Looking for a comfortable long distance cruiser
Discussion
We're looking for another second car as the current one is past its best.
It'll be mainly used for 2 very different situations:
- up to 6 times a year, we'll take it back and forth to my wife's family, more than 800 miles away from us (my car is a Mercedes EQE which has a very good range but in winter it just makes the trip too long to be able to conclude in 1 day)
- 1-2 times a year, it might be taken for holidays, also easily 600 miles and more one-way
- for the rest of the year, it'll be my wife's daily driver (7 miles one-way...), mainly for autumn to spring as she bikes when weather permits
It seems relevant to mention that (a) we're in mainland Europe (so prices, taxes etc are very different from the UK) and (b) that we have a 15 year-old that's already 1m80 tall (5ft9 if I'm not mistaken).
Things that matter are comfort mainly, which leads me to highly value high levels of driving assistance (think BMW's Driving Assistant Pack Pro or Mercedes' Distronic Plus), and comfortable seats/suspension.
Currently, we've been considering Mercedes C and E class and BMW 3/5/6 (prices and mileages are probably less relevant due to highly different prices over here).
Test drove a 2019 C300de (dealership car) yesterday and I was very disappointed - very noisy inside, lots of vibrations, rather clunky gearbox, not at all what I was expecting.
I might be trying out a BMW 6-series GT of a similar age soon.
Am I missing any good candidates?
It'll be mainly used for 2 very different situations:
- up to 6 times a year, we'll take it back and forth to my wife's family, more than 800 miles away from us (my car is a Mercedes EQE which has a very good range but in winter it just makes the trip too long to be able to conclude in 1 day)
- 1-2 times a year, it might be taken for holidays, also easily 600 miles and more one-way
- for the rest of the year, it'll be my wife's daily driver (7 miles one-way...), mainly for autumn to spring as she bikes when weather permits
It seems relevant to mention that (a) we're in mainland Europe (so prices, taxes etc are very different from the UK) and (b) that we have a 15 year-old that's already 1m80 tall (5ft9 if I'm not mistaken).
Things that matter are comfort mainly, which leads me to highly value high levels of driving assistance (think BMW's Driving Assistant Pack Pro or Mercedes' Distronic Plus), and comfortable seats/suspension.
Currently, we've been considering Mercedes C and E class and BMW 3/5/6 (prices and mileages are probably less relevant due to highly different prices over here).
Test drove a 2019 C300de (dealership car) yesterday and I was very disappointed - very noisy inside, lots of vibrations, rather clunky gearbox, not at all what I was expecting.
I might be trying out a BMW 6-series GT of a similar age soon.
Am I missing any good candidates?
Edited by Church of Noise on Saturday 5th October 10:14
I’m surprised you were disappointed with the Mercedes. Generally you can’t go wrong with anything Audi, BMW or Mercedes. Because of your short journeys, unfortunately you’ll have to avoid a diesel which is a shame as there great for long journeys.
Out of interest, where are you based and where do the
In-laws live 800 miles away.
Out of interest, where are you based and where do the
In-laws live 800 miles away.
We're based in the west of Belgium, inlaws in the east of Czech Republic so our cars get some decent exercise on the autobahn at least 12 times a year 
Budget is strongly linked to market prices in Europe and the Belgian tax situation, where basically anything above 2 litres will be hit with rather high road taxes sadly, so Merc 400 cars, BMW ?35 cars etc just don't make sense for us.
Currently looking at around 30k euro max.
Agreed that the short journeys are far from ideal for diesel cars, hence the consideration of hybrids with sufficient range (C300de has something like 32 miles, which means daily work journey could be fully covered). Alternatively, would a frequent longer drive help prevent DPF issues and mitigate the worst issues?
(edited the first post to add that the trips to CZ will be mainly only the ones in winter, as my daily can be used when temps are sufficiently high and the electric range is good enough)
Budget is strongly linked to market prices in Europe and the Belgian tax situation, where basically anything above 2 litres will be hit with rather high road taxes sadly, so Merc 400 cars, BMW ?35 cars etc just don't make sense for us.
Currently looking at around 30k euro max.
Agreed that the short journeys are far from ideal for diesel cars, hence the consideration of hybrids with sufficient range (C300de has something like 32 miles, which means daily work journey could be fully covered). Alternatively, would a frequent longer drive help prevent DPF issues and mitigate the worst issues?
(edited the first post to add that the trips to CZ will be mainly only the ones in winter, as my daily can be used when temps are sufficiently high and the electric range is good enough)
Edited by Church of Noise on Saturday 5th October 10:15
Church of Noise said:
We're based in the west of Belgium, inlaws in the east of Czech Republic so our cars get some decent exercise on the autobahn at least 12 times a year
Budget is strongly linked to market prices in Europe and the Belgian tax situation, where basically anything above 2 litres will be hit with rather high road taxes sadly, so Merc 400 cars, BMW ?35 cars etc just don't make sense for us.
Currently looking at around 30k euro max.
Agreed that the short journeys are far from ideal for diesel cars, hence the consideration of hybrids with sufficient range (C300de has something like 32 miles, which means daily work journey could be fully covered). Alternatively, would a frequent longer drive help prevent DPF issues and mitigate the worst issues?
(edited the first post to add that the trips to CZ will be mainly only the ones in winter, as my daily can be used when temps are sufficiently high and the electric range is good enough)
What about a Volvo? All their engines are <=2 litres, comfy seats and their semi-autonomous driving system is decent enough on motorways. Lots of petrol options with or without hybrid if you don't want a diesel. AWD models too.Budget is strongly linked to market prices in Europe and the Belgian tax situation, where basically anything above 2 litres will be hit with rather high road taxes sadly, so Merc 400 cars, BMW ?35 cars etc just don't make sense for us.
Currently looking at around 30k euro max.
Agreed that the short journeys are far from ideal for diesel cars, hence the consideration of hybrids with sufficient range (C300de has something like 32 miles, which means daily work journey could be fully covered). Alternatively, would a frequent longer drive help prevent DPF issues and mitigate the worst issues?
(edited the first post to add that the trips to CZ will be mainly only the ones in winter, as my daily can be used when temps are sufficiently high and the electric range is good enough)
Edited by Church of Noise on Saturday 5th October 10:15
After some further pondering, consultation of loads of for sale ads and man maths based discussions with mates and also with SWMBO, I've put a deposit down on a BMW 740e, after a test drive of 2 of them. It was out of budget but not insanely so. Main reasoning was that all cars we were interested in, hovered in the same price range, regardless of being bmw 3/mercedes-benz C, bmw 5/merc e or larger size. The larger cars were typically more silent, better equipped and more comfortable...
the one we chose is very well specced and at the same time externally not very in your face, as it does not have the m sport pack and it rides on 18 inch wheels (50 profile tyres combined with air suspension means it is supremely comfy). So a score on 2 topics for us, despite the fact that evidently it is a huge barge.
will start a thread in the readers' cars section once it's arrived.
(I assume an important part will be about getting used to the sheer size of the thing!)
Thanks a lot for the valuable input!
the one we chose is very well specced and at the same time externally not very in your face, as it does not have the m sport pack and it rides on 18 inch wheels (50 profile tyres combined with air suspension means it is supremely comfy). So a score on 2 topics for us, despite the fact that evidently it is a huge barge.
will start a thread in the readers' cars section once it's arrived.
(I assume an important part will be about getting used to the sheer size of the thing!)
Thanks a lot for the valuable input!
Edited by Church of Noise on Tuesday 15th October 15:17
I've started a thread in the Readers cars forum - will keep that updated!
Btw, have you considered a Merc EQE? I have a 300 as my daily and rate it very highly (380 miles range in summer is realistic).
Their 2nd hand value in the UK seems to have plummeted so very good value for money.
Just my 5 cents
Btw, have you considered a Merc EQE? I have a 300 as my daily and rate it very highly (380 miles range in summer is realistic).
Their 2nd hand value in the UK seems to have plummeted so very good value for money.
Just my 5 cents
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