Mercedes-Benz C36 AMG (W202)
Why 6.8: The first Mercedes co-developed and sold through AMG's own dealer network, half a decade before 'AMG' became a trim level. Values sat near nothing for twenty years; the first-factory-AMG story is only now pulling clean cars up.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
The M104 straight-six is smooth and even, and AMG's exhaust lets a metallic edge through past 4,000 rpm. But it is a lightly reworked saloon engine limited to 6,500 rpm with saloon insulation around it, so it is pleasant rather than memorable next to the great sixes here.
6-cylinder · naturally aspirated · 6,500 rpm redline · rated 6.3 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €46k (1995) → €20k (2026), trending down · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
Same story as the front: any child seat here is seatbelt-mounted only, with no lower anchors or top tether.
No ISOFIX anywhere in the car — the W202 predates the standard entirely. Mercedes didn't introduce ISOFIX until the W203 generation arrived in 2000.
Pre-AKSE too — there's no airbag defeat mechanism of any kind, so a rear-facing seat simply doesn't belong up front in this car.
W202 C-Class owner-forum consensus (MBClub UK) on Mercedes' ISOFIX introduction timeline (owner-community sourced, not manufacturer documentation)
The long version
The C36 exists because Mercedes wanted a BMW M3 answer without yet trusting AMG enough to build one entirely in-house, so the two companies split the work: Mercedes built the C-Class, AMG bored and stroked the inline-six and retuned the chassis. It never got a manual gearbox, which kept it off the enthusiast shopping list for two decades and let clean, low-mile cars trade for used-Camry money well into the 2010s. That undervaluation is correcting now as the ownership story shifts from cheap Benz to the car that started AMG's factory partnership, the same rediscovery arc every first-of-its-kind car eventually gets. It is still a comfortable, honest driver's sedan underneath the history lesson, which is why the survivors get used rather than parked.