BMW, Mercedes or Volvo?

[livinginasia]

Hi everyone

Looking for some thoughts from the PH community please. We need a new car for our place in Thailand and it’s difficult to choose.

First baby on the way so I need a practical family car that is small (wife driving) but also spacious and particularly, safe.

Being in Thailand, choices are quite limited, so we are basically looking at the following:

BMW X1, only one available is 18d two wheel drive which is nice but painfully slow.

Merc GLA250 AMG, again front wheel drive, really nice to drive but she doesn’t like having the gears where the indicators are in our other car (right hand stalk) and thinks she may keep putting it into neutral by mistake at junctions which is not good.

Volvo V40, it’s a bit cheaper and we really like it but it’s quite low down (nice to be in small SUV so driving position is a little higher) and it’s also an old model now and I think due to be replaced within a year or so? Not entirely sure if it has enough space for baby detritus as never had a baby before.

Then the two Japanese options: Honda HRV which is a 1.8 Petrol, FWD and pretty gutless with a CVT gearbox so it’s painful on the ears, or Mazda CX-5 which would be a 2.2 diesel with AWD. Over here, Japanese cars are everywhere which means servicing and spares are cheap. However this also means they are everywhere and about every other car is a Mazda CX-5 or a Honda HRV so they are as common as muck.

Really nothing else available as family cars, choices here are extremely limited.

Any thoughts please? Advantages or disadvantages that I haven’t thought of? Wife is hoping to be a “cool mum” as you can probably imagine.

Thanks everyone

[Scoopie]

My mum's got a v40 r-design, lovely place to be. Not sure about fitting a baby, but a large dog fits in quite easily. Whether or not it fits the cool mum bracket is another question

Edited by Scoopie on Monday 26th February 11:59

[livinginasia]

Thanks Scoopie that’s good to know a big dog can fit :-)

[E36GUY]

livinginasia said:

Hi everyone

Merc GLA250 AMG, again front wheel drive, really nice to drive but she doesn’t like having the gears where the indicators are in our other car (right hand stalk) and thinks she may keep putting it into neutral by mistake at junctions which is not good.

I thought this but having it on my e-Class I am now so used to it I put the wipers on in my wifes car. It makes a lot more sense having the stalk there when maneouvering than in the middle of the centre console. You'll get used to it in seconds.

[livinginasia]

Thanks E36, that’s very reassuring. Really appreciate the feedback.

[Vitorio]

Do the sensible thing and get the CX-5 is what i would suggest. You seem to dislike major things about every single car you've listed, so accept that you wont be happy with it, so get the sensible, dependable option, let the wife pick a cool colour or some options etc..

[livinginasia]

Thanks Vitorio, good idea :-)

[TopTrump]

They are new-glitzy bullst and the GLA is a strange little thing and rhymes with ghey.

Volvo I reckon.

[livinginasia]

TopTrump .... that’s hilarious and I know what you mean - lucky it’s for the wife

Looks like it’s between the Volvo and the CX5 :-)

[FN2TypeR]

The Volvo should be big enough for the masses of child stuff but there's a lip that you'll have to lift things over to get them in to the boot, which could be annoying if the pram etc is cumbersome.

They're a few years old now but they're nice cars on the whole IMO. Well worth a look.

[SkodaIan]

The V40 has the least practical boot of any medium hatchback, which is quite an achievement for a company which used to pride itself on making huge rectangular Cara. Our pushchair cannot go into the boot of my dad's V40 at any angle without putting a seat down, but fits easily in a Leon, i30, Astra, Focus etc with no problem at all.

[dave_s13]

You do indeed get used to it within minutes. I've not tried but I'm pretty sure flicking the stalk up/down when moving would do nothing. It might put you in neutral I suppose?

Basically the controls in my E class are in exactly the correct place and all other cars are wrong.

[livinginasia]

dave_s13 said:

You do indeed get used to it within minutes. I've not tried but I'm pretty sure flicking the stalk up/down when moving would do nothing. It might put you in neutral I suppose?

Basically the controls in my E class are in exactly the correct place and all other cars are wrong.

Haha love it !