'08 BMW 520d or '08 MB E200CDi or '09 MB E200K

Simo65

My situation is changing in a couple of months so the company car is going and I need to buy a replacement. Budget is around € 20K which I will probably spend in a main dealer as I want the peace-of-mind, warranty & back-up. I value comfort, reliability and reasonable running costs over speed, etc. Absolute essentials are: about 2.0 litres, automatic transmission, leather, as many toys as possible. I will be doing about 25,000Kms per year. So far I am down to the following:

2008 BMW 520d
· Pros:
o Cheap tax (€ 330)
o Cheap to run (annual fuel bill c.€ 2,250)
o Big choice
o Main dealers offering 2 year warranty
· Cons:
o Common
o Diesel servicing?

2008 Mercedes E220CDi
· Pros
o Cheap to run (annual fuel bill c.€ 2,250)
o Not as common
· Cons:
o Dearer tax (€ 660)
o Main dealers offering 1 year warranty
o Diesel servicing?

2009 Mercedes E200 Kompressor
· Pros
o A year younger and less Kms up for the money
o Not as common
o Petrol servicing?
· Cons:
o Dearer tax (€ 1,050)
o Not as fuel efficient & petrol dearer than diesel (annual fuel bill € 3,000)

So based on the above figures the BMW is the cheapest to run, the diesel Merc adds about € 330 a year to my running costs and the petrol Merc adds about € 1,500 to the annual running costs of the BMW but is newer and has less kms up.

Anyone got an opinion as to which I should go for?

Damien360

Simo65 wrote: »

So based on the above figures the BMW is the cheapest to run, the diesel Merc adds about € 330 a year to my running costs and the petrol Merc adds about € 1,500 to the annual running costs of the BMW but is newer and has less kms up.

If you are worried about extra costs between 330 and 1500 extra per year, you could go down to the D class car and try a well specced insignia or skoda superb with the 170bhp engine with all the trimmings.

Blazer

Might be biased but 520D...
Extremely comfortable, leather interior and great fuel economy.
As long as you maintain regular oil changes (about every 12,000 kms) your engine should be fine.
BMW recommend every 20,000 or something but the heads in bmw.drivers.net all say the key to maintaining the engine/turbo/dpf is regular oil changes.

Simo65

Blazer wrote: »

Might be biased but 520D...
Extremely comfortable, leather interior and great fuel economy.
As long as you maintain regular oil changes (about every 12,000 kms) your engine should be fine.
BMW recommend every 20,000 or something but the heads in bmw.drivers.net all say the key to maintaining the engine/turbo/dpf is regular oil changes.

I guess that's another point in favor of the petrol i.e. servicing cost would be a lot lower.

What's all the stuff I hear about the dpf? Does it give much trouble and/or does t need to be replaced often (& at what cost)?

Many thanks for your reply.

Simo65

Damien360 wrote: »

If you are worried about extra costs between 330 and 1500 extra per year, you could go down to the D class car and try a well specced insignia or skoda superb with the 170bhp engine with all the trimmings.

Not exactly worried just want what's best within reason i.e. don't want to end up spending much more than is necessary.

Though I'm sure the Insignia & Superb are great cars they're not really what I'm interested in.

Thanks for the reply though.

mickdw

Would you spend alittle extra and get a nicely speced new model E Class.

Simo65

Looked at that, and the new 5-series too, but you are straying into mid-€ 30's country which is more than I want to part with. Hence I'm sort of stuck on '08 diesel or '09 petrol.

mickdw

26 to 27k Id say from the uk, was only looking them up this morning. nicely speced 09 E250 cdi seem to be around 17.5k sterling with 6k vrt.

Simo65

Yea, had a look at UK a while back. Between the crap sterling rate and the VRT everything I looked at seemed to be getting horrid expensive. Plus I really want the comfort & ease of dealing with a main dealer. As I'm a cash buyer I think I should be able to knock out a good deal.

mickdw

Fair enough - Just dont assume that all main dealers will be a dream to deal with. They differ hugely from experience.

166man

Quite like the E220 CDI but I can't imagine it being on a par with a 520d for fuel economy so I'd imagine the fuel costs would be higher.

Based on your criteria 520 seems the car for you.

bazz26

If you are going for the 520d from a main dealer try and get one from the BMW Sterling Collection. They come with the 2 year warranty and are generally higher spec UK models. Alot of these also came with the 5 year Service Inclusive pack from new so they may have a year or so free servicing left on them. If going for the auto make sure it is the newer auto box, much better than the older one.

The newer auto box has a smarter looking shifter:

drunkmonkey

Should the Lexus gs450H get a look in if you can find a 2008 one?

mickdw

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Should the Lexus gs450H get a look in if you can find a 2008 one?

Worth a drive I'd say. Expensive to fuel though. Finding an 08 one here can be difficult.

Simo65

Thanks all for the replies. After all the advice I am veering towards a 2008 520d with the new (N47) engine and new gearbox (with the star-trek lever). I think it'll be the cheapest to run (in all respects) whilst also being a nice place to be. It should also be easier to dispose of in a year if I need to. By the way drunkmonkey I did consider the RX400h earlier in my deliberations but it's thirst swayed me against it.

Thanks again everyone.