Mercedes-Benz A160 W168 Classic Auto and Manual auto-clutch.

As one of our main reasons for selling the Lexus RX330 (*sob*) was the fuel economy it seemed right that our next car was the teeny tiny oh so clever Mercedes Benz A160 (1998 model). 

This car is famous for falling on it's head during a press test drive in it's early days. Luckily Mercedes recovered from that, redesigned the car for safer handling and re-released it. That's what we bought. 

We bought an A160 as it was a) economical with fuel and b) insanely safe. These little cars perform very well in crashes and can take on a bigger car in a chicken race with impunity (disclaimer-I do NOT endorse driving headlong into oncoming traffic or other objects in an A160 or any other car!). There was a serious amount of German (over) engineering in the development of these cars including tucking a large portion of the engine under the floor which means you get more cabin space than you would think possible (the car must have a bit of TARDIS DNA methinks) and a nice high driving position which we Mother types love-the visibility is great and the car ends abruptly at the rear screen meaning reversing is easy. Cabin size is reasonable and the roof is high, not that I care as I barely hit 5'4" in the morning (you are taller in the morning you know!) but those who are more regularly sized tell me the internal roof height is fine. The interior is boring and dark grey-some cars have some colourful sort of speckles or grey blotches on the trim in a sort of German attempt to make the interior "fun and cheerful" which, well, fails miserably.

If reconfiguring your car is your thing you can move all the seats in and out so it is a sort of small van and you can carry whitegoods about if you choose.  Boot space is OK but if you have a monster pram it doesn't really work (having said that I think I was expecting too much from such a small car).The ride feel is rather ordinary, very 'neutral' and I wouldn't rave about how it corners, it feels like a tall skinny car on small wheels.. probably because that is what it is.The power of 75kw@5250rpm is predictably adequate but not really zippy.

Fuel economy is good 7.2l/100km for the Manual (with auto clutch) and  7.6L/100km for the full auto.

The A160 didn't seem to come in a manual for Australians, just a Manual with auto clutch or the dubiously named "Fun Shift". we had a "Fun Shift" in a lovely Girly Magenta colour but we set out to find an auto soon after we bought the car as we just didn't enjoy it... I may remember driving in the wet to the panel beaters one day around many roundabouts, hopping out rather wound up and yelling at the car "Whose idea of  f******g fun is that you German t**ts?" (I am working on the swearing but to be honest the children are making me worse than I ever was BC- Before Children). My irrational shouty behaviour was bought on by what I view as the flaw with the Mercedes-Benz idea, you need to take your foot off the accelerator to change gears but like all the Benzes I have driven once you do that the car goes immediately "off the boil" and slows dramatically resulting in a far from smooth transition which was frustrating to me as a novice driver and must have driven drivers around me mad! A proper manual car doesn't suffer from this problem.It seems to me that whether you are an auto or manual driver you will need to abandon everything you thought you knew, successful driving of the *ahem* "Fun shift" means a totally new technique and approach...

 So we bought an auto which was in a metallic burgundy sort of red (not as nice as the Magenta IMHO). Unfortunately the change of transmission and colour also bought a plague of problems such as the car unexpectedly dropping in to 'F' gear which is a sort of limp home mode for when the gearbox fails... I can only guess what F stands for! The airconditioner also packed it in so she was sent off to the airconditioner repair shop where she came back exactly the same  (for free)  so was sent to the local dealership where she stayed for 5 days and was sent home exactly the same but with an AU$800 bill which we beat them down to AU$400 on the basis that they hadn't fixed anything and had no idea what was actually wrong with any of the malfunctioning systems. There was some talk of replacing the auto transmission piece by piece or the whole unit for a price of upwards of AU$5000.

Unfortunately the Mercedes Benz Folk seem to have out-smarted themselves and in making their smallest offering so very very clever they have opened it up to an extraordinary array of bizarre and expensive problems. Some of these have apparently been fixed in later models but the curse of the Mercedes Benz seems to be to fix a problem by creating a totally new concept for the flawed system which is promptly plagued by a totally new set of problems.

Second hand Benzes are temptingly cheap but this is for a very good reason, not even buying a very low mileage example protects you from the fine selection of problems you could find popping up at any time.

Having said that they do have good fuel economy and are safe...

Overall:Roomy and safe for a small car but it could go breathtakingly wrong at any moment for a variety of reasons. Boring and a bit frustrating to drive (auto clutch)

Rating:6/10

Value:7/10:They are temptingly cheap now but God help you if you need to do repairs.

Fuel economy:9/10 Very good, but what you save in fuel you will probably spend much more in strange repairs.

Style: 7/10:Weird and functional-kind of appeals to me but not to everyone's tastes. The Classic is very ordinary inside.

2003 Lexus RX330 Sports Luxury MCU38R

The next car we tried was the Lexus RX330 Sports Luxury. This is the Japanese  answer to the luxury SUV/4wd designed to take on the BMW X5, Mercedes M class(see my later review) the Volvo XC90 and the Audi whatever it is(sorry don't know my Audis at all ).The Japanese do it better than the Germans I must say.

The outside of the car is subtle and doesn't scream "expensive car- be impressed" the same way the spinning propellor badge of a BMW or the Three Point Merc. Benz star does  but thats because the manufacturers have saved the luxury for the inside, after all it's where we, the drivers and passengers are going to be spending our time.

 The list of standard equipment in the Sports Luxury is amazing, leather seats, wood grain, sat nav, sunroof, reversing camera (sooo handy) remote boot hatch release that lifts the boot hatch, not just releasing the catch. The interior is so soothing and comfortable the first night we had it at home I went and sat in the car as it was more comfortable than the Italian leather lounge in our sitting room!(Sad? Maybe, True? definitely).The leather in the RX350 is so soft and yielding and the carpet was so thick and fluffy I took off my shoes every time I got into the car so I could squish my toes into the lush pile.. mmmm...

The Lexus drives like a particularly comfortable recliner chair would. This means there is hardly any "road feel", you are protected from all the bumps in the road and you do feel a bit disconnected from the driving but it is so comfortable and easy to drive with so many mod cons that I can forgive it. If the Lexus RX 330 was a man I would never dream of going out to dinner with him without shaving my legs and I wouldn't dare choose the wine in case I made a fool of myself. It is a very sophisticated and tastefully stylish car and you can buy Lexus brand golfing accessories and bland coloured polo shirts to go with your car if you wish! This was one of the reasons we ended up selling, after scratching the bumper a bit hauling a dishwasher into the boot (we found the dishwasher on the side of the road and do that sort of thing frequently!) and realising just how much mess our baby son (and his mother!) could make with little effort we decided to sell before we totally ruined the lovely car and lost all our money!

The other reason we sold was the fuel economy, all those safety and luxury gizmos must affect the fuel consumption- official figures are 13.2L/100km but we were rarely getting better than 14.5L/100km with careful driving. The RX 350 has official figures of 11.2L/100km with more power so that seems much more respectable and acceptable to me.

 The RX 330 has a good amount of power at 172kW @ 5600rpm but the RX  350 has 203kW @ 6200rpm so in an ideal world, on paper at least I would say that he 350 is the one to go for- it is just the same but has a DVD player evidently, thus making it even more parent friendly.

 There are many many airbags, ABS, reversing cameras and everything else you can think of to make the car safe. Having driven so many other family cars since the RX 330 I can honestly say the fuel economy is not as bad as many on the market and so much nicer to drive as well as being more stylish, comfortable, better built and more reliable than any car I can think of off the top of my head. We are going to buy another, less immaculate, more "worn in" example as soon as we have the funds. The parts are made by Toyota so easily available and reliable, (get your parts from Toyota for the Toyota equivalent, not the Lexus ones and you will do well) the tyres aren't bizarre sizes and it just feels right! Ours was nearly four years old when we bought it and still under factory warranty but nothing went wrong with it so I guess that is why they offer such great warranties (why Hyundai and Mitsubishi do is beyond me!).

Overall: Just lovely to transport the family around in, perfect for longer trips and sitting in when you are hiding from the children.

Rating:9/10

Value:8/10 They aren't cheap but don't depreciate like a German car does. 

Fuel economy:6/10 we thought it bad but there are many worse. The RX 350 is better economy wise.

Style: 8/10 Subtle on the ouside, sumptuous and tasteful on the inside.

The Quest Begins...The Mercedes-Benz E230T Classic W210 1996-97

Back in 2005 I met my much adored car mad husband- he had owned over 100 cars when we met. I didn't drive. I was a nervous driver whose lessons had made little or no difference to the fact I had panic attacks nearly every time I got behind the wheel. I am no longer this person and now we own a car hire business and I have driven more cars now than most people have in their lifetimes, I have had my full licence for nearly one year now so I hope I can bring unique perspective to the cars I review.  I find most car reviews useless, they simply don't tell me what I want to know as a mother getting from A to B and back again with a minimum of fuss (from me- the children behave like posessed baboons in the car). I have also found that most reviewers want to be cleverer than Jeremy Clarkson and often they are not which leads to rather prolix writeups in which the messages are totally lost on me..

 I only review used cars. I don't buy new cars so I am not interested in what a paid reviewer who has spent a couple of hours in a press car has to say. I want to know what the owner of an older model experiences day to day, what the fuel economy is REALLY like (official figures rarely match up with reality) and what bizarre or expensive problems could arise. 

  Review sites are good but what is a great ride to someone could be horrendous for the next person so I thought it would be good to have a site where one person reviews...

I haven't been able to find just what I want so I guess I am just going to have to do it myself like everything else around here! (Except the chores my husband does- kudos to him on convincing the sons that washing up and laundry are "men's jobs").

When my long suffering husband and I met we knew we would get married and have a family almost immediately (six months after meeting we were married, six months after that our first son was born) so it was clear his small collection of cars didn't have anything suitable... The Porsche Boxster although scarily smart and airtight only had two seats, as did the Beautiful blue BMW Z3 roadster and the lovely white unassuming but very useful Ford Falcon XR6 ute.... sigh.

So we started our quest for the ultimate family car and quickly secured ourselves the relatively rare Mercedes-Benz E230T Classic 7 seater station wagon/ Estate.

 These cars look the part- they have lovely round double headlights (made of plastic and need repolishing every six months...) the ubiquitous three point star, a smattering of woodgrain inside and the resilient MBtex seat upholstery which is almost but not quite leather but very easy to clean. They should look the part, they retailed at AUD$96,900 new and have been plummetting in value at a truly breathtaking rate ever since

 There are two extra seats in the boot for midgets or children who like to face the wrong way but I wouldn't really call it a 7 seater, not by today's standards anyway. I wouldn't want to use the two "dicky seats" every day personally.

The car is solid, at 2140kg (yes- over two tonnes) the 4 cylinder engine is what I would call barely adequate but it does feel safe, even if you couldn't get out of the way of the traffic you would probably survive a smack to any side. The power is just too sluggish to enjoy driving it. 110KW @ 5400 rpm is just that bit too underpowered and it is slow to get off at the traffic lights. This would be a nightmare for school runs! The accelerator really needs you to stomp on it to get off but the lights may have changed by the time the power kicks in, seriously. This kind of accelerator feel seems to be a Mercedes-Benz trait but it is heightened by the small motor/large car combination.The power doesn't kick in at all until the bottom of the pedal which is pretty frustrating, no room for subtle power increases, if you try to be subtle it will be perpetually "off the boil" and the gears of the auto box won't kick down.THe first third of the pedal movement does absolutely nothing. Safety in a smash and the Mercedes "prestige" would be the top points of this car but considering the age of it now I really think that saving some pennies and buying a Ford Falcon wagon (AUD$3500 for a great one of the same Vintage as our old Merc.) would give you more driving pleasure. You could even get some dicky seats installed. 

We never had anything go wrong with our Wagon (and we drove it for a record 18mths!) but we do know the airconditioning had been replaced before we bought it- they all go wrong and a decent second hand Mercedes Benz compressor is worth a small fortune if you can find one! The replacement aircon was just like the orginal- rather substandard.

Overall: Reliable, safe and sturdy but underpowered, sluggish and boring to drive-too expensive for what it is.

Rating:6/10

Value:3/10 Buy an EL Falcon, or a Commodore if you are Holden type of 
 person

Fuel economy:7/10 surprisingly good considering the weight of the car

Style: 6/10 rather austere- like a robot tried to make a luxurious car rather than a person- Teutonic and plain.