JimBarnhart

We lost blittle a few months ago to an Escalade.

Well my story is a little different. We are a 2 driver, 3 car family. We had our run around Kia Soul, a Dodge Ram Diesel for traveling with the horses and the GL350 as our luxury vehicle. The Ram was a 2006 and was getting long in the tooth. Well after much debate and coercion from the wife, we've made the decision to converge the GL350 and the 2006 Dodge into a 2015 Ram 2500 Laramie Limited Cummins diesel. The deal was done today, my GL is gone. I put about 250 miles on it today.

Obviously this isn't a comparison to the GL350 in many aspects. It's a truck, so the ride will be a truck. It doesn't have blind spot, distronic, etc, etc. I'm clearly not driving a Mercedes, but at $71K it's got a lot of stuff. I won't bore you with my perspectives, since I highly doubt anyone on this forum would ever be in a situation to compare a 3/4 ton pickup to a luxury SUV.

I will share my thoughts on why I was willing to let my GL350 go. I've been a Mercedes owner since the turn of the century. I thought I'd always own a MB. As many are aware on this forum, Minnesota has went to biodiesel up to 20% and MBUSA won't make a commitment on warranty. I feel this was a risk I didn't want to take. Since I was yet to get past my base warranty, I could get a refund of my extended warranty. It was a decision point, stay like I usually do for 125K miles, or leave now. I didn't really like my trade options (V6 in the GL450, $10K more for a GL550 than my well optioned GL350). There were personal reasons as well, moving to depreciating 2 vehicles instead of 3, etc. I must admit I'm a little in shock, but I think I will get over it.

I want to thank all the other members of this forum for their advice. I know I've learned a bunch about my X164 and X166 by reading and writing here. I hope I've maybe helped some of you. I do love MB's, so this isn't a bitter departure, just a decision. I may own one again, but perhaps a roadster next time? My preconceived instincts point me to a Porsche Boxter, but you never know.

Good luck to all of you, I'll probably touch base once in awhile, good habits are hard to break. Take care...

JMCarter

Farewell to a great contributor and "voice of reason". We traded a Cummings Dually into our GL350 (with a QX56 intermediate step) when we sold our Carriage Cameo fifth wheel and bought and Airstream. Love the GL but still miss the Laramie RAM. Sent you a PM...

blittle

Thanks for the PM Jim......you and I were the last of the "original GL guys" from back in 07! Remember Nevada Jack and some of those guys?! Anyway, you have made a "well thought out decision" that suits your needs and "wants!" .....which is why we all buy vehicles in the first place ( of course the "wants" sometimes take precedence ....as my wife would say!) Owning GL's for the past 8 years was an enjoyable experience for me....the vehicles never let me down and the forum contributors were such a great source of information! Enjoy the new ride....hopefully there is a "Ram forum" out there....it will be different (this one is tough to beat!) than this forum, however! ....as I have found on the Caddy forum.

4000 miles on the Escalade..... no issues, yet! 24mpg on the long trips.
To you "young guys" ....keep the this forum moving on!

aeggroup

Good Luck Jim.

JimBarnhart

Thanks guys. Yes I remember Nevada Jack, Steve the Pilot, and all the originals. I remember STP went from his GL320 to a Prius.

I have found a RAM forum, but agree it wan't compare to the good times I've had conversing with all of you.

As Fab would say... keep the beat!

chewychiu

Good luck Jim. We'll see you here from time to time.

JoeMa

Best wishes, enjoy your new Dodge Ram.

BMcD-E500

Jim - Congrats on the new truck! Do you mind coming over and pulling out a tree stump for me?? That Cummins would make quick work of that! I traded out my GL550 last month as well and into a 2016 Audi S7. Change is fun! I still poke around here for fun. I have a beautiful set of OZ rims and Blizzaks to unload now!

Enjoy!

aeggroup

Do you have pics ? Can you post it ? I'm interested.

JimBarnhart

Sure, a case of beer and I'm all in.

BenzEnvy

Best of luck Jim!

JimBarnhart

Anybody interested in my old GL in South Dakota, here it is:

https://www.billionauto.com/Used-Veh...Class-27C25598