Rawhide 0 Posted May 18, 2005 Hi guys.. still missing my VR6. I've missed out on a couple of S2000 and I've decided to put my S2000 plans on hold for a while. The price of softtops has gone up and as I spend some time in London I don't want the hastle of vandals. I plan on buying one in the autumn and sticking a hard top on. I've been looking at cars which fit the following profile; No image problems Low depreciation Fun to drive (read doesn't need to be top performance just good) Relatively low maintenance Q car appeal. I've been thinking Audi S3's, and now I've thought about the Brabus A class. I can't find much about the spec so wondered if anyone on here knew anything about them. I know nothing at all about mercs. The A class has always looked cool to me though. The brabus badge must add the grin factor. What doyou guys reckon? Cheers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
g60_Pete 0 Posted May 18, 2005 look a bit gimpy imo? i'd rather go for a brabus smart roadster! the s3 is top notch though... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kevin Bacon 5 Posted May 18, 2005 I quite like... I think the Brabus tweaking is more cosmetic than mechanical, with some rims, bit of lowering, bigger exhaust etc..... is there no info on merc's website? S3....I do like them, but not enough to be a viable Corrado replacement. Plenty of power can be extracted from them and they can be made to handle well too, but the looks just don't really say much about the car and is devoid of any personality. I was in the same boat as you Mr Hide and came to the conclusion that unless I spend stupid amounts of money, there isn't anything that has the same appeal and alround ability as a good Corrado VR6. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Walesy 0 Posted May 18, 2005 although i do have a thing for mercs....i'm not keen on the A class.....surly its not in the same category as a vr6 or s3?......Merc do that coupe with the little spoiler thing on the rear window....i like the look of those!. if i see an A class..even the Brabus one ...i think... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted May 18, 2005 Anything with an AMG or Brabus badge will suffer much worse depreciation than a boggo Merc - niche market appeal and all that Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neil VR6 0 Posted May 18, 2005 C36 AMG? Porsche 968? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
randal 0 Posted May 18, 2005 Me ol' Dear just bought a new Smart Car Brabus, which initially I ripped into her for. "Where's the batteries go? Isn't that in the toy section of the Argos catalogue? Where's your other rollerskate gone? etc.." Much laughs to be had, however... ...she totally shut me up when she gave me the keys. It's easy to drive, turns on a button and for the size of the lump in it has a fair amount of poke. Nice little features in the cockpit too, intuitive layout and some natty features like tiptronic shifters and the like. Cool sunroof too, just folds away and the whole roof of the car disappears. The Smart car has a fair bit of comedy surrounding it, and nobody seems to take it too seriously - but for in and around town driving it's superb. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Walesy 0 Posted May 18, 2005 turns on a button yeah but i wouldnt wanna go round a corner to fast in a car like that!. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
randal 0 Posted May 18, 2005 Neither does my old dear, bless her. She's quite content with it being a lot easier to get into a parking space. You should have heard her when she parked it between two cars a la the advert... man, she went on and on and on... :lol: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MBeadell 0 Posted May 18, 2005 Used to have a tuned up smart car, used to outhandle a lot of cars and was pretty stable at speed. Was chipped to 80bhp ( thats over 100bhp/tonne) and would happily bounce off the 95mph limiter :D Sold it and bought my first corrado though of course ;) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Walesy 0 Posted May 18, 2005 those little smart coupes look good...i think they're 1.0l turbos? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jim 2 Posted May 18, 2005 Yeah... they do have a very very small engine, but the noise of them is actually pretty impressive.. one drove past me out of the work car park yesterday and it almost had that BMW M3 style rough sounding raspy exhaust note as it started to pull away. Was very surprised! And cause the car is so light, I believe they go quite well too. I think I would actually consider owning a Brabus Smart roadster.. wouldn't consider a regular one though as they look a bit, well.. gay! :) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rawhide 0 Posted May 18, 2005 I've just googled the Brabus smart roadster and I admit it is quite cool. However it doesn't work for me as concept. It's almost as long as a full size car so you can't park it sideways. There's very limited storage so it's not practical. It's not desperately fast (i imagine) so it's not a sports car. Can't see the benefit over a Brabus smart car. This is where the A class comes in.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RadoAds 0 Posted May 18, 2005 But look at the benefits of an A class........................oh well cant think of any, oh yeah you can fit 5 people in it and some luggage, oh and its got a brabus badge, errr............no thats it im afraid cant think of any more :) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rawhide 0 Posted May 18, 2005 But look at the benefits of an A class........................oh well cant think of any, oh yeah you can fit 5 people in it and some luggage, oh and its got a brabus badge, errr............no thats it im afraid cant think of any more :) Fair point.. I really don't know much about them. I though the Brabus badge was like Cosworth for fords rather than just a cosmetic outfit. A mini people carrier with a HUGE engine sounds like fun to me but if it's all show and no go then not worth it I guess.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stevemac 0 Posted May 18, 2005 There's no info on the Merc website because Brabus has no connection with Mercedes & isn't an official Mercedes conversion. You will need to see how you stand so far as any warranties are concerned which Mercedes may decide not to honour. Brabus get away with the Smart car because although Smart is marketed by Mercedes, it is neither designed or built by them. This is the reason that not all Mercedes dealers will either sell or service Smart cars. The only official Mercedes tuning company is AMG. AMG are a fully owned subsiduary of Mercedes & have been for around 15 years now. Contrary to popular beleif - AMG do not build whole cars, they hand build engines & certain other components which are then assembled on a Mercedes production line. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RadoAds 0 Posted May 18, 2005 The Brabus name means a hell of a lot in most cases id kill for a proper brabus, apparantly the managing director of Merc drives a brabus even though theres no Merc badge in sight, also Schumacher Snr has one, but as far as i know the A class only benefits from cosmetic changes and the addition of a proper exhaust which may release some extra ponies, its a bit of a shame when companys give in to such things as sticking a badge on a car to make it more desirable, and even more so that companys lend there badge to car companys for nothing more than profit...........rant over :( Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stevemac 0 Posted May 18, 2005 I'm not saying that the quality is bad - I'm just saying that Brabus are not official Mercedes tuners. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
