Help me decide which car to buy
 

Hi all,

I have been all over the board and can't decide what I want. I currently drive a RAV4 v6 and after we got out BMW 3 series for the wife I thought when it comes to replacing my car i will get the X5.

We we loved our first BMW 3 series but the interior felt so cheap and the ride was harsh. When it was
time to replace we got the Mercedes bend c300 which feels so much more luxurious and has a comfortable ride.

I went and test drive the x5 and did not feel any excitement, it drove well but nothing stood out. The cargo space was small and options quickly add up.

I have not not driven the GLE but I did test drive the ml350 which I felt was heavy and underpowered. Don't know if things have changed with the gle.
I also have the xc90 on my list but the dealers are not discounting as much and the issues people are having.

So is the GLE good for a family, will it fit 2 cars seats in the back and room for one more person to sit? comfortably.

Whatbare re the must have options. I don't want it loaded but the options that are must haves.

Does it it have remote start? And is apple car play standard or option? Does it work welll?

any input from the owners and any experience that you can share if you have owned any of the cars mentioned above.

GLE is a great family car. But I dont know how 2 seats and a human wil work though. It'll be tight. Better opt for the GLS? Or I think or wait a year and get the fixed bug XC90. What about the rover sport with 7 seats?

350 will feel lightly more nimble than the ML. But its the same engine V6 with about 300hp. I think they shed some weight.

- Apple play may be an option if you choose a lower trim.

- Remote on Benz via the smartphone app is garbage. It works 10% of the time for me.

You should go test drive one. I think you will like it alot. In the 5 seater class it is the top I think.

From my experience, 2 car seats and one adult in the back is doable, but only if this is a small adult. My wife or my mother would fit without issue, but I would struggle to get my shoulders on the back rest. Now we moved to the GLS, we put one kid in the third row, the other one in the middle row. Much easier and we can fit 7 without drama.
Among options that are must have: THE LED HEADLIGHTS. do NOT miss on that or you will end up with all the people feeding the threads about how to upgrade from halogen to led (not doable, or close to impossible at least).
For the rest, I dont think much matters as much as the headlights. I like the extended safety pack (not sure how it's called in the US) including the distronic plus, lane keeping assist, blind spot assist etc.

If you don't mind my asking, which year (years?) 3 series did you have? I used to have an e39 5 series, currently in a '14 320 on which the lease is almost up, and have on order a '17 340 to replace it. Were your cars ordered or off the lot? On the 3's, the options make the car. There's 5 different suspension setups available so ride quality can vary from car to car. I like the W205 sport exterior, interior didn't do anything for me. Had a couple of loaners and also like the way they drive but the lack of a manual transmission is a deal breaker for me.

Through the years, we've looked at the X5 a couple of times but for some reason or another ended up with something else. I like the way the X5 drives but for our family vehicle, we liked the ML diesel better. Because of MB switching to the 4 cylinder diesel, for the GLE, we opted for the 350 gas engine. Not too thrilled w/ the engine but the car itself still keeps us happy. Never mind the numbers, the cargo area of the GLE feels bigger and can fit strollers, etc better than the X5. I have no experience w/ the Volvo, can't get past the idea of the 4 cylinder, even being turbo and supercharged. The 7 seat RRS is a tight fit in the 3rd row, and that's if you can find one. Better off w/ a LR4 for a usable 3rd row. The GLS is the only other comfortable 3rd row before you get into the Tahoe/Suburban/Sequoia/QX80 size trucks.

2 car seats can fit in the GLE, but my MIL who is just under 5' fits. Anyone bigger might not be comfortable for too long. Must have options are the premium pkg, LED headlights, trailer hitch, pre-wiring for the rear entertainment (trust me on that one, there's more included) and running boards if you have kids. Even if you don't plan on towing, get the hitch, it's short money, and almost impossible to properly add afterwards.

Remote start is thru an app and can be aggravating at times but works 85% of the time for us. When the servers are down, the cust service people are of no help as the tell you it's a password or account issue.

I built a GLE 350 online yesterday and with the things that I though I need, it was around $65,000. Then I built the XC90 and except for air suspension and b&W stereo I added all other option and it was around $61,000. plus it has the 3rd row, I think its a great value and I am swaying more towards the XC90.


However, as I mentioned the XC90 owners are reporting issues, but that's what happens in the forum I m sure there are a lot of happy owners out there as well who don't post on the forum.


The GLE350 however gets discounted well and if you do MSD leases well too, compared to the XC90.


Now I did hear you guys recommend the GLS450, I do love that SUV but the sticker price, do you guys know if that cars is discounted and doe sit lease well?


The other thing with it is the size, is it a good car to drive around city, and parking etc. I feel like it will start to feel very big very soon and is more for long road trips etc.

My wife is 5' 1" and when we looked at a GL450 a few years ago, she didn't notice it really felt any different than our ML350 BTC at the time. She was driving it in the city and had no issues. Last summer we had a rental Tahoe while waiting for a replacement windshield on the GLE. She could feel the size in that but it was easy to maneuver. And just for reference, the Toyota Sequoia felt overwhelming to her.

The GLS350 diesel would be my 1st choice, but VW and availability screwed that up. Can't remember if you're buying or leasing, but if leasing, dealers tend to have demo or former loaner GLS450's w/ a few miles on them that can be had for about the cost of a GLE.

I would check out the Audi Sq5 if you want speed/power with comfort or the q7 if you want power and luxury. I'll be handing the GLE to the wife and getting a q7 or Sq5 if they update the interior to match the q7(display can be retracted + command cockpit). I sat in my Brother in laws fully loaded q7 and my jaw dropped. The exterior is a bit "mini-van-ish" (it's great as a family vehicle while still letting you have a ton of fun) but the interior is unreal. The driver cockpit display is incredibly awesome. I would highly recommend you check it out. The X5 is definitely a performance vehicle, but you have to drive it in sport mode to feel it (drove it for a week on a california road trip, fell in love, but you're right, it's small and pricey)

If you decide to stick with the GLE: heated seats/steering wheel, pano roof is optional but nice to have, black piano trim, upgrade to the harmon kardon sound system(phenomenal upgrade for not that much money), and you MUST get the lighting package(this is not optional if you plan on any modicum of safety, i'm not joking, you can check out the various threads). The reason I dislike MB is the adaptive transmission is garbage and many features features feel cheaply made. The adaptive transmission takes all the fun out of driving the car, it does not result in smooth shifts, you often try to give it some gas to merge and nothing happens(literally...nothing) or you barely touch the gas and it revs to 4000rpm. There are various posts about resetting the ECU to fix this, but who the hell wants to do this every 6 months? (it also doesn't solve the problem) It's a nice family car to drive in the suburbs, but don't expect to get much excitement out of it. just my $0.02

Remote start as others have said is garbage. Ive gotten it to work maybe 5-10% of the time, you can't turn on the heated seats or steering wheel, theres a 2 attempt limit (so if it fails 2x you're out of luck), when it does work it takes upwards of 3-4 minutes to connect. Pretend as though it doesn't exist.

I have a larger than normal car seat (a lot if side protection in the car seat) in the back of mine and still my inlaws can fit back there. I wouldn't drive for a very long time with them back there, also because I wouldn't want to hear the yak yak yak yak yak yak talk coming from the back seat.
I've posted pics of it somewhere in this forum and I'll try to find it later when I get back to my computer.

I would say say the logical transition from a Rav 4 or BM3 would be the GLC gut now that you've driven the E I think you are stuck with it. We drove the GLC and really liked everything about it but once we drove the GLE there was no comparison IMO. For a couple or small family of 3 it would be fine but for a growing family of 4 I think the GLE is Perfect. Go for it and you will certainly not be disappointed. Good Luck