Man of Honour
You won't get sunburn through a window, but it does help reduce the light intensity for sure.
Show Us Your Motors!
- Thread starter Lopéz
- Start date
Soldato
New main car. Fed up with having an SUV so wanted to go back to something a bit more fun but just as practical. Nice to go back to a petrol car too
Very nice motor these. They’re just bang on for everything.
Great all rounder.
Edit: lol 69
Last edited:
I hear a guy is in the market for a car.....
Soldato
I did think about one, but they're similar money to a 3 series and leagues apart in quality, for me personally.
Last edited:
Soldato
where do you feel they’re lacking out of interest?
Soldato
Found it a comparatively plastic-feeling cabin, switches/buttons weren’t as nice feeling, door shuts didn’t feel/sound as premium, infotainment was just a screen with no physical control.
Also, no sound system upgrade other than the canton one, which sounds pretty naff. Didn’t fancy messing about installing new amp/speakers. Done that before
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great every day car. Much better than anything Toyota/Honda /etc, but the 3 series is, IMO, noticeably nicer and it’s where I’d personally prefer to spend my money.
Soldato
interesting you mentioned toyota..
we have a 2008 toyota and I recently drove a new E class merc.
the merc had nothing on the toyota be it interior build, equipment etc and it was literally 12 years newer.
I'm not a badge snob but I found new bmws/mercs are average build quality wise. I'd much rather a well specced skoda or a toyota/honda. The eclass was rattly and quite small inside, switches etc looked good but felt average, door handle was making noise and so on. Not impressed.
Put the glue from sticking bits to your S2000 down
Caporegime
3 series/C class is basically the 00's version of Mondeo man now.
I can't say this has been my experience at all. It can vary depending on the model, but certainly most modern BMW's feel very high quality, particularly the 5 and 7 Series. I had a brand new 3 Series as a courtesy car recently and it felt superbly constructed, absolutely solid. A Skoda isn't going to realistically be better (not that there's anything wrong with it). They have that typical Golf style interior which is pretty standard really - I've never been a fan.
I've driven pretty much everything in-between, including a Lexus LC500, which felt very well put together, perhaps a bit better than my 8 Series was, but there wasn't much in it.
I get that it comes down to personal experiences though, people always say Audi have the best interiors - some of them may look nice, but they fall well short of BMW for me in terms of actual quality, ergonomics, etc. I compared the A6 to my current 5 Series and it was nowhere near as good (and I actually wanted to buy it, just to have a change).
Perhaps my biggest disappointment ever was the Jaguar XF (2018~) - I couldn't believe how average the interior was, yet the press all kept saying how great it is.
Soldato
Don't rate Merc either. All looks no substance - I think they feel very cheap
Latest G20 3 series is properly nice on the inside and feels very solid. Older gen wasn't great.
But I also think that 2010 era cars were the best built. These days, the focus is on design and cost over quality and function. We hit peak cars 10 years ago.
We're in the era of cost/profit optimisation - no more outdoing other brands.
We hired a C Class a couple of years ago, 2022 plate, minty fresh. I couldn't believe how crap the interior felt, you could have told me it was some Chinese domestic brand and I would've believed you. Granted it was a rental so probably the most poverty spec there is but still, I remember Mercs as being the luxury option and this just felt a bit disappointing.
Not that I have a large pool of cars to compare to though it must be said.
Not that I have a large pool of cars to compare to though it must be said.
I think this cannot be stated enough, the previous generation (F30) looked reasonably nice inside but the build quality in terms of rattles, squeaks and tyre noise was absolutely shocking, a massive step down from the dull but solid e90 or the much better build Audi B8 of the era. In fact the Skoda Octavia MK3 felt genuinely better put together than the F30, even if a tad more dull looking.
The G20 however is a gigantic leap forwards, I was very pleasantly surprised by the build quality and how much of a leap forwards it was vs F30.
Last edited:
Soldato
I agree with your comment on Audi. My brother got rid of his for this reason and moved to BMW. My Dad had two Audi Q3 SUV's and now currently has a Volvo. The Volvo is also better than the two Q3's interior. It is intresting as I was reading an article from Autoexpress about the new Audi A3 facelift and they even say "...There are other, more tangible benefits to this new A3 and they largely concern the cabin. When the current-generation model was launched, its new design was let down by poor material quality in places – made worse by the fact its predecessor set such a high benchmark in the class. While this new model doesn’t have any major structural changes inside, the materials have been upgraded where possible, giving the whole cabin a much more premium feel."
Soldato
BMW still does decent interiors I agree and 5 series up are really nice. But I personally feel that Japanese and Koreans do solid interiors these days too. If course my comparison comes from the cars I’ve owned like Toyota crown or celsior both are very much high end luxury cars for their day.
But Merc was just extremely average. Maybe s/g class are better but it’s not something I’ve tried.
All I’m saying is that I wouldn’t skip a Toyota, Honda, Lexus or Korean brands over a German car if good build quality was my priority. We’re not in the 80s and 90s where Germans really did sit above.
That’s exactly my experience and I went in with no expectations. I just expected the car to have better built interior and more options. Especially being quite new.
Was great to drive, had a smooth box etc but just didn’t feel premium.
I don't have a huge amount of experience with Mercedes and most of what I do is as a passenger in hire ones which already sets the tone, but the recent ones I've been in 202x year cars have definitely been trying far too hard looks wise, while not all that build quality wise, though one of my dad's friends has a 20 or 21 plate CLS I think, might be CLA, which was really nice inside - though looking through pictures of them online trying to remember what model a lot of the interiors on those cars look tacky as ****.
Commissario
Well just bought my first ever new car, I was like a kid in a candy store. 
Weird that I waited until I had moved down under.
2023 Mazda cx60 Azami.
3.3 turbo petrol.
Weird that I waited until I had moved down under.2023 Mazda cx60 Azami.
3.3 turbo petrol.
Don
Nice. We can't have that engine here. Diesel or PHEV only.
