Decisions, decisions - C250CDi Estate

[chrisbin]

Ok, well I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts.....apart from gIzzE who's already "in the loop" and probably sick and tired of my emails!!!

Situation is I have narrowed down my requirement to a C class estate auto. This will give me some useful added space and practicality, while not being too big and bulky. It will also be cost effective to run, both personally (BIK) and for the company (mpg).

I'm trying to sort a deal out this month (makes sense from company accounting position), so am potentially limited to stock cars rather than factory order..


So...questions are:

New or Old?
If new, Sport or Sport Plus?
220 or 250?
COMAND or Becker?
etc etc!!!

The big question is the new or 1year old debate...I came in to this with sensible plans to source a nice 12mth old example, avoiding initial depreciation. However, start talking to dealers and all the deals push me towards buying new. On the face of it, I should save £10k and get a year old example, but if I do that, I will get c.£2-3k less for trade-in, plus finance will be more expensive both with higher rate and lower future value...so I end up being pushed towards new....

The other factor that hasn't helped was the launch of the new Sport Plus spec which initially I wasn't aware of.....

OK, so if its a new one, I like the "Sport Plus" spec., but....it can be a bit "in your face" in some colours, and I have serious misgivings about the practicality/durability of the interior, especially with a white haired dog and regularly muddy son!!! Leather will obviously push the budget, so maybe I should look at "Sport" spec...but then you lose the intell lights...but I've never had them, so will I miss them...?? But will I keep looking at Sport Plus cars and think....I wish....??

220 v 250 - an old debate I know! 250 is the obvious one to give me similar performance to what I have now...and new, the price differential really isn't much so seems a no-brainer....however, used, there are far more 220's to choose from...and Brabus chip I'm told is the answer...maybe??

My "must have" spec. included COMAND. Having had the professional navigation pack in my BMW's I appreciate the value of all the other bits other than the basic navigation....but I'm beginning to wonder whether I really need the full on COMAND when Becker seems more of a very reasonably priced half way house...??

As a R5Live addict I'd really like to have DAB this time, but that really cuts down available cars either "new stock", or "used", so am prepared to sacrifice this...

Don't like the liverpool cloth/artico of the 2011 Sport spec., so really need a full leather car....

Finally, what hasn't helped is the lack of solid information and photos of the new spec. cars - fortunately this has now been resolved.

Behind it all is the fact that I've run BMW's for years so this is a big psychological step. This is also not helped by the fact that my best contact, providing the bets deals, is not very local, so just popping in and annoying him isn't an option!!!

I'm just going round in circles at the moment, and really finding it hard to come up with a definite course of action....

So any comments, even if they're not serious, will be welcomed!!!

Maybe theres some other people in the same predicament!!

Cheers!

 

[seven]

Dont sacrifice the DAB.
My 2p's worth.

 

[chrisbin]

Dont sacrifice the DAB.
My 2p's worth.

 

[gIzzE]

I didn't realise your Alpina D3 was a 'Lux pack' car?! With full Nav Pro etc.
Advertise it privately you will sell it in 48 hours I promise.


Just been in a new 3er touring btw.
It is rather good.

 

[chrisbin]

I didn't realise your Alpina D3 was a 'Lux pack' car?! With full Nav Pro etc.
Advertise it privately you will sell it in 48 hours I promise.


Just been in a new 3er touring btw.
It is rather good.

Don't confuse me even more....

Where did you find one of those???

 

[A210AMG]

With kids I would have leather ALL the time, ours looks like new no matter what they spill on it.

Depending upon your miles, I would rather have a better spec in the 220 than a lower spec 250.

My brother does 50 - 60K a year and the kit in the car is worth more than performance. I doubt you would actually notice much in them if they were de badged and you drove both. If your able to from your company / insurance then yes the Brabus box is always there.


Command on the Merc... My dad has two version in hs SL and this ML both he reckons are cr@p, he still uses the Garmin on long trips, especially abroad where the command it just plane slow. With the car having bluetooth anyway you phone dhould work with the std audio. Save a load of money in my book.

So I would have a Sport C220 estate Auto, leather, Dab, pano roof if poss,

 

[E's Are Good]

Having recently, about three weeks ago, collected a C250 sport estate just over a year old, I'll chip in.

After much deliberation over the new vs old debate, I went for the just over 12 month old deal, despite the weird way Mercedes finance works The new one would have cost less per month!

After 3 weeks and 2000 miles I'm quite pleased, up to high 40's mpg fully laden, fairly swift and comfortable. I did want nav, but find for the lack of use it got in my previous car, isn't really missed. And an old iPhone with the TomTom app rests just fine in the were it should be anyway.

There's nothing bad, so far to report apart from some over zealous detailer has gone one buff too far, the dealer is willing to rectify but I'm not sure what this will involve.

If new I would've had to go for the 220, but a year old brought up the 250 within price. Really glad I did now, the extra little bit of 'oomph' makes it worth while I feel, for little or no effect on economy.

hth

 

[gIzzE]

Don't confuse me even more....

Where did you find one of those???

I just bumped into someone I know well who was actually driving one.
He was also filling up and I suddenly realised it was a new 3er touring.
He does work for BMW by the way.

 

[chrisbin]

Thanks for the feedback - really useful.

Just following up on a couple of points

- satnav gets used weekly guiding me round the back streets of the Welsh Valleys!! So I need a good in-car solution.

- take the point about "toys" v. performance. But I do about 18k/year so I reckon I need both!!!!

 

[@MARK]

If you could find one then a 125 Edition would give you a lot of toys.

But in any case, make sure you borrow one from a dealer for at least a couple of days. These are very different cars to the BMW both in style and build quality (there's a reason why they are so much cheaper) so don't buy blind.

 

[A210AMG]

^ Your talking yourself into the C250 with the Brabus box in that case...

Second hand, lots of toys.

Have your cake and eat it

 

[amokwa]

I second the ED 125. We got a 6 month old C220 BEF 125 Sport albeit a saloon. 125 comes with COMAND and lucked into leather a must if you have kids.

The 125 also tends to come with the high capacity fuel tank (66L) which goes a long way in the 220 !

 

[chrisbin]

Ed125 was my original target!

 

[chrisbin]

These are very different cars to the BMW both in style and build quality (there's a reason why they are so much cheaper) .

...interesting comment....I don't really see them as "cheaper"....???

My main reason for moving away from BMW is that they dont have anything that gives me what I want....don't want an E91 Touring as boot too small....dont want F11 Touring as whole car too big....new F31 Touring not available yet (except if you're one of gIzzE's mates!!!)....

 

[gIzzE]

I think the dealers do now have demo cars.
You can configure the F31 online now.

 

[chrisbin]

I think the dealers do now have demo cars.
You can configure the F31 online now.

Well when I was in our local dealer last week, saying that an F31 might answer my req'ts, they said they weren't getting anything until September, and it would then be factory order so no actual car available til Dec......

Makes a change from MB...BMW let you configure a car you can't get...MB will sell you a car you can't see!!

 

[gIzzE]

This was how I specced the BMW...

http://www.avforums.com/forums/atta...ive-3-series-touring-320d-m-sport-touring.pdf

 

[c63chris]

I've just bought a 4 month old C350 CDI Estate. Sport version with Command, leather an privacy glass. Was a great saving off new and hardly run in IMHO. Not sure on the price and quality comment above. Thisis my second W204 and both are better put together than the 3 E91s I've had. They are different so good advice to have an extended drive. Agree the new 3 series touring is too big and I'd want to give it a bit for them to sort out the inevitable first run problems

 

[chrisbin]

This was how I specced the BMW...

http://www.avforums.com/forums/atta...ive-3-series-touring-320d-m-sport-touring.pdf

No DAB

Personally I wouldn't choose to have another white car....like the look but pain in the **** to keep clean if you do any miles - bug splats, tar etc show far too easily....

Nice otherwise. Like the light interior so would have to get black or grey I guess...but its gonna be too late for me anyway....

 

[gIzzE]

Something to consider also, BMW release their new Media Package package from September build, basically taking it into the realms of an in car PC with loads more processing power, new nav system, 8gb ram, 200gig hard drive, loads of multimedia stuff and loads of online content.