Mercedes-Benz C-Class Saloon, W205
A smaller S-Class in feel, quieter and softer than a 3 Series and better finished inside than anything else in the class. It's the most comfortable car of its size here.
Overview
The W205 is the sedan Mercedes-Benz C-Class, built 2014–2021 and facelifted in 2018. 2 standard engines are documented here, each with its own issue list, inspection sequence and price band. Asking prices across the standard range run €10,500–€24,000, and 0 of the 2 carry a risk level of 4 or 5; the facelift cars sit at a premium over otherwise identical pre-facelift ones. The cheapest way in is the C 200 M274 from €12,500, while the C 220 d OM651 is the lowest-risk engine at €13,250, so which engine you buy matters more here than which year. Prices are illustrative placeholders rather than a sourced market sample. See the methodology.
Mercedes-Benz C-Class sedan (W205) · photo 0 Mercedes-Benz W205 (2018) 1 by Benespit · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
| Body style | sedan | Production | 2014–2021 |
| Platform siblings | S205 wagon | Facelift (LCI) | 2018 |
Engine matrix: pre-facelift, 2014–2017
The 2 variants sold before the 2018 facelift. Power and years come from the variant records; prices are illustrative, not sourced.
Engine matrix: facelift / LCI, 2018–2021
The 2 variants sold from the facelift on, priced at a 9% premium over the pre-facelift car.
2 variants from the facelift on, carrying a real market premium of roughly 9% over an otherwise identical pre-facelift car. Variants appearing in both tables were sold either side of the changeover, the build month decides which one you're looking at, not the model year.
Market availability varied by country; check the engine code stamped on the block rather than the badge on the boot. · Compare every engine side by side →
Model-year availability
Which engines were on sale in which year, from the year ranges in the variant records. Availability varied by country.
Rating map, price against risk
Good-buy price plotted against risk level for every standard engine, so the value corner is visible at a glance.
Every standard engine in the chassis, plotted at its good-buy price against its risk level. Cheap and low-risk is the top-left; expensive and fragile is the bottom-right. M cars are excluded, they would stretch the price axis and tell you nothing about the rest.
Prices across the range
Where the money sits across the whole chassis. Every figure here is an illustrative placeholder, not a sourced market sample.
Every standard engine on one euro axis: the bar spans the 10th to 90th percentile of asking prices, the tick is the median and the green marker is the good-buy figure. AMG cars are excluded; they sit an order of magnitude above the rest.
Every standard engine · cheapest first · C 220 d OM651 highlighted as best value
at or under the good buy · good buy · median · bar spans the 10th–90th percentile
Chassis-wide issues, every engine inherits these
Faults recorded against the bodyshell and running gear rather than one engine, so every variant on this page inherits them.
Written once against the chassis and shown on every variant page below, so nothing here is repeated 2 times: AMG cars included, since the bodyshell and electronics are shared.
Buying summary
Our read on the chassis, built on the records above rather than added to them.
Best value: C 220 d, running a later OM651 built after the early injector and chain problems were fixed. The C 200 petrol is smooth and cheap to run, and it wants its camshaft adjuster seals checked. Check the air suspension if the car has Airmatic, since the struts are dear. So scan the whole car for stored faults, because a software-heavy car ages through its modules.
Cheapest and dearest in this chassis
The ends of the range by good-buy price. Useful for sanity-checking anything you're quoted.