nathanyork

After reading quite a bit, Mercedes sees the R class as competing with the likes of Caddy Escalade buyers. I thought I would share what we looked at and see how it compares to others.

This car is for my wife, and we have 1 child 2nd coming up soon enough.
She currently drives a 01 Volvo V70 turbo wagon.

We looked at:

Volvo XC90 way to small, 2nd row has no pass through

Buick Enclave. really pretty good, but seats and other stuff felt cheap, plus I could not see myself driving a Buick. Put a GMC badge on it and I probably could have stomached it.

GMC Acadia. horrible styling, felt cheap

Volkswagen Routan. felt like the chrysler minivan it was under the skin, and was $42k loaded

Suburban/Denali XL/Escalade esv Escalade was the only one that really appealed, different suspension and styling, felt well made really was pretty good and did not drive as much like a truck as the other 2, came close to pulling the trigger, except I could not keep a straight face driving it, looking like a rapper. I liked the Denali alot, but my wife nearly got carsick riding in the rear seat.

Ford Excursion/Lincoln Navigator both felt cheap, liked the excursion styling on outside, inside not so much. Navigator was very very very ugly.

Toyota Sequoia. Hugely expensive for what it was and felt pretty cheap, although a bit better than the Buick

Infinity xgmlt whatever I did not like the styling, my wife did, felt cheap inside, drove like the huge truck it was.

It took us 2 months of intensive test drives to come back to the car that we thought about first, the R350. I think it really fits us best. It is unfortunate that everyone I tell lifts an eyebrow when they hear. They have to be the most underrated Benz ever.

By the way, MB was correct, even though I have never been a GM man, the escalade was our runner up. I even was starting to look for gold chains and a "grill" in preparation of purchase.....

avlis

I was originally looking at '04 E-Class wagons last fall when prices on the 06 R350s starting dropping below the prices of '04 E wagons. We always wanted the R, but my wife also window shopped:
Audi Allroad
Mazda 5
Mazda CX9
VW Routan
Toyota Sienna
Honda Odyssey
Acura MDX

The only one of these we bothered driving was an MDX with 40 or 50k miles. Smelled like it was in a flood, interior quality was just like our 2000 Honda Accord. All for $28k. We compared it against an 06' R 500 with 30k miles and every option except DVD for the same price. We passed on the R500 because it had some fairly major repairs done under warranty and all those bells and whistles (air suspension) made the wife nervous about post warranty repair costs. i found it hard to pass up a car that cost $70k new selling for $28k.

She got an 06 R350 with CPO.

AsianR350

nathanyork,

Well said +1.

I was shopping for an import luxury SUV that can carry 7 passengers and drive comfortable likes a car for almost a years and I finally end up purchased a brand new 08 R350 which I paid $41,200 after a big discount. (STILL LOVE the R after put 5000 miles on it for a year).

nanoera

We were shopping for a 6+ seater to accommodate 2 kids and a set of granny.
Thought about:
Pacifica
Mountaineer
E wagon
A6 wagon

Tried inside:
GL450
MDX
Q7

Test drove:
R350
XC90

Ok my wife has always wanted an MB. And I was just hooked by the pano roof and roomy 3rd row.

nathanyork

I am suprised to hear that you guys looked at e wagons. The VOLVO wagon was really tight and so was the 2001 e wagon I had before. Plus I thought the 3rd seat was a joke for anything but an emergency. It is really amazing to me that more of these type of crossovers do not exist. You would think that more consumers would be looking for a quaulity family car that is not a cheap feeling minivan. I looked at an odyssy online and could not believe it was priced in the same league.

BallJack

My wife and I looked at:

Audi Q7 - it was my first choice (the wife preferred the R better regardless of the price). I thought it was way too expensive. Hard to justify the cost especially considering the trunk money MB put in. I thought the R drove more smoothly but I got to give Audi a plus on a richer looking interior and more advanced features.

Mazda CX9 - it was decent and priced attractively. I thought handling was very good but a little bumpy. Was qouted $38k on one model that I liked. No brainer to just get the R for $40k.

Honda Odyssey Touring - I don't understand why we even bothered to look at it even after a horrible experience with the previous model. Their fully loaded model was close to $40K! Are they kidding?

Acura MDX - the wife hated the styling.

Chevy Tahoe - actually my second choice but then again it's for my wife. She felt this was too big for her.

We're so so happy about our decision to get the R. The more I use it, the more I love it.

avlis

I considered an E-wagon originally because we only have two small kids and gas prices last year were nutty. After selling my C-class year, I wanted to get another Benz in the high-teens/low $20k's. The C-wagon was too small and not much cheaper than the E-wagons. Then the '06 R-classes became cheaper '04 E-wagons with higher mileage.

achu717

Honda OdyssyTouring and Toyota Sienna limited are no comparison to the MB R350. R350 easily beats the Minivans even with top of line fully loaded and leather seats. The thing with the minivan is that all equipments can be upgraded to top of line but the road and engine noises cannot be removed in those minivans. Sliding doors don't do much for us. R is spacious, quiet (no road, no engine noise) and rides very comfortably. we love the huge 2nd row leg room. we folded down the 3rd most of time for extra cargo space.

rosswell

I already own an '06 R350, and recently looked at a 2004 E320 wagon - with every option (4 matic, xenons, etc etc.) It had a CD and cassette player. Nice car - on for 25K Canadian at the dealer. But it had 100,000 Kms and some curb rash on most wheels.

Wanted it for my kids as they're fairly uncommon cars. Not as roomy as the R however.