Premium Brands - Have Others Caught Up?

[Ares]

Efbe said:

Ares said:

Efbe said:

Alfa, woah... they have great interiors, which model are you talking about? vs which bmw?

The Giulia QV. The interior IS great and style wise punches with the best, but some of the materials are behind the Germans.

Edited by Ares on Tuesday 26th September 09:18

Ok maybe, I haven't felt the differece between them, however (and I do get this is subjective...) the interior of the Alfa looks way better...


(if these are the right models)

Totally, although my QV is auto, with the huge beautiful paddles.

....but as I said, looks/style it wins, but some of the materials and over finish is behind the Germans.

[Efbe]

Ares said:

Totally, although my QV is auto, with the huge beautiful paddles.

....but as I said, looks/style it wins, but some of the materials and over finish is behind the Germans.

Will have to try one out.

Am still stuck in a 159 sw due to not yet having found anything I like more
Owned her a long long time now though

[culpz]

One of the nicest new-car interiors that i've sat in is the KIA Pro-Cee'd GT. I was extremely impressed and it's on par with some decent premium German stuff, if not better than some.

It's BMW for me that's always been a huge let down. '16 plate BMW 118i M Sport i had access to for 2-3 weeks was absolute trash in comparison. My 2013 Scirocco was much better, IMO.

[daemon]

Thought this looked pretty reasonably priced for a 2016 Mondeo Vignale 2.0 Ecoboost variant...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

[av185]

daemon said:

Thought this looked pretty reasonably priced for a 2016 Mondeo Vignale 2.0 Ecoboost variant...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

Trouble with stuff like this is it looks cheap enough but anything that has nearly halved in value relative to otr official cost price in little over 12 months and 11k miles will inevitably continue its eye watering depreciation until it is relatively worthless.

[daemon]

av185 said:

daemon said:

Thought this looked pretty reasonably priced for a 2016 Mondeo Vignale 2.0 Ecoboost variant...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

Trouble with stuff like this is it looks cheap enough but anything that has nearly halved in value relative to otr official cost price in little over 12 months and 11k miles will inevitably continue its eye watering depreciation until it is relatively worthless.

Yes, it was because we had been talking about Vignales a couple of pages back and there had been discussion about how much of a premium they are over regular Mondys. This one seems about £3,000 cheaper than others i'd seen.

It would have been around £30K list price, however theres around 20% discount available taking it back to around £24K. Seems quite reasonable depreciation @ £19K at 18 months old?

Price wise, that particular one isnt much of a premium over a similar engined Titanium.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

[shotta287]

I used to think Insignias were decent cars until I hired a 2014 reg for a short while. Awful steering wheel feel, awful gear knob, and the seats had my back aching. The look and feel of the gauges, heater controls and centre display imo are miles behind the Germans.
Merc's current lineup I think has the best interiors. Audi I feel tries to look too futuristic although the latest A4 has a well nice interior. BMW for me has always been last in that regard. The E90 generation had an incredibly bland inside. My 2009 A3 (imo) has a better look and feel than a friends 2010 M Sport E92. Albeit his doesn't have iDrive.

[daemon]

shotta287 said:

I used to think Insignias were decent cars until I hired a 2014 reg for a short while. Awful steering wheel feel, awful gear knob, and the seats had my back aching. The look and feel of the gauges, heater controls and centre display imo are miles behind the Germans.
Merc's current lineup I think has the best interiors. Audi I feel tries to look too futuristic although the latest A4 has a well nice interior. BMW for me has always been last in that regard. The E90 generation had an incredibly bland inside. My 2009 A3 (imo) has a better look and feel than a friends 2010 M Sport E92. Albeit his doesn't have iDrive.

The typical hire car spec ones are fairly poor, to me it takes the SRi spec before you get decent trim and seats. Even then it needs to be on upgraded wheels before they look reasonable.

I ran one for a few months and liked it. They do get decent reviews too, particularly the later ones.

They're by no means "dynamic", but you can buy a 2016 one for under £10K which seems like an awful lot of car for the money.

[WJNB]

Audemars said:

Got stuck in traffic on the weekend. Looked across the road and there was what appeared to be a large gated community of caravans. Outside every other caravan/mobile home was a BMW or Merc.

These are no longer premium brands. Only commoners think they are premium.

....which is where most of the vulgar over-sized big wheeled gangster glassed dripped in blobs of chrome Mercedes end up. Often seen with a rear window sticker 'MY OTHER MODE OF TRANSPORT IS A TOW-BAR EQUIPPED TRANSIT PICK-UP LOADED WITH SPARE TARMAC'.

[Twig62]

daemon said:

shotta287 said:

I used to think Insignias were decent cars until I hired a 2014 reg for a short while. Awful steering wheel feel, awful gear knob, and the seats had my back aching. The look and feel of the gauges, heater controls and centre display imo are miles behind the Germans.
Merc's current lineup I think has the best interiors. Audi I feel tries to look too futuristic although the latest A4 has a well nice interior. BMW for me has always been last in that regard. The E90 generation had an incredibly bland inside. My 2009 A3 (imo) has a better look and feel than a friends 2010 M Sport E92. Albeit his doesn't have iDrive.

The typical hire car spec ones are fairly poor, to me it takes the SRi spec before you get decent trim and seats. Even then it needs to be on upgraded wheels before they look reasonable.

I ran one for a few months and liked it. They do get decent reviews too, particularly the later ones.

They're by no means "dynamic", but you can buy a 2016 one for under £10K which seems like an awful lot of car for the money.

I have never known a car where there is such a huge difference between the low spec and high spec models when it comes to driving "pleasure". The base models are awful but the the upmarket models are much much better !

[daemon]

Twig62 said:

I have never known a car where there is such a huge difference between the low spec and high spec models when it comes to driving "pleasure". The base models are awful but the the upmarket models are much much better !

They're never going to set the world on fire, but you can buy an SRi variant with all the toys for significantly less than the poverty spec variant by VW, Ford and Skoda for that matter.

I'm not advocating them as "the answer", but they're a lot of car for the money and a lot better (with the right spec level and engine) than a lot of people give them credit for.