derektrotter
Active Member
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2013
- Messages
- 214
- Car
- MB
Firstly, it depends on your view of what premium feel is. For example, premium feel to me is RWD with good interior build quality. For others, premium is all about the badge or the looks. I had an A250 for a few days, premium look certainly, but the interior was nowhere near as well screwed together as a C-class or above, and definitely not a patch on the build quality of an A3. However, it looks good despite having a few flaws i.e. the steering wheel obstructs the right hand side of the navigation screen.
My previous car was actually a 1.4TSI VW Golf MK5 which is pretty much the same as the ones in the newer models. The engine itself is as reliable as it gets, had no issues whatsoever at 70k miles on a 11 year old car and I had it remapped to 150hp. It was a 122hp version to begin with.
If you want reliability and premium, nothing beats Lexus. My parents have had 4 over 15 years, combined mileage of around 200k+ miles with not a single thing going wrong on any of them
Thats interesting that you found the A3 is better then the new A class, I must admit i've only sat inside them both for a few mins and I did find the A class more polished visually, not driven either of them though so no idea which i'd actually prefer.
I did look at Lexus however I find the looks a bit too extreme, also others dont seem to rate the gearbox and performance etc as much as BMW/MB, the reliability record does keep attracting me as when my car has needed work doing it is very disruptive.