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Impressions from the right seat
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Posted by Noel [Email] (more from Noel) on Mon, 5 Feb 2007 05:59:30 Share Post by Email
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It's one thing to base one's impressions of a car from behind the wheel, but there's a lot to be said for being a passenger, too.

I just spent 3 days in Belgium where my colleagues and I were shuttled around in A6 Audis and various Mercedes sedans. I didn't get to drive any of them, but on a variety of roads got a good sense of how the cars compare to Saabs from a passenger's point of view.

The A6 wagons we did about 70 miles on 2 lane rural roads. The cars were nice but seemed to ride fairly hard; harder than the A6 I rode in last year in Munich. Fit and finish was on a par with my wife's '03 9-5 Linear. I think these were 2001 models, but not sure. These were privately owned and well-maintained. They had the 1.9 turbo diesel engines.

The 3 Mercedes were interesting. All were diesels, not a lot of miles on any of them, and although they were taxis, they were well-equipped (leather seats, nice sound systems, etc).

The C-class cars are small, about like a 3-series Bimmer or a 9-3, but seemed a tighter fit for my 6'2" 200 lb body. The ride was fine, but I wouldn't want to take a long ride in one. Hadn't been in one before.

The E-class (2 of them) were nice, but I thought it was just a bit better than the 9-5 for fit and finish, obvious features. About equal for comfort, but not, in my mind, worth the added money.

The S-class, a S320, that took me to the airport Sunday morning was the best, but then it *was* an S-class. Very nice car, excellent ride, even though the driver was less than smooth. Was noisier on the highway at 85 mph than I would have thought: quieter than my 9000, about equal to my 9-5 wagon. But is this a $65K car? Not in my book.

Would have loved to have gotten in some drive-time in any of these, but it was still good to get an impression of these cars, which, except for the S320, compete with Saabs. I don't know about all the bells and whistles they may have, but on a dollar value basis the Saab comes out looking pretty good, IMHO.

Just my $0.02. And it was great to get into my 9K when I got home.
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