I too was considering the C230 recently. I am looking specifically at the SportCoupe' hatch model; the cheapest of the C's and lowest priced Mercedes ever in comparisson to other models. Similar in reponse to BMW's 318ti hatch but I lot nicer and newer.
As a young lad, not too long ago, I seen my first SportCoupe' the day before Easter shopping for goods for the next day and fell in love with a gold model. It looked really luxurious and I assumed it was extremely expensive. This was of course before I really got into cars so I liked what I liked.
After having owned my Benz-built Crossfire I would seriously consider buying another Mercedes. In extreme soaking rain storms the Crossfire has been excellent. The gearing is perfect in that it feel very comfortable and not sluggish going 30mph.
And though I know the Crossfire is an SLK, the SportCoupe' gives me an impression that they too are related in some way.
The appeal for me would be to get something that drove "similar" to the Crossfire(I don't drive fast in my X-fire, sorry) but could be driven all year round without fealing bad about it. Mercedes' least expensive model seemed to be the ticket. I would even be happy with the fabric bare bones model BUT it would have to be auto since I'm lame and never learned manual(and by now don't care to).
The feeling from the gold model came back to me a few years ago when I went rock climbing and in the parking lot on a sunny day I saw a C230 SportCoupe' in the Paprika color. Paprika is like a metallic ruby red with orange highlights. I WANT THAT!
My only reservation of this and any smaller vehicle is whether or not I can drive it to work in the winter. I'd assume snow tires are a must for this RWD car. I'd be concerned when leaving the highway, even going 25-30 mph, and driving down the off ramp if it hasn't been plowed or the snow is so dense it is coated only 5 mins after it was plowed. My Buick Riviera is currently my snow bunny. Performs better than my old JEEP. I've driven my Miata in a freak snow storm and was respectful of it's capabilities and had no issues but it is not a decent winter car.
Should I continue to consider the C230 SportCoupe'? I do still want to keep my Crossfire. Models I've been looking at with 60k-70k miles are around $6k around here.