Looking For A Less Stressful Car

All this talk about Merc SLs and Phaetons....I can't believe no-one has commented on my suggestion of Volve V70R!

Fast, comfortable, reliable, spacious, great for moving washing machines.

What more could you want?
 
I didnt find the R dull in any way, in fact I still miss it a bit

However, it always felt like it might break.. not that it wasnt well built, just felt like something might give way, like the angle gear, or the active suspension
 
Havana_UK said:
All this talk about Merc SLs and Phaetons....I can't believe no-one has commented on my suggestion of Volve V70R!

Fast, comfortable, reliable, spacious, great for moving washing machines.

What more could you want?
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Lol what? ...we are talking about Jaguars XJ's, Mercedes SL's, BMW 7 series, VW Phaetons etc ...and you wonder why no-one mentioned a Volvo! ...lol.

I like Volvo's I really do ...but they don't run with this group, you're going way down the ladder there.
 
How is an E46 M3 going to be a much less 'stressful' and more relaxing to drive than a Boxster ? ...and it's not automatic.
 
That's what the op asked for, he seems to want a wafter really, not a focussed driving machine. And SMG is far cry from a proper automatic gearbox.
 
...and an M3 is cheap is it ? ...he didn't say he wants cheap, he wants a more luxurious premium car, effortless and wafty ...that has already been well established, since the first post.
 
Havana_UK said:
Yet it still ticks all the boxes in the OP.
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I don't think the R's come with automatic gearboxes though, however I could be wrong on that.

It might tick the boxes otherwise but if he's not worried about running costs you can do an awful lot better. The Volvo is a nice car though, but it's no XJ or SL. The Volvo strikes me as a compromise car, its nice enough when you can't afford or are unwilling to spend the money to go further up the tree ...but it's not a car one desires in it's own right ...well not really anyway.

If I had 7k to spend and I wanted a newer car than I have now, and I wanted to keep costs down a bit more ...I'd be thinking about the Volvo S60 T5 for sure, it'd be a compromise though ...more a cost based decision. I think the R's are a little more expensive than that still, but all that means is the cars it comes up against are even more impressive.
 
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Surely the thread ended when the CL55 was posted? Incredible amount of car for the money, it's newer than the OP's current car and will be far less stressful. It'd be a considerable amount to run, but can't be all that different to a boxster really? The AMG nature of it is a little bit special, and you certainly don't see many on the roads every day.

What about the R129 SL?
 
tom_nieto said:
Surely the thread ended when the CL55 was posted? Incredible amount of car for the money, it's newer than the OP's current car and will be far less stressful. It'd be a considerable amount to run, but can't be all that different to a boxster really? The AMG nature of it is a little bit special, and you certainly don't see many on the roads every day.

What about the R129 SL?
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Starting to have to pay a good few quid to get a good R129 now, and they might be a bit old for Spam.
 
tom_nieto said:
It'd be a considerable amount to run, but can't be all that different to a boxster really?
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My non-AMG CL500 was quite a bit more to run than my Boxster S. Fuel servicing and parts were all more and the complex nature of the car meant that a horrendously expensive electrical problem was never far away. Just ask Jez about his suspension woes for an example of the type of bill that can be thrown up that you don't get on a Boxster.
 
R129's are fantastic cars, but as Mark said, nice ones aren't as cheap as you might hope, certainly not the 500 SL anyway, however the budget will cover it still. One thing about buying a nice R129 is, if you look after it, you won't lose much if anything on it.
 
Fine if you like rust :p ...you'll be fighting corrosion all the way with one of those. Otherwise I believe they are fine.

What I would say is that if you do seriously consider buying one, make sure that it has a FMBSH and that it has had the Mercedes bodywork inspection done every 2 years on the dot and all this is recorded properly ...then you will be able to keep taking it back to Mercedes to have the rust sorted when it appears, because it will. Mercedes come with a 30 year corrosion warranty but it's only valid if you have the bodywork inspection done by a Mercedes dealer every 2 years without exception, a single missed inspection could invalidate it ...at Mercedes behest if it came down to it and you needed new wings and your doors respraying ...otherwise they will actually do that if necessary.
 
Will Gill said:
awful cars, well the three my colleague has had have been, nothing works, when it breaks it costs a fortune, not VW's finest hour probably why they are swept under the carpet for the most part.

my take on them anyway
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That's very different from my experience. I had a 5.0 V10 TDI for about 9 months and it was superb, if a touch gigantic.

It's basically the same car as a Bentley Continental or A8 and it was designed from the ground up as a Rolls-Royce beater. When I had it serviced in Norwich, the dealer sent a young woman to pick it up and drop me off another one. They weren't allowed to give me anything other than another Phaeton and when it came back it was always very nicely valeted. And they charged the same for servicing it as any other VW.

I think the reason they didn't sell is why the heck would you spend £70-£90K on a VW? You just wouldn't.
 
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