schorert1

After waiting anxiously for the GLA45, i almost immediately passed on it...too small...too "ricer" for my taste.

looking for alternatives I was drawn to the Audi SQ5...it's an impressive vehicle, but for $64k sticker, and little less off for a cpo, it's just not "there" yet.(one dealer was selling a cpo w/6kmi for full sticker!).

In desperate need of a vehicle, I circled back to the GLK...lots of them around, rather confining, I had settled on a new 2014 well appointed for $41k. Since we'd owned an ML350 in the past, always a capable vehicle I thought I'd see what was out there with a little more "oomph".

for a few grand more I found a cpo with under 20kmi,completely saturated with options, new tires, new brakes and another 34mos of warranty. As I don't intend to keep the car more than 18 months (waiting for the new glkamg) this car seems perfect for my needs.
Hoping for all the comfort of my old ML350, with some excitement available from the v-8.

shortspark

Sounds like you have a winner! Let us know all about it and how you like it.

schorert1

Well my wife is already talking about taking the ML and giving me her E, so I may start shopping for an S5....

shortspark

Why is it that when women get behind the wheel of the ML (or most any other luxury SUV) they want to own it? They beg for a nice sedan but given the choice, they'll take the SUV. I don't understand it!

schorert1

She had an ML, and she worked in a non profit where she was criticized routinely for driving it. (nothing fancier than a volvo allowed). She traded that car for a prius. she moved to healthcare and was teased by other members of management for driving a prius (nothing but german cars allowed). She bought what I consider to be the (almost) perfect sedan....

The E is big and quiet inside, luxurious, wood, leather, led lighting, perimiter lighting, AMG appearance, instant bluetooth and enough power to get to speed quickly. good in snow...it just goes on and on. every time I drive it I think "this is about the perfect sedan". Plus, the dealer drives 50 miles each way to pick it up for service!

The ML is more upright, and higher...she's fairly tiny so she likes the SUV ride.

Subatomic Power

People will criticize regardless of what you do. They will look at your car and make a judgement about you no matter what. Or the shallow fools will, at least. Better to enjoy the car that you deserve and use the criticisms as your screening tool for idiot identification. There are a few nice jewels of people among the throngs of idiots, and your life will get richer if you just stick to collecting jewels.

schorert1

It has nothing to do with being shallow or genuine, it has everything to do with corporate culture. When you're in leadership at a non profit and seen getting out of a $60k MB (even if you paid $35k for it)...the message to the populace is that leadership are overpaid fat-cats. she bought the prius and enjoyed it very much...she's not much of a "car girl".
when she went to healthcare she was a little surprised that the "old boy" network extended to the parking lot...and that people were talking about her car in meetings. Her CEO all but said "you can't be seen in that thing" and that they want their look of growth and success to be reflected in how they dress, what they drive etc. She's very sensitive to be one of two females in this leadership team. What's funny is when she takes the AMG convertible she hears about THAT all day long...guys want to ask her about the car and she says "oh that stupid thing belongs to my husband".
neighbors and friends tend to tease about the cars, we don't pay this much heed.

Subatomic Power

I stand corrected. I supposed that I have just been a bit naive about that issue. I have one employee working for me that drives a Bentley. I'm personally happy for her. Her husband started an oil company many years ago and he always told her that one day he would make sure that she is driving a Bentley. He made good on his promise and I'm happy for her. She doesn't seem to think that it's any big deal though - she's just as happy driving her Daughter's Chevy Cruz. My Father-in-law used to be a very successful home builder and he now just sells real estate as a hobby job. He specifically bought a very low key Impala to drive around instead of his ML 350 so that people don't pre-judge him as a Realtor. I have another friend that works as the maintenance person for a series of apartment buildings. He intentionally drives an older Silverado and many of the people he interacts with while doing odd jobs like plumbing, etc. gripe to him about the owners of the apartments and how expensive rent is, etc., etc. None of them suspect that he is the owner, though. He drives his nicer Escalade on his personal time. I'm trying to convince him to buy an extra loaded ML550 that I have access to. The fellow works like a dog to keep his 90 renters happy and their suites in good repair 24/7 - yet somehow he feels that nobody would like to see their hardworking maintenance man driving a nice vehicle like an ML. The world is a strange place. You're judged no matter WHAT you do. In my business, 50% of people seem to need to see me in a nice car and 50% of them seem to need to see me in a modest car. So - like you - I'm just getting the one I want.

schorert1

I was in the renewable energy business, and would rotate around between the prius, my ford hybrid, my truck(off the grid types) and the amg. the amg never went over with anybody, I would often meet the tech somewhere and park the MB and drive to the job in the work truck. I had ONE guy who restored old MB convertibles, and invested in solar. I'm pretty sure the AMG closed that deal.

Ha, my wife is definitely the breadwinner in our household, I've always worked but I took most of the responsibility getting our daughter to doctors appts. hockey practices etc. She could care less about cars but A) she doesnt want to deal with car talk or being looked down on for what she drives and
B) the thing had better run, the heat had better work, it had better go in the snow, the bluetooth had better work so she can listen to books on tape (which she can't do now thanks to apple, she's pissed!)...and when the thing DOESN'T work, she had better not be inconvenienced. THIS is where MB is exceptional, as our dealer brings a loaner to her office (75mi each way) and she hardly knows the difference (although she complains about the c-class loaner).

Her position allows me to drive the ML and the AMG cabrio(and an ugly f-250 v10!), and at my non profit this raises eyebrows, but as I'm not in management it's ok.
I have a neighbor that drives a f-ing toyota camry an hour+ each way to work, he buys them new drives them for two years and sells them with like 80kmi on them. He asks me how I justify three mercedes, and I wonder how the hell he spends 20hrs a week in a car he "hates", which ends up costing him 3/4 of the cost of a CPO C-class.

Subatomic Power

That's funny! My wife also listens with a politely bored expression when I talk about cars. Like yours, she just wants it to be reliable and to have a heated steering wheel and to NEVER be inconvenienced. We have been Escalade drivers for 10+ years, and so we ordered two of the new Platinums back in Dec. 2013. They were supposed to arrive in April 2014 at the latest....and now we are well into Oct 2014 and one of them still has not been built. Mine was built, but it did not pass the PDI due to all kinds of production problems that included several different colours of "Kona" leather in the same vehicle and a transmission system that apparently didn't work properly. GM also took out their very good AWD system and replaced it with a 20+ yr old older manual selector system between 2WD and 4WD. You now have to go at least 30 yards to be able to switch between the two systems....and if you are in a parking lot - woe be to you, who will not be able to make anything like a 90 degree turn into or out of a parking spot. THAT - in addition to other things like airbags randomly going off (there is a recall on Japanese made airbags) and other poor design annoyances (loss of significant cargo room due to "hidden electric rear seat stowage", led us to tell the dealer to keep their crappy production models and we went over to MB to order two new ML550's that were loaded - one in Palladium and one in Diamond White. GM says that they probably won't be able to deliver any Platinum Escalades until March 2015 at the earliest.....but I suspect that their production problems will plague them for at least one or two production model years. Cadillac seems to have lost their way under their new CEO. Oh well! They don't seem to care that they chased two avid fans to the MB world. I think that GM/Cadillac has made too many compromises on the design of their new flagship vehicles....probably to appease their very expensive unionized factory workers (who probably drive ML550's to work). ;-)

schorert1

ha...my wife had a Tahoe Z74 or whatever it's called. fully loaded, leather, nav, ent system, it was a "luxury" SUV except it had a truck dashboard(well, it was a truck)...just an acre and a half of grey plastic! she traded that pig in for her first MB.
The day she picked it up, she walked through the door, threw the key on the counter and said "I'll never drive anything but a Mercedes for the rest of my life"...so naturally a year later she was in a Prius.

I had a friend who went to work for Ford(I think it was) in the early 90's as a crash-test engineer. He drove an early 80's SAAB, and he couldn't park it in the Ford lots near the building. They literally had signs that said ford vehicles only. He said it was a matter of course to find his car vandalized after work, like his coworkers would just throw whatever **** they had in their hand at his car. so there was coffee all over it, bird **** because seagulls would eat whatever food they threw. People were writing on it in sharpie(it was faded orange to boot)....didn't take him long to purchase a Ford vehicle.

congrats on your TWO new cars! My wife is grousing about my ML, I have a sneaking suspicion she won't be driving her E class much longer.

Subatomic Power

Thank-you. Your note about the Ford workers reminded me about a rumour I heard about the Cadillac assembly workers. Apparently, the new Escalades are plagued with a huge number of production issues. They are trying to come up to the "industry standard" by now adding 360 deg cameras on the vehicle - but apparently not enough cameras available. They are also having huge problems with their new 8 speed transmission and an induction charging system for iPhones (you have to have a very cheesy cadillac iPhone case to use it). Cadillac has recently decided to leave the Arlington factory, which is overwhelmed with producing all the GM trucks - to a new factory in New York. A lot of employees at the Arlington facility are slated to lose their jobs as a result. This has been rumoured to result in a huge spate of production problems for the new Escalades that are also rumoured to be the result of a high degree of worker disgruntlement in the unionized workforce. I suppose that this is one of the bad things about unions - they tend to breed entitlement cultures that operate without the concern of accountability. I think that anybody that buys an Escalade in the next two years is insane. It will take 1 year to find all the rough edges in the new production facility....then another year to properly train the production teams. Perhaps it will take longer. I never thought in a million years that I'd ever be driving a German made vehicle (I come from an impoverished background).....but here we are! You can't argue with quality.