I love Mercedes Benz. Been in love with Mercedes since the beginning of time, all I wanted was a white Mercedes E class, nothing more nothing less, and was just waiting for the day I would get one and live happily ever after...

But then, but then, along comes the Audi A7 with its seductive lines and ravishing looks and it totally messed me up.. I found myself spending more time in the Audi forum than here, suddenly my love for the E was wavering and it was lust for the A7 - the devil had its ways!

I think the 2014 E looks fantastic in person, they look solid and classy, but then, the A7 looks sexy..

I know the E will age well, it just always does, and the A7 will probably look so dated in another 5 years, but the A7 sure looks sooo hot right now..

The E is cheaper than the A7 and will probably hold on to its value more, but really, who’s thinking rational when it comes to A7..

The E should be more reliable long term (I am assuming there’s a reason why Es are preferred by cab drivers in Europe over Audis), but A7 just looks sooooo yummy...

The list goes on and on….

I am no Mr. Money Bags like lot of you guys and don’t just "pick up the car", I only pick up groceries, not cars! So even after some serious serious thinking when all the rational thoughts said buy the E, I ended up buying a A7! Yes, lust won...

So, here I am after more than 5 years of visiting the E forums pretty regularly, posting my first message with a hi and bye at the same time.. The reality is I will have always have a soft corner for the E and I would love to buy a 1995 E320 (my first love!) as a DD, but just not sure if I can afford the maintenance costs of a ~20 year old Merc! One day....

Here’s a picture of my car (2012 A7 Prestige with 20" Sports, Innovation Package, LED Headlights), it’s been raining here so excuse the not so clean car:



I will continue to visit this forum, keep them pictures coming!

Cheers!

SB

 

Congrats, the new car looks great. I know exactly how you felt as I've been flip flopping on deciding between the two cars myself; seeing your a7 might push me towards a blue or silver audi in the near future. Now you can go out and enjoy your purchase.

 

Thanks for sharing. We're all gonna miss you.

 

first post after six years of joining this fabulous forum but post a pic of an audi ? funny ! nice car, though .

 

foxrc51: Join the dark side, I am loving it!

BM2BZ: Yup, I have been visiting this forum for the longest time (could have sworn it was more than 6 years!), I was on this forum when Nevada Jack bought his W211 E, ok, now I am dating myself..

Cheers!

SB

 

If the car does it for you, make no apologies and enjoy it. Diversity is what makes us who we are.

Good luck with the new car.

 

Nice Ride,
I was after a Audi Avant twin turbo 6cyl or E350 CDI but there kind of rare.
If you do audi forums, autoguide.com has an app for the audi.
I am proud to be in the AMG crowd and will be posting here for some time.

All the Best, Gator

 

bye bye

 

I have to admit, I was torn between the S7 and the CLS 550, and it took me some time to choose one .
Nice wheels btw

 

Congrats. I dislike the A7 design but it looks stunning in your picture. I've never loved Audi's, however considering Mercedes' designs seem to be getting worse and worse to me, Audi has started to rise on my totem pole (which is now out of whack from where it used to be due to M-B's changing design idiom).

Interesting that your first post is a goodbye from M-B before you ever said hi, but it makes for good conversation & comparos with other good cars.

 

Does anyone know where Nevada Jack is? I've tried putting out a "Forum-APB" but can't seem to find if he's okay. I know he was older and apparently kinda sick. It genuinely bums me out to think that something happened to the guy. When I started flipping new M-B's he seemed to think I earned the title of "Young Nevada Jack", which I took as a badge of honor.

 

I noticed that the Audi is now listing a TDI A8 on their site. That would be a very nice ride.

 

Seconding that, Nevada Jack was very active on the forum and posted tons of great pictures. Seemed to be a nice guy..

And K-A, regarding the MB designs, this is the same thing that happens with every update, everyone says it is terrible and few months later, it is the best design there ever is.. I am ahead of the curve in saying the 2014 E looks fantastic!

 

Yup, they already have the 2014 Audi TDI A8s on the lot..

 

I love A7's headlamp design but side profile is not as seducing as CLS 218 does
Happy driving

 

OK, bye here.

I'll say hi on the AudiWorld Forum.

I upgraded from a 2011 E350 to a 2013 A7 in November. Over the 2 years I had the E350 I came around to appreciating it for what it was - but I have loved my A7 from day 1.

 

I played that game where I'd let M-B's branding pull me to rationalize and fall for their designs which were getting iffy to me, but it's gone too far, IMO, and ever since the CLS it got real bad, IMO. It's not about the design aspects as much as the cohesion. One can like the E's new grilles, etc., but fact is the design language is very mashed-up all around the car, the new parts simply don't flow, and IMO "flow" is what Mercedes designers seem to have forgotten. I feel the design team seems too focused on popping-smoke glitzy "parts" and lacking the maturity or talent or management to harmonize a design as a whole.

I just miss the days when you would see an M-B and it wouldn't try and forcefully challenge you so much, like dropping anti-wedge lines on wedge-shaped profiles, or rounded "organic" parts grafted onto very angular and upright designs, etc. I guess I can call myself "old school" when it comes to Mercedes at a premature age to use that term. Maybe it's that Mercedes was so powerful to me in the past that I treat them unfairly and expect them to uphold maybe an unrealistic dignity and prestige, and when they don't give me it, I get resentful.

 

Hi good post and I empathize with the OP too.
Been browsing the w212 forum as I consider maybe a new ride.
I've had several each of mb Audi BMW for over 20 yrs.
After most of the 90s in a BMW e34 I leased a w202
And then bought a nice w210 e430 4m and was firmly in the Benz camp.
I regrettably traded into an early w211 , didn't dig the whole scene, and
been in a few audis since, having become a serial flipper these last 10 yrs lol.
On my second Audi D3 and admire the cars greatly but trying to give mb
a good look and can't help but feel they lost a lot of their mojo in this time.
K-A your review of the 14 FL said it all. They have a little momentum in styling and now seem to be watering it down again.

 

Do you ever read the crap you write? Do you ever read the crap you write? Do you ever read the crap you write? Do you ever read the crap you write?


Oh! Did I repeat myself? Isn't that annoying K-A??????

 

I agree and glad you dug the review. IMO the future looks to be about Porsche/BMW/Audi design/dynamics innovation momentum while M-B is gonna be playing even more catchup after their current designs and product dilution falter the brand heavily. Just look at how their designs keep drastically changing, no evolutionary lineage lately, even for simple facelifts we see reconstructive surgery. Mix that with the fact that they're doing far more copying than being copied (opposite of how it was before) and you can perceive lots of discontent within the management/design team.

If anyone on this board thinks that it's out of line to say on an M-B Forum, then my answer is that this portion of the Forum is based on the W212, which previous to 2014 MY's was still a model I considered to be worthy of M-B design language, even if I did hate it at first. Unfortunately we now see what it was a precursor to, and it all starts to make sense....

 

I call it critical thinking.

And this is a thread about an Audi being chosen over an M-B, isn't it.

 

Seems the Audi and the 5 series bodies have similar lines from the front doors to the rear of the car.

 

They do in how they have a flow from front to back, but the Audi's actually goes the full length of the car, while the 5ers starts just before the front doors and connects into the taillights. Also, the A7 has a crisp/clean line which doesn't actually protrude out itself, the bottom portion thus being further extended than the upper portion. The 5er on the other hand has a more muscular/bulging line that is rounded off and bulges more in the upper portion, then has lots of convex/concave play throughout the door.

Actually, if you look at the W212, F10 and A7, they all have very different ways to express their side lines, which is cool to see. The W212 being the most angular/squared off version with heavily wedged/slanted lines that are very hard/sharp and more "pulled" than bulging. Then you have the F10 which doesn't have a straight/hard surface on it, but has smoother, very bulging/thicker lines that run straight and convex/concave. Then you have the A7 which is much more straightforward, no bulges, and just cascades down and out from the top until it pulls into what becomes the rest of the doors fairly straight/slightly curvy surface, which is why as you you see in the A7's picture, the shadow-play between all 3 cars is very different.

I love car design, I just wish I could draw for a damn so I can mock up my own perfect-designs.

 

I absolutely love the A7 / S7, I wish they offered the S7 with a rear third seat (now they do on the A7)

I have driven a few and they are nice.

 

It's very surprising to me that someone with such a strong eye for design can't translate it into reality either by drawing or a simple CAD/CAM computer program. You mean that you can't pick up a pencil and sketch your ideas. You certainly can describe it in words but, designers work in a visual world. In their minds they see visual images. Not words. As a professional designer who earned his living for 34 years as a designer (yes, I spent 5 years in detroit with GM). I just can't grasp your flowery descriptions. I know your a young man. If you are serious...get out their and learn the computer skills to translate your verbal skills to a reality...not meaningless smoke.