Well it is a catch 22..

What if u are sitting at a intersection and a F150 jumps a light??


The Merc has the 5 way xenon's, Distronic, and pre-safe.. lane Departure sorry if u need that u do not belong behind a wheel..

 

Unfortunately, in the US we don't get Distronic unless you get the AMG.

You have never drifted in your lane?

I have.

 

Having recently decided on an E350 Sport over a 535 I can understand the difficulty of the decision. As also an ex-bike racer (cat II) and Nordic ski racer I can also understand the desire for good handling. I also own a 3 series (328iT) with I drive. The 535 is a great engine with almost no turbo lag. The residual value of the BMW is about 10% better than the E after 3 years which make for great resale or lease.

I do not find the handling of the 535 nearly as good as the 3 series. If I were to get another BMW it would be the 335. In fact, the recent tests I read had better slalom results for the E350 that the 535 -- see the recent Consumer Reports article. The ride of the E350 is definitely better though with a little more body roll. With the latest incentive deals on the E350 I was able to beat the deals on the 535. BTW you can eventually figure out I Drive but it is rarely intuitive. The COMAND system in Mercedes is not much better, but a little.

As to the extras, heads up display and night vision I don't have experience with but might be nice to have. I have not seen a BMW equipped with them and they seem pretty expensive. I did have an Acura RL with the intelligent cruise control and crash mitigation. The crash protection was nice to have but the intelligent cruise contol can be of limited use depending on the traffic where you live. It is not useful in heavy traffic as it wants to maintain a safe distance from the car in front of you. Too bad all those cars that want to cut in don't care about that. So, you end up over-riding the system. I also drove a Infiniti M45 with the lane departure system enough to know that I would not want it. It is intrusive and many roads are not marked consistently and correctly enough for it to work well. I have read that most owners turn it off most of time.

I hope some of this has been helpful.

 

U kidding. No Distronic unless E63... MBUSA sucks...

You have never drifted in your lane? Yep, but i usually notice in 2secs and move back..

 

Tell me about it. On the C class, for example, we don't get rear seat airbags, no knee aribags (on E-Class either), no 10 way seats, no memory function, on and on... Very upsetting.

 

That's true.

 

OMG.

Well makes the point that few, if any, of us have the skill to drive such a car even close to its limits... I hope he lived.

Thanks for the picture. It's sobering.

 

Fortunately, he's alive. (if he had passenger, the passenger would've died)

Here's the news regarding the accident:

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap...006002,00.html

 

That's a M5 in the crash photo!! The pictures tell it all, no one would have survived. It seems the M5 may have been travelling very. very fast with that kind of impact. With all the safety feature that the E-class may have, with the same force of impact, I don't think we would survive either with our car. So don't try to judge with these pictures alone. Sorry, Motorwerkz, showing doesn't prove anything that our car is better. It was not fair at all nor to driver of the M5 who may have lost his life.

Edit: Well, even if he survived. It is still not fair.

 

He might be going fast, but how fast is what we don't know. I do think M5 and other 5 series almost share the same chassis rigidity however I maybe wrong.

By looking at the damage on the car, we can tell that he's going really fast, but by looking at the damage of the light poles, the car wasn't really going as fast as we thought previously. M5 seems to be very light and soft

but who knows, I could be wrong.

 

Still, might not the heads up display, night vision, automatic cruise control with crash warning, and lane departure warning outweigh the crash test differences?

I have owned two Corvettes with heads up display, very novel when the car is new, but you ultimtely don't use it much after that. I sold my last Corvette in February 07 and have never missed HUD at all.

I drove a few rental Cadillacs with the night vision, sort of cool, but GM discontinued it because no one bought it. I would not pay extra for it unless I lived in a rural area with lots of wildlife no fences, and no street lights. It adds littles if any value in a large city or it's suburbs.

BMW has pretty much copied GM with these features.

Infiniti M also has lane departure, I have not personally tried it, and one would need to step up to E63 for adaptive cruise control.

It comes down to personal choice; if these features are important to you, get the car that has them.

 

I suppose a really prudent person would study the crash statistics and see what types are crashes are most common (hitting object form the front). Then they would determine how valuable those addition features are with regard to prevent accidents in the type of driving they do. (night vision would be most helpful for deer infested highway drivers, lane departure warnings for sleepy or drunk drivers, most people only use cruise control on long trips... etc.)

My vote would be for the superior side impact rating of the Benz. I am much more worried about what the other guy is going to do (run a light and broadside me), than I am about myself drifting out of a lane, or even than hitting a deer at night. Side impacts are typically the most dangerous...

 

Fortunately or unfortunately, I do live in a deer infested area. On local expressways, sometimes as often as every few miles, you can see the huge smears of dried blood from dying deer.

It's both sad and scary. My wife won't even drive on two lane roads (where deer can lurk just feet from the road) at night around here if she can use an expressway instead.

 

Sounds like you are talking yourself into the 535....just pull the trigger! Either car is great...good luck man.

 

I have E61 535xi (yes, wagon and yes, I agree w/ some posts above saying wagon looks better than the sedan ).

I can't say for E350 as I've never owned or driven one.... but here's what I think about 535:

The good:
1. The new engine is good.... you feel the power at low to mid range. Up top it loses steam (don't quote me on this as I may be too used to w/ my E55).

2. For those who say BMW auto is worse than MB, to me you are BMW auto shifts faster.... turn it to sport mode, it's even more aggressive.

3. One feature on NAV that I like the most.... it shows the miles to go and ETA, and it's quite accurate. Not sure whether the '08 E class has this.... for sure my E55 doesn't.

4. Free maintenance

The Bads:
1. The wagon doesn't have sport tuned suspension even w/ sport package. But the steering is very tight... it's even tighter than my E55.

2. Suspension is soft.... RFT sucks. Get a bump on the highway, expect to feel as if the entire suspension broke down.

3. Sport seat & ergonomic sucks. I can't really find an optimal position.... after 5-month ownership, I still keep changing the position. Not sure about E350 seats.... but my E55 seats really spoil me.

4. I-Drive sucks..... it's slow, slow and slow.....

I think that's all I could think of now....

 

A simple software update should fix that.

 

What do you mean? You mean there's an update for my E55? Or should I just buy the latest DVD? I rarely use NAV, so I haven't bothered to update my DVD

 

Service disc W211 589 14 22 00 would give you ETA and MP3 capability. Some have said that you can't enter a destination while driving after the update, but I haven't done mine, so I can't be for sure.

The disc is only ~$20 and you can install on you own.

 

Thanks.... if you have tried it, let me know.

My car can read MP3's (from the CD slot as well as CD changer).... not sure why. So if ETA is the only one and I can't enter dest. while driving, I don't want that plus I usually wait for people, not the other way around

OP... sorry for

 

OK im never moaning about Poor Options in SA.. Atleast we can spec our Small motor cars up nice and proper.