thinking about changing the A2 for something a bit bigger - Merc B-class?

russellbridge

russellbridge

A2OC Donor
Hi all,
After nearly 3 years with our fantastic little A2, it may be getting time to change for something a bit bigger. Most of all, the new car has to make me smile! (which the A2 still does...)

Quick brief:
- Everyday transport, inc commuting, school run, 80 mile regular trip to folks, weekends away etc - 18-20k miles per year.
- small but spacious (Berny is a very good driver but a lot of our driving is in Manchester city centre / tight car parks and we'd rather have a smaller car than a bigger one)
- fuel efficient
- £10k budget (assuming secondhand)
- reliable
- 5 seats or more for 2 x adults + 2 x children + friend
- I also use it for my architecture practice so it's got to be good/interesting/quirky enough for client meetings / lifts.
- not too bothered about high miles (bought the A2 with 112k and currently on 160k with no issues)

These are the cars I've looked at: (and discounted)
Audi A3 - not a big enough boot, bland
Audi A5 (high miles) - felt very special but only four seats, massively offset pedals
Audi A4 avant - bit too corporate
VW golf estate - dull as ditchwater
Skoda Octavia estate - ditto, already had one! (Zzzz...and that was a VRS...)
VW Touran - OMG where is my life going....(the very sensible solution)
Skoda Yeti - tiny boot, still too expensive
Honda FRV - middle seat in the front prevents access to children in rear (squabbles, dropped toys etc). Poor interior design and finish (looks like a childs spaceship toy to my eyes)
Any Vauxhall / Citroen / Renault - no thanks. Prejudice - possibly, but I also take a lot of note of JD Power surveys etc and don't want an unreliable heap. Not good enough for client meetings.
Ford C-Max / S-max. Eminently practical. Horendous dash. Not good enough for client meetings.
Volvo XC-xx - don't want a big 4x4 (no need...)

Which leaves:
Merc B-class. Diesel 180 or 200. Approx 2008 with 60k miles. Can be found with very nice leather interior and pan. sunroof. Decent sized boot, but no sliding seats (until 2012 model)
Does anyone on here run one? If so, would you be willing to share your experiences please...

Anyone got any other ideas? Perhaps I just need to let some of my prejudices go... :)

Cheers
Russ

ps we've also got a 1984 VW T25 camper van and I've got a Vectrix electric scooter (which has just been sold hopefully...). Previous cars (to give you a flavour) original Mini x2, MGB-GT x 2, Ford Ka x 2, Audi TT, Lotus Elise, Mazda MX-5, Octavia VRS, Audi A2...
 
Have a look at the Q3 - I know Murdo has one as does Pamanal21. I helped Alan recently in fitting HID lights to his and it's a huge thing with plenty of space and 5 proper seats. Don't confuse it with the bulkier Q5 or gargantuan Q7 - they're totally different beasts.

If you go to Mercedes, you'll regret it - much as I've got a few gripes with Audi in recent years, their build quality is still second to none.

EDIT

Just seen your budget and that you need second hand. In this case the Q3 is out as it's only just been released this year.
 
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Hadn't considered the Q3, but at £25k min secondhand it's a bit out of my budget!
BMW 1 - too small
BMW 3 - all driven by cretins
Seat Exeo - poss - along with an older A4 Avant (same car underneath). Good idea...
Alfa 159 - I did look at these, but a quick read of any review site brings up many, many examples which have been back in the dealer/garage longer than they've been on the road!
VW Tiguan - like the Yeti it's a bit small in the boot and image is a bit too mumsy.

An off-the-wall idea considered this afternoon is to get a diesel 140 T5 day-van with seats in the back, and slowly convert it to replace the T25, then buy a little car to replace the T25 when we sell that. Berny's not convinced about driving a T5 as an 'everyday car'. I think it's great idea...

But back to original question - has anyone got any first hand experience of the B-class? Went to look at a 100k miler this afternoon and it still feels well screwed together. The garage in Preston also had a very nice A2 FSI in blood red (Misano?) with black leather and Opensky, but it was customers car. Very nice it was too...

Thank for everyone's input so far!
Russ
 
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Sorry can't help you with the Merc, had one six years ago and wouldn't have another, I do however have an A3 TDI Quattro with 170 bhp and bland it certainly isn't

224_zps7a88bf21.jpg


That's all really ;)
 
Whilst I agree that BMW come up with some seriously impressive MPG figures for their cars - the real world figures don't seem to tally - see spiritmonitor.de or similar mpg websites. For instance restricting spiritmonitor to a 3series 320d 2005-2011 130-170ps gives an overall average (from 389 real world inputs to the site) of 42mpg. For reference A2 tdi 75 gives 58mpg overall average, from 205 inputs - sounds about right from my 3 years on the fantastic A2OC.net
Hmmm. Merc B-class 180CDi gives 44mpg average. Bit short of the quoted 54mpg. :(
Disappointing that there's not much (other than tiny cars) to touch the A2 for mpg 12 years on...
 
I'm quite enjoying my 2006 Honda Civic 2.2CTDI. With an open mind it shares some, but not all, qualities of the A2.

Distinctive styling
Clever rear seats, not removable, but fold in one action to leave a completely flat boot area
Split level boot space

It also gives me 55mpg on average. Does 0-60mph in 8.5s according to the book. The 6th gear makes for comfortable motorway cruising.
Timing chain rather than belt - so less servicing to pay for
Honda build quality.
Affordable servicing.

russellbridge said:
An off-the-wall idea considered this afternoon is to get a diesel 140 T5 day-van with seats in the back, and slowly convert it to replace the T25, then buy a little car to replace the T25 when we sell that. Berny's not convinced about driving a T5 as an 'everyday car'. I think it's great idea...
Click to expand...

A friend has a T5 175PSI version he uses everyday. It has one row of rear seats plus side and rear windows (not sure what flavour that makes it). Having gone with him to the auction I was very surprised how expensive they were. But with so many conversion kits available they do seem to be the leisure van of choice. Also in their favour they seem to be quite narrow relative to other vans so parking is similar to that of an estate car.
 
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Skipton01 said:
And here's me thinking he was a man of taste.
Click to expand...

Brilliant! That gave me a good laugh this morning. Guilty as charged; unashamed keeper of tasteless Q5!

I'd second ULP's recommendation to consider Citroen. My dad's C-Max has the 1.6HDi engine as referred to by Chris, and it is impressive in respect of performance and economy. ( The rest of the car is not so impressive, but then its a blue oval I suppose)

I had a C3 HDi as a hire car whilst in France for a week and as pointed out, the build quality is rubbish compared to German cars, however I had a very enjoyable and comfortable 900km of driving with the C3 and it is definitely a more quirky and better screwed together car than the PSA group cars I used to own in the 90's and early 00's.

Fair comment about reliability; however I have read a fair bit about the 1.6HDi following the auld fella buying one; and as long as the maintenance regime is as Chris describes they are a safe bet.
 
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Bro -in-law just bought a pretty new A class for about 10k. Very roomy for the size, almost as good as a Jazz but way better equipped and more luxury. Very quiet and ride is comfortable but that's about it. The steering is totally feel-less, the diesel engine with the auto gearbox is very unresponsive. It wobbles badly even compared to a Jazz and certainly no match to my slightly modified A2. If that is the sign of things, I'd take a boring Golf over a B class. Besides, for 10k you can bag a very nice GTI which I still consider is the perfect compromise for practicality and bit of fun (although real world economy seems pretty bad). Having said that, my friend's C class isn't bad at all, it is a almost fully loaded C 220 Sport with some AMG stuff. The mud flaps might scrape the speed humps (even my 996 doesn't do that) but it has enough power from the engine, very smooth operation, ok space at the back and boot is large. It is also a very good looking car, particularly in black, on the sports suspension riding AMG 18" alloys.

I'd second 159 as I seriously looked at it myself. The rear leg room isn't great and the slightly bucketed seats makes fitting even stage 2 boosters eliminate what little is left in the middle for the 3rd rear passenger. In that regard, only the A4 with much less pronounced side cushion at the back is good enough (as well as many FWD cars). I totally love the front of the 159 and prefer the sportwagon. The 1.9 should be good, where as 2.4 seems to have suffered more issue and poor mpg. The main problem is unbalanced front tyre wear and you need to get the geo aligned correctly (alfa forums are informative). A black 159 1.9 sportwagon with white leather interior on 18" telephone dials would be very good.
 
If you want good build quality with space and economy have you considered a skoda superb? The green line is very frugal and rear room is world leading for the class. I have considered a 1.8TSI 4x4 estate on LPG as being my ideal car to replace the mk1 Octavia 4x4 1.8T (on LPG also)
 
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Well, went to have a drive in a B-class today - not impressed - no tingle in the trouser department.

The downside of having had a few very good cars in the past is that everything in comparison feels poor:
TT - fantastic interior quality - remember seeing it at the 98(?) motor show and being blown away. It didn't let me down when I eventually got one. Only seriously failed me down once dynamically going over Buttertubs Pass rather quickly...
Elise - everyday go-cart, fantastically bare alu/leather interior. Lots of lightness added.
A2 - brilliant in everyway. Really don't want to get rid. Light, torquey, efficient, tardis-like, small, quality, 30k service intervals...

Thanks for everyone's comments - lots of food for thought there (and more lost days looking round car showrooms...)

If I keep the A2 AND get another car instead of swapping it, can you get third-party only insurance to keep the costs down? Or are multi-car policies the way forwards?
 
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Seat Altea FR TDi would be high on my list or the latest Octavia Vrs TDi estate or if your budget will stretch to a used Seat Exeo estate?
 
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