I currently find myself Mercedes free again. Why would I give up a perfectly good GLE and 'lower' my sights to something more ....well....Swedish?
It's another of those unintended consequences. Oddly, it was brought about by my acquisition of the Mazda MX5 in the spring for my wife to enjoy the summer moorlands on her daily Buxton commute. After many years in tall SUV vehicles, she had begun to think that it was obligatory to be able to 'see over the hedges'
As it turns out, there is life at a lower level and it has been difficult to get her out of the little car that makes you smile each time you turn the steering wheel for 'Vera' the winter Land Rover.
That is our default vehicle for local runs, taking the dogs in and supermarket car parks.
The GLE was the long distance car. There is a reason 'Defender' and 'Deafener' are close in the dictionary.
I have always preferred large estate cars to SUV's and have sampled and owned (inc. 2 x E class) most of the brands over the last 15 years. Given that my wife would now accept something lower and she had liked the Volvo SUV we tried prior to the GLE purchase, we went to test drive the V90. Armed with my wife, my trusty sound meter and a healthy dose of scepticism, the test drive was actually far better than I thought. My wife even approved!
Then I found a pre-reg example with the right spec. for a price close to 40% off RRP....and they were prepared to take my Mercedes at £3k more than the Mercedes dealer offered. The cost to change to a 3.5 year younger car was just under £1k. An E estate would have been £5k more!
I've never owned a Volvo before, but the dealer experience and initial running are all very positive.
Fuel fills of 60% the GLE cost and no unexpected out of warranty costs make sense to me.
Even the reg plate came with love and kisses......soon to be changed back to my private plate.
I do love Scandi cool blonde interior!
Time will tell if it was smart move
It's another of those unintended consequences. Oddly, it was brought about by my acquisition of the Mazda MX5 in the spring for my wife to enjoy the summer moorlands on her daily Buxton commute. After many years in tall SUV vehicles, she had begun to think that it was obligatory to be able to 'see over the hedges'
As it turns out, there is life at a lower level and it has been difficult to get her out of the little car that makes you smile each time you turn the steering wheel for 'Vera' the winter Land Rover.
That is our default vehicle for local runs, taking the dogs in and supermarket car parks.
The GLE was the long distance car. There is a reason 'Defender' and 'Deafener' are close in the dictionary.
I have always preferred large estate cars to SUV's and have sampled and owned (inc. 2 x E class) most of the brands over the last 15 years. Given that my wife would now accept something lower and she had liked the Volvo SUV we tried prior to the GLE purchase, we went to test drive the V90. Armed with my wife, my trusty sound meter and a healthy dose of scepticism, the test drive was actually far better than I thought. My wife even approved!
Then I found a pre-reg example with the right spec. for a price close to 40% off RRP....and they were prepared to take my Mercedes at £3k more than the Mercedes dealer offered. The cost to change to a 3.5 year younger car was just under £1k. An E estate would have been £5k more!
I've never owned a Volvo before, but the dealer experience and initial running are all very positive.
Fuel fills of 60% the GLE cost and no unexpected out of warranty costs make sense to me.
Even the reg plate came with love and kisses......soon to be changed back to my private plate.
I do love Scandi cool blonde interior!
Time will tell if it was smart move
