More than a cut above the average

Press, 24 July 1987, Page 21

More than a cut above the average

BEHIND the WHEEL with

Peter Greenslade

Forget about Rolls Royce and Bentley. About the only other practical contemporary car not built down to a price is a Mercedes Benz. If like is measured against like, a Mercedes is streets ahead in price — although not always in performance — of a BMW or a Jaguar.

Daimler Benz of Stuttgart lays claim to being the world’s first car manufacturer and that is

a reputation it has enhanced over the last century or so by producing cars that are more than just a cut above the average, although, like just about everyone else in the motor business, it has produced some lemons from time to time.

Such fragmentary thoughts flashed through my mind, in much the same way as do the images of a poorly produced audio visual display, as I drove one of the latest examples of the Mercedes-Benz WOE from Picton to Christchurch a month or two ago. The WOE is the baby in the vast Mercedes range. It is a popular car among New Zealand’s more affluent set. It looks to be a ■ good, solid car and it does go well. It is also very expensive for what it actually is, what I would describe as a four-door, two-plus-two luxury saloon.

Although its dimensions, inside and out, approximate those of a four-door 3 Series BMW, the WOE feels a smaller car.

There is plenty of room for two individuals built on grander Teutonic proportions in the individual front sets, but the only genuinely comfortable rear seat occupants who could accompany them would be a pair of critically under-nourished individuals, the leftovers from a famine in some Third World country. That, superficially, is what you get in a WOE for your $lOO,OOO odd. But there is, in fact, a great deal more to this exceptionally well-built compact 1997 cu cm 90kW four-cylinder saloon. Although it will happily trundle along at better than lOOkm/h hour after

hour, it is not calculated to set pulses racing, something the Daimler Benz quickly recognised quite soon after its European launch.

The Stuttgart manufacturer became aware that its new baby was struggling on the autobahn and came up with the much more vivacious WOE 2.316, a 136 kW 203km/h version with a four-valves-per-cylinder head, designed and developed by Britain’s Cosworth Engineering, which is perhaps best known for its Cos-worth-Ford V 8 Formula One engines. That engine, now superseded by the 1.5-litre turbocharged units, has the best record of any Grand Prix engine.

The WOE 2.3-16 has more fire in its belly, but the more down-to-earth single overhead camshaft version, with its cast iron cylinder block and light alloy head with hemispherical combustion chambers, is more than adequate for New Zealand motoring conditions. The engine is silky smooth, thanks probably to its electronically controlled mechanical fuel injection system. It develops its 90kW at 5100 rpm and its maximum torque of 178 Nm at 3500 rpm. The figures give no cause for complaint, but the WOE has four-speed automatic transmission as a standard fitment and, with a kerb weight of 1140 kg, it is by no means a light 2-litre car. Peak

torque is developed well up in the rev range. If the automatic gearbox is left to its own devices, the WOE is a quite lethargic performer. On the other hand, the driver who is prepared to make clutchless changes using the selector lever will find it a rewarding touring car, quite capable of maintaining a healthy, uncomplaining cruising speed. This automatic gearbox will make upward changes at a relatively low or a considerably higher engine speed, simply by moving a con-sole-mounted switch. It also lends itself to clutchless manual shifts because its ideally placed selector lever moves in a notched gate.

This is a European luxury car in miniature. None of the trappings are missing. There is powerassisted recirculating ball steering that is comfortably weighted and transmits good road, feel. There are disc brakes on all wheels, and they are simply out of this world.

These features are included in an exceptionally taut and strong saloon body that has sufficiently large glazed areas to afford a good all round field of vision.

I have always believed that Daimler Benz has

produced cars with uncommonly high active and passive safety factors and, to my mind, the WOE is no exception. Strong cross winds were encountered on the Pic-ton-Christchurch trip, but the Mercedes was impervious to buffeting and adhered to the chosen path.

In some of the faster, sweeping bends the suspension seemed a shade nervous, the car trembling a little and gently rocking with a corkscrew motion.

I put that down to the wheels on one side of the car being more lightly weighted than those on the other and rdad surface irregularities setting up a degree of imbalance diagonally between front and rear wheels.

Although somewhat disquieting when it occasionally occurred, it did not unsettle the traction or balance of the car which always unerringly held its line.

Suspension, needless to say, is independent all round, that at the front being by coil springs in association with shock absorber struts, while at the rear is a somewhat complicated multi-link arrangement. Gas-filled shock absorbers are employed fore and aft, as are anti-roll bars, and the

suspension has anti-squat and dive characteristics built into it.

Probably somewhat complex by contemporary standards, the suspension imports a smooth ride and seems to give the WOE exceptional traction, combined with tremendous, road “stickability.” But perhaps the most endearing characteristic of this Mercedes is that it makes a stranger feel at home almost immediately it is driven. Even in these enlightened days cars that so promptly make one feel cool, calm and collected are pretty thin on the ground. To the stranger, a disturbingly large number leave one with nagging doubts about their behaviour, until one learns the countermeasures or becomes immune to the usually trivial vices.

Suspension, steering and brakes are confidence builders and even on short acquaintance one becomes conscious of the fact that years of automotive experience have gone into the design and development of this, like any other Mercedes. Although the instruments and their layout leave something to be desired, the WOE is a nononsense driver’s car. The seat holds one in place firmly yet comfortably.

Fore, aft and height adjustments can be made with a pair of levers, for which one does not have to despairingly grope, almost instantaneously. Moreover, irrespective of the driving position adopted, the driver always has a clear view of the instrument panel. To my mind, that panel is not a pretty sight. Probably because of the white figures, interlarded with orange warning marks and crammed hard against each other on a black background, there is a hotch-potch effect. With typical Mercedes thoroughness, all the information likely to be required is there, but a well trained and disciplined mind is needed to discern it instantly. However, provided one remains alive to the fact that the WOE is a very deceptive car, because mechanical, road and wind noise is so subdued that there is little indication of the speed at which one is travelling, one can confidently leave the car to its own devices and monitor the instruments only when the mood takes.

The example loaned to me was plushly appointed, being fitted with an electric sunroof and air conditioning, among other things. It retailed for almost $lOl,OOO. Actually, the price of a standard specification version is about $95,000 at present. I must say that for that sort of money I would expect a car to be upholstered and trimmed in something more upmarket than the cream-beige checked cloth of my test car. Generally one would not take exception to Mercedes Benz furnishings. In this particular instance, the interior of the WOE reminded me of milkshake bars of the fifties and sixties which, let’s face it, were not like home to older eyes, even in those days. Nevertheless, there is no denying that the Mercedes Benz WOE is One of the cars today, even if the more hardnosed among us might be reluctant to pay so much for the privilege a lot of people believe ownership imparts.