MERCEDES-BENZ R-CLASS SPORT TOURER READER REVIEWS

My car

I love this car, which we bought new recently (a great deal). Our last car was a Volvo XC90 T6 which we also loved but this is in a different league in terms of family solutions (we have 3 growing kids and perpetual car-less london visitors so we always seem to need more than 5 seats). Compared with the Volvo the R320L has much better acceleration, handling, general calm and quietness, more space and refinement. You would not know it was a diesel! And we thought the Volvo was brilliant. Motorway consumption is 30 and overall about 27 mpg which is an improvement on the Volvo. Downsides? It is embarassingly long in LWB form but despite this we are negotiating and parking in London just fine.

My car

I hate this car. I have had it for 4 weeks now and there is nothing I like about it!

It does run smoothly I admit, but so does a new fiesta at a fraction of the price. The equipment is over complicated and therefore not easy to use, the sat nave is the worst in the world, and at the money Mercedes charge you would think they would have touch screen by now wouldnt you?

The plastic on the doors is grim, it marks easily and it doesnt clean well, the rear door is way smaller than the capacious interior, so you cant get anything of real size in it, and even the dealer had a job to work out why Mercedes launched this car!

If it was in the £18,000 - £24,000 bracket it might be almost reasonable (still not as good as a Freelander though) but at the price it is, believe me, you can do WAY better everywhere else.

DONT GET ONE!!!

My car

I bought my LWB R320 CDI Sports in August 2007. This car has strengths and weaknesses. The strengths first. It has presence, it’s roomy, it looks great in Cunbanite Silver-the best colour for this car by miles, the sports wheels look fantastic, the parking sensors are a godsend, it’s smooth, quiet, well put together, the cabin looks, and feels great, if you floor the throttle it pulls like a dream, and it corners like a Lotus–an astonishing ability that no one seems to have commented on. And now the downside. It broke down aged three days on a French motorway. The alternator failed. The standard Mercedes roadside assistance? Abysmal. I might as well have been in the Congo. The Comand system is a joke, the sat nav working successfully just once, oddly in Paris. Despite a degree in engineering and several hours spent with the encyclopaedic handbook, I still can’t work out how to adjust the clock. The length is a handicap in town. The boot, even in LWB form is microscopic. I want leather seating. I can’t have it, it’s vinyl. But the killer is its staggering thirst; this car could drink Oliver Reed under the table. After managing 18mpg on one tank–this remember is the economical diesel-I decided to drive very gently, and include one long motorway trip, to see what it could do. Economy soared to 19.8 mpg. The official fuel economy figures are a fraud. But despite all this, for some reason I like the car. It’s rare. For all the reasons stated above.

My car

After taking for a test-drive, my wife and I loved it, and prefered over the ML and E. The ML and E are great cars, but the R just suited our needs more since we need the extra space, and do many long motorway miles carrying lots of stuff

We looked at the Q7, but its not practical for getting in/out for our elderly parents. We looked at the X5, but don't like look of the new BMW's (even though I'm a big BM fan and currently own a BMW). So, the R came out top

Now, I must be the perfect customer for the Mercedes R Class: I earn £120k (USD $250k), happy to do motorway cruising rather than city/A-road, have a young family. Perfect? Will I buy a new one?

No. A brand new one with all the nice options is way too expensive, £55k. Sure I can afford it, but for that price I could by both a sports car plus some other MPV. Secondly, running costs are high: highest tax band plus the R320 only does 31mpg combined at best (the best R to go for is the R320 any less is underpowered). Of course, I'm happy to live with this, but all this pushes the cost of ownership up. MB servicing is expensive, the expectation is that you pay for quality to avoid costly problems later on: but remember, the R class is not made in Germany unlike every other (but one) but USA

Thanks, but no thanks. I'll wait now until they come way below £20k