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Posted: 06/26/07 08:04 AM
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I am stumped. Here's the choices...so far:
'07's BMW X5 3.0 - Pro's - I-DRive, 50K mile service, best looking ext., OK bells and whistles. Con's - Price, not great power, not great utility for 55K.
Lexus GX470 - Pro's - Lexus drive and interior, decent utility, OK nav and nice bells and whistles. Relatively cheap service. Cons - Gas mileage, styling is just OK, Body on frame.
Acura MDX sport- awesome nav with traffic. great bells and whistles. Sport package w/300hp drives as good or better than the X5. Cheap at $43K. cons - looks like a mini van and doesn't really have a personality on the exterior. Lack of cool factor for $45K.
'05 Range Rover - drives great, OK Nav with bells and whistles. $90K car for $45K and ranks pretty high on the cool factor. 100K mile warranty if bought from dealer. Cons - ONE HUGE ONE 12MPG city 15HWY. Dang.
'07 or '08 Mercedes ML320 CDI - 27MPG!!! It's a benz. Cons - No third row seat and not so great storage. Styling is nice but plain. Bells and whistles are not quite the same as the Asian models.
Please let me know what you think. I've having a hard time deciding on this one. Thanks in advance for good advice!
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Posted: 06/26/07 05:25 PM
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i think u should get the acura mdx
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Posted: 06/27/07 02:04 AM
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It seems like you already have a pretty good handle on the pros/cons of the cars you're looking at. The fact that they're all pretty different from one another in fundamental design means that you'll have to do most of the deciding based on whether you value luxury, handling, off-roadability, or style.
At the bottom of my list would be the Range Rover and Lexus. The Range Rover might be at the top if you could get it new. But if you're spending that kind of money on a car, why get something used when the new-car options so pretty darn close in overall sophistication and capability? Ok, the Range Rover has a superlative interior, iconic aristocratic styling, and BMW engineering. But it's huge, heavy, slow (I'm pretty sure Ford's V8 replaced BMW's by 2005), and may suffer from the reliability problems that the brand is known for, warranty or not.
The Lexus is refined, refined, refined. But it's still a body-on-frame chassis. It's smooth, quiet, acceptably powerful, and soaks up huge bumps with aplomb, but it's high CoG, live rear axle, and soft suspension makes it wobbly and poderous compared to pretty much everything else on your list. Plus, I'm not particularly impressed with the interior. Lexus made sure it's got all the usual high-quality materials, but they seem bolted and glued on top of an old Toyota Pickup dashboard.
I REALLY like diesels, and Mercedes makes some of the very best. The new ML isn't exactly exciting to look at, but it's nicely proportioned, and offers a very high level of fit/finish and luxury, even if the bells/whistles aren't available at that price. I donno if you're familiar with diesel engines, but a good one can be every bit as satisfying as a much more powerful engine because they deliver huge torque at low revs.
I'm always impressed with Acura's level of feature content, performance, handling, and packaging. But it's new styling, inside and out, seems to me like the result of angry, arguing designers who threw every kink and curve into the design they could.
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reinsart
New User
| Posts: 4
| Joined: 06/07
Posted: 06/29/07 01:46 AM
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Stay away from the X5, the Benz, and the Range Rover..... in Acura and Lexus both you have dependable vehicles. I am really impressed by the Lexus and the Acura looks wise, although I haven't driven either.
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