Advice on good car for high Autobahn mileage

[barrkel]

I live in Switzerland but regularly - 10 to 20 times a year - drive to Hanover in Germany. It's about 450 miles, 730km. It takes me between 6 and 8 hours depending on traffic. I go pretty much as fast as the traffic allows, since it cuts an hour+ from the travel time vs sitting at 130kph. In practice it's more than an hour because you not only go faster but you avoid rush hour.

My current car is a 2019 Skoda Superb Sportline, the 4x4 2.0 TSI version with ~270hp. Acceleration is adequate (I'm used to sports bikes so it is by no means fast as far as I'm concerned) and top speed is certainly enough, I don't need to go faster than 240kph or so.

But I'm a bit bothered by how stressed everything feels when cruising around 200kph. The car's power meter suggests it's using 80 to 90% of its power to maintain that speed. And I'd like a bit more acceleration in the 150 to 200kph range for overtakes.

I otherwise like the car fine. The smart headlights, lane departure (not lane centering - can't stand that), speed sign recognition (better than BMW rentals in and around Hanover, having driven multiple days on the same roads, for times I went by train), emergency brake assist, Android Auto compatibility - I wouldn't want to do without any of them, so I'm not looking for a car much older than 2019.

I have two thoughts:

- get a basic chip tune for my car, increasing HP, but nothing extreme - it would help with acceleration but I don't really see how the engine could possibly be less stressed, if anything the compression ratio will probably be increased

- get a different second-hand car. And that's really what I'm asking for here: buying advice.

Budget is somewhere around 60 to 80k EUR/CHF, but I don't necessarily want to spend extra just to get a spiffier car - I'm almost completely indifferent to trim. OTOH on the Autobahn cars are much more inclined to pull over if they recognize that the car behind them can go faster than them and they infer I want to overtake.

I value reliability more than cheap servicing, but the two are related. Fuel consumption is important only in so far as I don't want to have to refuel more than once on my trip, so a big tank is just as good. The Skoda takes 66 litres and lasts ~300 miles, about 20 UK miles/gallon, the way I drive.

I don't like BMW steering. You need to turn the steering wheel too much to go around corners at city speeds, and the wheel is just a bit too stiff for one-handed fingertip driving. So I don't think I want a BMW.

Suggestions?

[braddo]

Buy the newest 911 (base Carrera) you can find for the budget. Good power and efficiency, low drag, low weight (relatively) - gives good high speed acceleration and high speed fuel economy.

[CG2020UK]

I think you’ll need to be going the proper German M, AMG or RS models in all honesty to make it worth it. Insert other higher powered GT cars that will fit the budget.

Tuning cars is great but in all honesty a Skoda Superb just isn’t designed to sit at +125mph despite having the capability to do so.

[si_xsi]

Surely a big wafty diesel, v8 with a 7 or 8sp box is made for this type of high speed cruise with punchy mid range over takes.

[Sigmamark7]

Test drive a BMW M340i and see if you like it. 0-60 is about 4.3 seconds, limited to 155mph so almost M3 levels of performance and in my experience with my Tourer version, very easy to live with.

[georgeyboy12345]

A remap will take your Skoda up to around 350 bhp, so could be worth trying

I reckon a big 6+ cylinder, powerful diesel could work well?

Audi S6 TDI
Porsche Panamera 4S Diesel
Mercedes E400d

The S6 has a 344 bhp 3.0 V6 TDI engine and 73 litre fuel tank - that would be over 650 miles range at it's official fuel consumption of 40 mpg, though I doubt you'll get that on the autobahn! A remap will lift power to 400 bhp. Or go for the older S6 with the 4.0 TFSI V8 petrol model with 450 bhp and a 75 litre fuel tank. The Porsche Panamera has a 420 bhp 4 litre V8 turbo diesel and a huge 90 litre fuel tank. A remap will take it to 480 bhp. The Mercedes E400d has a 325 bhp 2.9 6 cylinder diesel and 66 litre fuel tank. A remap should get it to around 380 bhp.

Edited by georgeyboy12345 on Monday 29th January 22:33

[Shiv_P]

Gotta be a high power diesel, modern Audi 'S' or similar. M340d?

[barrkel]

georgeyboy12345 said:

A remap will take your Skoda up to around 350 bhp, so could be worth trying

There's an independent garage close by who do remaps so I'm probably going to try it anyway.

georgeyboy12345 said:

I reckon a big 6+ cylinder, powerful diesel could work well?

Audi S6 TDI
Porsche Panamera 4S Diesel
Mercedes E400d

These look like good avenues to look at, thanks.

Porsche is something I hadn't considered - reliability looks to be fairly good and there are a lot of higher mileage instances on the market, whereas higher mileage sportier brands are a bit thin on the ground.

Sigmamark7 said:

Test drive a BMW M340i and see if you like it. 0-60 is about 4.3 seconds, limited to 155mph so almost M3 levels of performance and in my experience with my Tourer version, very easy to live with.

In all the BMWs I've driven the steering just aggravates me so much. I'm sure it delivers more feedback to the driver etc. but I literally only drive fast on the motorway, everywhere else is urban driving. I don't drive cars for sport, that's what my motorbikes are for. Also I have no idea what M3 is as a performance benchmark, if I knew I probably wouldn't be here.

braddo said:

Buy the newest 911 (base Carrera) you can find for the budget. Good power and efficiency, low drag, low weight (relatively) - gives good high speed acceleration and high speed fuel economy.

Looking at Swiss offers available, the budget would need to go up to ~120k. Only justifiable if it was my passion. But Porsche generally is a good shout.

CG2020UK said:

I think you’ll need to be going the proper German M, AMG or RS models in all honesty to make it worth it. Insert other higher powered GT cars that will fit the budget.

I appreciate the post but this collection of letters doesn't have a lot of mental associations to me I guess M is BMW, AMG is Mercedes, I don't know what RS is (Ford?). Grand touring cars also often look like 2-seaters, I do need rear seats.

[CG2020UK]

barrkel said:

I appreciate the post but this collection of letters doesn't have a lot of mental associations to me I guess M is BMW, AMG is Mercedes, I don't know what RS is (Ford?). Grand touring cars also often look like 2-seaters, I do need rear seats.

Yes spot on though RS is for Audi.

Not sure what the Swiss equivalent to Autotrader is but searched Google and think an Audi RS5 would be perfect for your requirements.

https://en.comparis.ch/carfinder/marktplatz/detail...

Or M440i
https://en.comparis.ch/carfinder/marktplatz/detail...

Both should be a noticeable upgrade to the Skoda Superb and much better at higher speeds.

Interested to see what you pick!

[kiethton]

I'd echo the Porsche comments

Only other consideration would be another BMW (but one that's likely better suited to your requirement for comfort) - M550d, if they do it in your market obviously

https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-driven/2019-bm...

https://www.autoscout24.ch/de/s/mo-m550/mk-bmw?fir...

S7 diesel could also work

https://www.autoscout24.ch/de/d/audi-s7-sportback-...

Edited by kiethton on Friday 2nd February 20:58

[ZX10R NIN]

S6 TDI:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202311204...

or the V8d Panamera:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202310153...

[Kart16]

CG2020UK said:

Not sure what the Swiss equivalent to Autotrader is but searched Google and think an Audi RS5 would be perfect for your requirements.

https://en.comparis.ch/carfinder/marktplatz/detail...

It's the https://www.autoscout24.ch/ but Comparis is an aggregator, so even better.

[mercedeslimos]

https://www.mobile.de/ tends to have loads of cars from all over Europe. I came across a lovely W140 S-Class, 3.5 turbodiesel with steelies, hubcaps, and cloth interior

If the S124T ex-Berlin Taxi on RR is anything to go for, a million KM on the Autobahn is nothing, even if it is at 130km/h

[loafer123]

Go old school and get a V10 VW Phaeton?

[braddo]

barrkel said:

braddo said:

Buy the newest 911 (base Carrera) you can find for the budget. Good power and efficiency, low drag, low weight (relatively) - gives good high speed acceleration and high speed fuel economy.

Looking at Swiss offers available, the budget would need to go up to ~120k. Only justifiable if it was my passion. But Porsche generally is a good shout.

Go back to say 2016 (when base 911s become turbos) and surely there will be some in budget? They do high speeds so easily, and are much more fun/special the rest of the time compared to a 2.0L turbo saloon.

But if not, try a Panamera.

[Frankychops]

s class 400d engine. The best oil burning engine you can get.

[Kart16]

mercedeslimos said:

https://www.mobile.de/ tends to have loads of cars from all over Europe. I came across a lovely W140 S-Class, 3.5 turbodiesel with steelies, hubcaps, and cloth interior

If the S124T ex-Berlin Taxi on RR is anything to go for, a million KM on the Autobahn is nothing, even if it is at 130km/h

There are two better aggregators for Europe:

https://www.theparking.eu/ (includes mobile.de results).
https://www.autouncle.com/ (you need to search by country, but it scans many more online ad platforms).

[fourstardan]

I have been on the AB, it was absolutely insane, the vast majority of cars I did see when I could focus enough were high end Merc/audi/bmw.

Out of interest are your running costs when using the engine to its full capacity? do you go through more pads/wheels etc?

[Ezra]

Another vote for a Panamera here. These were essentially designed for the long Autobahn journeys. Don't know what Swiss used prices / availability are like but your budget would get you easily into a base 2020 model, maybe even stretch to a 2020 4S, at a OPC here in UK.

[valiant]

Diesel A8.