help in estate choice

[Barryh]

E class lease is coming to an end and dont know what to get next.

Looking at New c 220cdi estate,530d estate(auto),A4 3.otdi auto Quattro avant.
I do not like BMW interior,run flat ride, but car is fast and good MPG.Merc only does 3.2 and is thirsty ,2220 is not much better,but is fast and both are rated higher and better handling than Audi without Quattro.
With the Quattro I think the Audi will be better overall than the others.
Anyone know more?What would your choice be?

 

[PXW]

FWIW I think the 530 ride is fine on runflats provided you don't go for the MSport version or specify greater than 17" wheels. It's a sharper drive than the merc, but if you're not keen on the interior then I'd view that as a pretty big negative - after all, it's the part of the car you spend most time looking at

 

[talltimtam]

The wife had an A4 avant and she wasnt happy with the size of the boot. I also believe that if you have a quattro audi then there is less boot space due to the rear wheels/4 wheel drive system taking up more space at the back ..

 

[Seamster15]

Considering where we are, I'd go for the.......

Mercedes!

Is the 280 cdi not an option?

Simon

 

[gIzzE]

Sorry that is not correct.

The M-Sport uses Bilstein shocks with eibach springs and soaks up poor UK roads far better than the cheap and nasty Boge/Sachs set up on the SE.

Also the sidewalls being stiff are the problem with the run flats and thus, 18's and 19's are actually more compliant and more comfy than the 16's and 17's.

Best ride so far is the M-Sport with Micelin Pilot Sport Zero Pressure 18" tyres, worse ride is an SE on 17" Bridgestones.


530d M-Sport from March 2007 is a nice ride and with the new gear box will return around 38mpg compared with 30mpg for the previous one.
I nearly didn't buy my 535d sport touring because of the interior, but once you get to live with it I think you will change your mine, I loved mine.

This was mine...

Only thing I would have changed is probably the aluminium trim, prefer the black ash or Piano Gloss black...

I would definitely try and get one with the HUD, it is a fantastic option for anyone that does a few miles or travels abroad, switching your car so all reading are in metric so you get L/KM, KMph, Metres till next turn etc. is spot on.

Also, I would forget the run flats, buy the emergency wheel and a set of 4 Falken FK452's, will cost you £500 all in and the ride is sublime.



However.........I am going towards the Merc!
As a big estate the Merc seems to suit it better, just a shame the E320cdi feels so sluggish though, but hey ho, it is very comfy, a nice interior and makes you keep your speed down a bit.



Audi Quattro. Please don't get me started on them, quite frankly the most dull and boring car I have ever owned!!
I absolutely detested mine!

Don't get me wrong, love the image (well used to even that is going downhill fast, every one sat on your **** in the outside lane now seems to be an A4 2.0tdi driver!!) and the design, plus the interior is well put together and the nav is good, but they are horrible to drive, I think they make sense for those that need a 4x4 but don't want a traditional one, but why people buy them who don't need it is beyond me, I fell for it once and never again!!!

My old one...

So to sum up, with a Merc you waft around in comfort, with a BMW you tend to hammer it everywhere with a big grin until that camera flashes you again and with the Audi you either understeer into the wall or just crash into it because you have fallen asleep through complete and utter boredom!!


All just my opinion of course.

 

[st4]

The 530d is a car from the segment above the C class and A4 and will offer much more in the way of space. Out of that lot I'd have the C class as its good to drive, and still spacious etc.

 

[bigyin1]

Personally i'd get a nearly new 535d estate with all the trimmings from BMW direct. That'd be my choice anyway and with a quick re-map 320bhp easy and still reasonable MPG, yeee haaaw.

 

[glojo]

Hi gizz,
Your post has confirmed why I chose a Mercedes-Benz over a BMW....... They are without doubt the most butt ugly thing on four wheels, no doubt the designer has a low opinion of BMW owners and designed that!!!

I would definitely try and get one with the HUD, it is a fantastic option for anyone that does a few miles or travels abroad, switching your car so all reading are in metric so you get L/KM, KMph, Metres till next turn etc. is spot on.

Great option which should become a standard feature sooner, rather than later. Well done BMW.

However.........I am going towards the Merc!
As a big estate the Merc seems to suit it better, just a shame the E320cdi feels so sluggish though, but hey ho, it is very comfy, a nice interior and makes you keep your speed down a bit.

On normal roads, I defy ANYONE to take full advantage of the performance of an A-class. We can all talk macho about road holding, firm suspension, wide tyres etc etc, but the reality is we live on a tiny island with extremely busy, congested and highly policed highways. We own the 320CDI and it has more than ample performance and I would say the very latest 220 engine in the E-class will easily allow even the most macho of drivers to get disqualified.

Regards
John

 

[gIzzE]

haha, horses for courses I guess, but I see the Bangle influence creeping into Audi and Mercs now.

I really like the 5 series design, I had more comments on my 5 series touring than any other car I have owned, I think it being an estate seems to get more approval for some reason.

I swapped to a 320d and that also gets people stopping and commenting on it too, but again it is an estate.

I have to say though, the BMW is not about speed, it is about the feedback and the way if responds to your inputs, I go out at midnight in the winter while its cold and wet just for a drive in the BMWs, I couldn't see myself doing that in a Mercedes, but as a work tool it is more relaxing and makes you drive in a more relaxed style which right now is what I am after.

I also have an E30 325i, I will keep that in the house as I can't imagine not having a BMW to play with, however not having a Merc wouldn't bother me. I think that says a lot.

 

[Mr E]

We own the 320CDI and it has more than ample performance and I would say the very latest 220 engine in the E-class will easily allow even the most macho of drivers to get disqualified.

Didn't get too many coming past me on the dash back to Calais this year

The thing I like with mine is that i can waft about in it all day, relaxed and laid back, but when I want to press on in the lanes around here (and I mean press on) it comes alive. It's not an out-and-out racer but most of the lads in the village now treat it with a bit of respect

 

[glojo]

I really like the 5 series design, I had more comments on my 5 series touring than any other car I have owned, I think it being an estate seems to get more approval for some reason.

Ugly is ugly is ugly. Some folks might think this 'young lady is good looking

but just look at the headlights!

I have to say though, the BMW is not about speed, it is about the feedback and the way if responds to your inputs, I go out at midnight in the winter while its cold and wet just for a drive in the BMWs, I couldn't see myself doing that in a Mercedes, but as a work tool it is more relaxing and makes you drive in a more relaxed style which right now is what I am after.

I'm sure you would also enjoy taking that young lady out at nights but one day you will wake up and see ugly is ugly is ugly

I would be amazed if you have driven your BMW to it's full potential for any extended period of time on our British roads, in fact if you said you had then I would not believe you as the car has far more performance than is safe to use on a public highway.

Buy what you like and enjoy it but don't fool yourself into believing you are a budding Sebastian Loeb throwing a high performance car about on a closed tarmac section of public highway.

Regards
John the olde grump

 

[A210AMG]

Dads E320CDi Estate that he has had since new (2003) can eek out over 50mpg if he cruises (60).

It regularly does 40mpg and goes well for its size.


He's looked at changing several times but it does everything any newer car can and its already lost a huge amount and he loves it.

 

[gIzzE]

Ugly is ugly is ugly. Some folks might think this 'young lady is good looking

but just look at the headlights!
I'm sure you would also enjoy taking that young lady out at nights but one day you will wake up and see ugly is ugly is ugly

I would be amazed if you have driven your BMW to it's full potential for any extended period of time on our British roads, in fact if you said you had then I would not believe you as the car has far more performance than is safe to use on a public highway.

Buy what you like and enjoy it but don't fool yourself into believing you are a budding Sebastian Loeb throwing a high performance car about on a closed tarmac section of public highway.

Regards
John the olde grump

You're missing the point of it, in an E Class to get it to the fun stage you have to be hooning it around, you have to be ragging it silly, in the BMW I can drive 100 miles up around some twisties, around the coast road and back home again, not once breaking the speed limit just enjoying the cars steering, feedback and perfect balance, as you move from one corner to another and change to an adverse camber it puts a smile on your face in a way no Merc outside of the AMG range ever can.

Speed for me, or I should say a powerful fast car, is not about motorways or even autobahns, for that type of driving the 200bhp diesel is fine, it is more about the ability to pass 3 or 4 cars sat at 45mph on a single carrigeway safely and with no dramas. I live in Norfolk and coming back from the north east or even Notts etc. this is important, York to Norwich is just over 2 hours in the 535d or the M3, in my older 320d or 1.9tdi A6 it used to be around 2h45 to 3hrs everytime, just because you had to sit behind cars that are crawling along unless you wanted to drive like a *****.
Having the extra pace when needed ultimately makes the day shorter and driving a much more pleasurable experience.

I have tried to go back to being sensible with the 320d sport touring, it is a very, very nice car, it does most things well and will happily sit on the autobahn at 130mph all day long, but in this country are roads are more congested and I have realised that the extra ooomph is definitely very welcome. It is sold this week and will be replaced, probably with an E320cdi.

 

[st4]

Would a Brabus tuned E320cdi be more suitable for Gizze. The power is similar to the 35d engine.

I'm surprised you've never had trouble with the diesel BM's. Turbo failure is quite common on them. If I were to have a BM again, it would be petrol and probably a manual to boot (I had an auto BM and the MB's, despite it being the cheaper car, was light years ahead).

 

[gIzzE]

I would have got DMS out to fettle with it, but I will look into the Brabus tuning, is it a simple remap or intake and exhaust system too??

My 535d was DMS's and that was 344bhp and 750nm, so pretty pacey. The 335i was Proceede tuned though and that made the mapped 535d feel lathargic, and it returned 26mpg day to day and 34mpg on a run which is pretty impressive.

 

[gIzzE]

Don't get me wrong the E320cdi in stock form is enough to safely get round teh UK quickly, I just feel that anything less is doing such a nice car an injustice, fine if you tootle round your local town in it and go on holiday in it, but for those that do 30, 40, 50k miles a year the extra oomph is very welcome and makes the day less stressful.

 

[PXW]

Sorry that is not correct.

The M-Sport uses Bilstein shocks with eibach springs and soaks up poor UK roads far better than the cheap and nasty Boge/Sachs set up on the SE.

Also the sidewalls being stiff are the problem with the run flats and thus, 18's and 19's are actually more compliant and more comfy than the 16's and 17's.

Best ride so far is the M-Sport with Micelin Pilot Sport Zero Pressure 18" tyres, worse ride is an SE on 17" Bridgestones.

Horses for courses. I drove both and chose the 535dSE on 17" as being a far better ride for my derriere than the M Sport. Not sure how an extra inch of alloy is more compliant than an inch of runflat....still a great car though and I'm glad you enjoyed yours (even if I did choose £45k worth of cheap and nasty )

 

[st4]

Don't get me wrong the E320cdi in stock form is enough to safely get round teh UK quickly, I just feel that anything less is doing such a nice car an injustice, fine if you tootle round your local town in it and go on holiday in it, but for those that do 30, 40, 50k miles a year the extra oomph is very welcome and makes the day less stressful.

I didn't realise you had the DMS'd 35d. A few forum members on the X5 place had them and they were seriously rapid returning a 0-60 in 5.5s. A brabus E320cdi will not be as quick. However you are getting a safer car, a much better looking one, and probably a more reliable one with the MB (see the JD power survey).

If you could go a "notch" down you could get a C320cdi W204 estate and Brabus it, then you'd be okay.

I see you've had petrol cars, does this estate have to be a diesel? E500's are very cheap and the performance on offer would be a match for your tuned 335i?

For the OP, a C220cdi wagon would probably be my choice thinking of it.

 

[NewMB]

Well, from what I've heard, the 530d is the best engine by far..... especially next to a 535d which, again I've been told, are not so good with turbo's breaking etc.

This also comes from a former BMW salesguy at MB Colchester.

But what do I know..... never get a BMW. MB all the way!

 

[st4]

Well, from what I've heard, the 530d is the best engine by far..... especially next to a 535d which, again I've been told, are not so good with turbo's breaking etc.

This also comes from a former BMW salesguy at MB Colchester.

Well if thats the case the 535d must be quite bad, as in a small Uk based forum of X5 owners turbo failure was common on the single turbo engines.

But what do I know..... never get a BMW. MB all the way!

Of late there has been a lot of BMW speak on here, and me guilty as charged too. None of the modern BM's appeal to me TBH, all of them now have tacky interiors and don't seem to be made the way they once were, never mind the styling.