the 1999 BMW 323 has a 2.5 liter engine, but the 328 is correctly designating the 2.8L engine. same goes for the new C class. the C320 does have a 3.2 liter engine. but the C240 is going to have a 2.6 liter engine. i work for mercedes benz USA and can't find anyone who could explaint his to me. i'm just confused heheh.

Wish I could help you. Only the marketing higher-ups probably know for sure. Could be they are doing the BMW-esque 323=2.5 thing, could be they are trying to keep the numeric designation closer to the current small displacement (US) cars (2.2 liters/2.3 liters). The traditional German logic seems to of stepped out in favor of an as yet unknown marketing strategy.

Who knows....Lee

what i've read somewhere is that BMW could not name the 323i as a 325 since they have a 2.5li diesel car, which would cause some confusion.

and let's not forget the benz's change in nomenclature to fit marketing requirements: the "E" originally stood for "ein spritz" (or something sounding like that), which stood for fuel injection. But since the 300E was a hit, Mercedes changed the nomenclature and called it the E-class, and the other chassis types were also assigned letters. Someone interpreted it as follows ;-)

C = compact
E = elegance
S = "spensive"

I would say it's more like MB/BMW wants to keep different level of their cars more closely. Maybe one is more profitable than others(not necessary that more expensive is more profitable). 325 and 328 looks very close, ppl might willing to give up 328 for 325, when 328 is more profitable to BMW. Just my thought.....and the same goes to Mercedes....

As for Desiel, I remember there is a "d" for Desiel for MB and BMW....

Andy Kuo

Another thought occured to me....good ole brand competition! The 2.7 C240's (whether manual or auto) performance arch rival is the 323. The marketing association of 2.3-2.5 displacement vs the dubbed 2.4 (2.7 actual) displacement makes for a more direct comparison. Calling it a C270 would seat it closer in the minds of the public to the 328 which (will likely be phased out by the 3.0) is the rival of the C320. Though the wisdom of leaving the C320 without a manual may be open to debate... Okay, that's my theory for now.

Lee

...I thought I could answer some of the questions. I heard that BMW did the 323 in lieu of 325 was to further the difference between the 328i and the 2.5 liter, only for marketing.

As for labeling Mercedes. Yes, E used to stand for "einspritz" or whatever for fuel injection. And D was for Diesel. Hench, SDL and SEL (of the 80's W126) for example. Now though, E stands for Executive. S is for Sonderklasse, or Super (in English). C is for Compact. SL is for Sporty and Leicht (Light), though they have swayed from their original meaning through 3 generations. K was for Kompact (or Compact), see SLK, Sporty, Light and Compact (vs the SL).
But I think that Mercedes is deviating from all of that somewhat. For example, the CL is NOT compact and light. Who knows for sure. And the ML has no meaning, I don't recall. I know that Mercedes was originally going with the M320, instead of ML320, but there was confusion because of BMW's M-series.

I also have a quiz for you guys: Anyone know what the 3-pointed star means?

On a postcard of the town of Deutz (where he lived and worked in the Deutz gas engine factory for time), Gottlieb Daimler drew a picture of a 3 pointed star, one of the points marking the postion of his house. Next to it he wrote "From here a star shall rise".
This star would later be the symbol we all know and love.

Just a little trivia for ya.

Actually Trent,
It symbolized Daimlers' engine's superiority on land, in water and in the air. Atleast that is what I have read in numerous books, archives, essays, etc. I did a research paper on it once.
Interesting though...

My info comes out of a book printed by Mercedes. It was a history on Gottlieb Daimler. The article told the mans life story and how he went about his inventions and basically his life. There may have even been a picture of the old postcard (not sure on that one, I'll have to go check sometime)
Land, sea and air makes good sense too. Maybe they left that part out or something.

K is for Kurtz (short In German) not compact

MBLOVR,
You're right. I just double checked in my research paper. I knew that sounded familiar. And I knew it meant smaller in someway, compact=short, somewhat similar. But my bad. Good catch. :)

Yes K for short, like a word post :) The following is from a previous post:

The K designation was the work of Dr. Porsche who, in 1926, reduced the wheelbase of an existing car (someone fill me in here on which one it was) to 140 inches. Perhaps the confusion lies in the fact that it had a turbocharged engine. This car was then further modified for the racetrack and the designation S was added making it the SK. This car was capable of 250hp!

Kuan

As for the original Question I am quite positive that the C240 is named the C240 because the E240 in europe had great sucess and mercedes wanted to keep that sucess going in europe by haveing the C240. Basicly they wanted to use the sucess of the name (240) from the E class and translate it into the C class hopeing the name will help to sell more cars. I am quite sure of this.

I read a quote from a German M-B exec (in a German Magazine) that said the reason the current cars with the 2.6L engine are designated 240 is because the E240 had previously been a HUGE success in Europe, so MB didn't want to change the name even though it was theoretically better with the 2.6L engine. So they kept the 240 nomenclature and carried it over to other models. I guess that tells you how smart M-B thinks its customers are.

As for the 323 with the 2.5L engine, the most common story is that BMW didn't want confusion with the 325d. However, it seems more plausible that they didn't want confusion with the older 325i, which had much more power and they probably already had plans to bring back the current 325i, which also has significantly more power.

It's hard to tell what the "K" in SLK actually stands for. Early press info from 1996 said it meant "Kurz," so many magazined reported that in 1996 and 1997. However, from the middle of 1997 until March 2000, the Mercedes-Benz worldwide website said that it meant "Kompact." The website was changed when the facelift SLK arrived in March 2000. I have a copy of the 1996 1st edition of the book "Everything about the Mercedes-Benz SLK" from Mercedes-Benz Service Press. I'll see what it says.

I just checked the book. The 'K' in SLK does indeed stand for "kompakt." Here is a quote from the book Everything About the Mercedes-Benz SLK:

"The letters SLK stand for 'sportlich (sporty), 'leicht' (light) and 'kompakt' (compact), which represents the three main characteristics of the new Mercedes-Benz sports car.

This book is published by Mercedes-Benz Service Stuttgart. 1st Edition 1996.

...nevertheless...like it has already been written: the SLK started as sport, leicht und kurz. So mercedes is not only confusing their customers by debadging their cars, but by reorganizing their letter meanings as well.
Do you all know that europe has got two different petrol engine-d 2,0 litre C classes? We have the W203 C180 (with the 2,0 litre 4-cylinder engine) and the W203 C200 (with the same 2,0 litre 4-cylinder engine AND an additional kompressor).

Why does one want to keep something that was very easy so uncomplicated...let's make the model badging as complicated as possible!

greetingz,

Brian R170
I checked also and it said K for kompactklasse or something of the sort. As quoted in "MERCEDES, Nothing but the Best."