Ron, my daughter's friend is a fuel systems engineer for Daimler-Benz, and he gets a new company car every six months. He had a GLA and didn't love it. It seemed to be very consciously engineered to a price-point, and he felt that the compromises were geared towards marketability to young urban types who would turn the car over rapidly. He didn't like the ride, and the usability was below what he expected (ingress/egress/cargo capacity, etc.).
He did like the GLC.
If you're really looking for the spiritual successor to Barney, have you looked for a low-mileage, great-condition GLK? I always thought they were the coolest-looking older SUV. Of course, we're talking ten years old by now.
That is a great idea in terms of model, Zuman. But there is a separate element that comes in for me in terms of an older German car.
In my personal experience and the personal experience of a number of friends of mine it is dangerous to own a complicated over-engineered German luxury car without a warranty and an extended warranty unless one can wrench and service the vehicle oneself. I believe the value of complicated, over-engineered German cars falls off a cliff around the several years of old, around the 60,000 to 70,000+ mile mark. For people who cannot work on their own cars I just think it's too financially dangerous to have one of these German cars without an extended warranty.
At around 65,000 miles and 10 years old my first SL550, Gunther, built in 2009, developed a series of very expensive problems, starting with the ABC (active body control) system, which I loved. That alone if I remember correctly was about $2,000 to fix.
This is not an exaggeration. After I had the car about 10 years and the Blue Book on the car was around $20,000, Mercedes-Benz offered me an extended warranty for $16,000. That told me I had better sell this car like a hot potato. I sold Gunther in 2019, and I immediately purchased a low mileage 2020 SL550 to replace him. This is how I now have Gristoph. I got on Gristoph the longest extended warranty they would sell me at the time of purchase.
As someone who cannot wrench his own car I am just too nervous about owning a 10 or 15 old fancy German car with no warranty.
Also, Consumer Reports rates BMWs as significantly more reliable than Mercedes (if that's an important factor for you).
That's a somewhat important factor, but I just don't know if there's a statistically significant enduring difference in overall reliability among the German manufacturers. For example there are a lot of reports of laggy and rough transmissions with the current generation BMW X1 M35 DCT. I think it's just dopey to put a DCT or an MCT on an entry level SUV. It's not a speedster and a DCT or an MCT is unlikely to be as smooth and comfortable as an automatic in a entry-level car.
In high-performance cars I think manual transmissions with automatic clutch engagement are great, but I think it's a marketing gimmick to have it in an entry-level crossover or SUV.
