Looking to buy an S212 E-class, need advice

[Kaff]

TLDR: which engine (diesel or petrol) should I pick for 40% urban driving (15kkm/year) and what are the different seat options for his car?

Hi all, first post and already full of questions! I live in Finland and I’m looking for a large, daily driven car for my urban commutes and to haul my family to where ever we need to get to. In the last two years my family has grown and now includes 2 adults, a large dog, one toddler and another kid on the way. So I need SPACE when ever the whole family goes travelling. I’ve gotten used to German quality with my last car (Audi A4 quattro avant -06), so I’m looking at an E-class estate merc. An early S212 (-09...-11) fits in my budget, but neither I nor any of my family/friends have any previous experience in the brand, thought I’d ask the pistonhead community for advice.

First up, which powertrain should I consider? About 40% of my annual mileage is urban commuting (...I know I know.. there are better cars for that but I can own only one and appreciate the finer things in life), and the car will be driven about 15k km (...that's 9300 miles) per year. I know it’s a big, heavy car, and i’d like to be able to overtake safely at speeds up to 120kmh (...thats 75mph), so torquey diesels make more sense in theory. However we are taxed around 600€ annually for diesels here in Finland, hence the better fuel economy is pretty much eaten up by the goverment from cars with low annual mileage. I’m also worried about diesel engines clogging up from all that urban commuting. Which engine would you recommend?

Then there’s the 5g vs 7g automatic transmission debate, is the 7g that much better to really hunt for one?

I’m also a sucker for good seats, so I’m looking for the ”Active multicontour front seats with massage and dynamic handling function”... I,ve found that there are two different control-modules for the e-class adjustable seats:





The first one seems to be the dynamic one but does the latter just have adjustable lumbar support or what do all those knobs do?

Thanks in advance for anyone who finds the time to help me choose!

[Scrump]

I have a facelift 2014 212. It was bought as a stop gap but 3 years later I still have it as it such a great car.
I have the 265bhp 3.0 V6 diesel which I didn't want but I couldn't find a petrol at the time so bought it and find it really suits the car. I do mainly urban journeys and have not had any issues in the 3 years and 30k miles I have owned it. It is not the most economical in urban journeys but gives an easy 40 to 45mpg on a fast motorway journey and has more then enough grunt so as to not feel slow.

I took a couple of 4cyl cars for test drives when I was looking and although they would give better mpg, they felt a lot slower and crucially a lot less refined.

The seats were a key deciding factor for me. The standard seats were a bit meh, but the dynamic active contour seats (or whatever they are called) are bloody amazing. Mine have the active side bolsters which 'hug' during cornering and also a 4 option massage function and I will be looking for similar in a replacement car. Cant help on the controls as mine are controlled via the Comand system and have no physical buttons.