22:51] And so the other thing to talk about is, you know, steering handling, athleticism. This car is actually pretty fun on the road. You don't think about the C-Class ever as being sort of like a rival to BMW or Audi even in terms of like dynamics.
[23:08] And that's partially because you're using a torque converter automatic. You have the reputation of, say, Benz has, which is, you know, big power AMG cars, but not particularly sporty or dynamic ones. I don't think that's the case in this car. I've always felt this car was exceptionally dynamic.
[23:21] I think it's pretty good. Is it an E46 or an E92 M3? No, it definitely is not that. But it's also a station wagon, you know. The E46 M3 had the benefit of they were all two-door cars.
[23:33] And you can just have a lot more fun, or a manufacturer can make the car a lot more fun, when you're only contending with two doors and not a hatch in the back. But this car, for the level of practicality that it has, it's fast, it's quick, it's fun to toss around.
[23:47] I really enjoy driving this car. I am even more dead set on getting a C55 wagon now, having spent some time behind the wheel of this. I just, yes, the interior quality is not quite at the level of previous Mercedes-Benz models,
[24:02] where obviously, like I said, the design of the interior is nicer, etc., but you do have more plastic in here. There's definitely more of a mass-produced feel, but it just also feels like a more modern car. and you have modern performance and power, and a surprisingly communicative steering,
[24:18] heavier than you might think. It is not all that soft and light, except at low speeds, though sort of over-assisted, as you might expect. But this is just a, it's actually a surprisingly fun little car to drive and to throw around.
[24:30] This is sort of like the forgotten AMG, especially the forgotten AMG C-Class, but it's a really excellent car for not all that much money, and I happen to think it's probably the most reliable of the AMG C5 models.
[24:43] And it sort of delivers a nice middle ground between the earlier cars, which looked cool and the C43s had good power, but dynamically they were not particularly impressive. Between that and some of the later cars, it came and got a little over the top.
[24:57] This is a fun little kind of zip-around car for not crazy money. It's nice. This particular one is really nice in good shape. and I just, like I said, reliable powertrain, strong powertrain, smooth, fast, quick.
[25:13] The car is sportier than you might think. Obviously, the wagon adds to the fun. The uniqueness of it adds to the fun right now. They're not legal yet to import unless you go through the whole federalization process like this car has.
[25:25] It's just a cool thing. It's cool to be unique. It's cool to be in a fun car. I like this car. I think it's awesome, and I'm thrilled to get behind the wheel and check it out. And so that's the W203 Mercedes-Benz C32 AMG wagon.
[25:44] This is a special car and an ultra-rare one if you're in the United States. You won't find another one like it, but you can find this one on Cars and Bids. And it's a pretty compelling car if you're a wagon fan like me.
[25:59] Anyway, now it's time to give this C32 wagon a Doug score. And the Doug score is here, 55 out of 100, which puts the C32 AMG wagon here against
[26:13] some similar cars from its era. This car does fine in the weekend categories, but especially well in the daily categories as it offers good practicality and reasonable pricing. But beyond that stuff, it's still a pretty cool enthusiast car if you're behind the wheel,
[26:25] or if you see it on the street and you know what you're looking at. you