The 250d engine in the merc seems very good however in virtually every other aspect the BMW seesm to be better. According to motoring press anyway.

I personally wouldnt waste my own money on a "premium" brand again as you end up loosing too much in the end. Doesnt mean i wouldnt want one however so my choice would be the new 3 series as it easily beats the A4 and C class and now is available with AWD. Basicallty Audi and Merc cant ofer anything that the BMW doesnt do better. This is primariliy beceause the 3 series is newer than the C class and the A4.

In isolation the Merc you are thinking of is a great car and i would locve one, albeit an estate but if BMW is an option then it would be a better purchase in my opinion. probably a 320d touring, auto with the adaptive suspension to take the harshness away and 4x4. Perfect.

I do travel but not that often with work really, i'm discounting all diesels as im moving house shortly from a rural area to a built up area where i wont be doing anywhere near as much motorway driving so i can't be doing with nursing a DPF.

Depreciation isn't really an issue for me as i won't be buying the car personally and when i look at the costings on the prices it shows that the "Premium" brands have a similar payment to the other brands i suppose possibly due to greater residuals?

Yesterday i popped into local Merc and BMW dealerships to have a look at the cars, totally fell in love with the C class found it to be really comfortable and very modern inside. Sat in the 3 series and yes it was nice enough but it didn't have the wow factor for me while i appreciate it may be a BMW thing i didn't feel the interior had moved on much since the last time i looked at a 3 series in 1998. Just my opinion of course, also the BMW dealer treated me like something that he'd scraped of the bottom of his shoe which also put a sour taste in my mouth.

So at present im pretty much set on a C class but i can arrange a few weekend long test drives with a few cars so i'll arrange a dirty weekend with a C class and a 3 series and make my mind up.

Silly me i assumed you meant the 250d engine rather than the petrol turbo engine. The merc 250 petrol is still good though. Our neighbour has a 12 plate c class 220d and really likes it. She had loads of problems with the alarm though when she first got it. For about 3 weeks it kept going off randomly despite merc looking at it several times. Got taken away in the end to get sorted but she wasnt complaining as she got a fully loaded E class 350d as a courtesy car.

Since its return it has been fine. One good thing about the merc is it doesnt need big wheels to look good. Hers has basic 16 inchers and looks pretty good. BMW and Audi are very wheel sensitive, more so Audi which means if you want the car to look half decent then the ride will be comprimised. On the merc 17 inchers look tidy meaning car still looks smart but has a better ride.

Didnt really care about the ride when i was younger but since i used to suffer serious back problems and still need to be carefull nowadays then the ride comfort is important to me. Sad old git. You may not think this seeing as i have a VRS but believe me its a million times more comfortable than my 3 series was. Merc tend to have decent ride in comparison to its rivals.