Station Wagon Appreciation Thread

Truly for a car used daily, I'd base a huge amount of weight on service of local dealer. Absolutely stinks with poor service.
US does not get the bigger BMW wagons, Audi quality is very suspect now speaking as a 8.5 year owner of an Audi W12. Swapped it for my E63S wagon. MB has been great car, needed little.
Volvo looks nice, never had one. I've not liked them much between 245, old 850 T5, and now, so I'm poor resource. 3 series wagon with manual or DSG is very nice car.

 

No experience with a Volvo, but I'd choose the A6 Avant out of all of those. But I'd definitely like to drive the Volvo. No experience with Mercedes either.

I second the dealer experience, but my experience with Audi has been nothing but positive. The car has been great, and the fit and finish over my BMW is hands down far superior to the BMW. Within a year my bimmer had peeling on parts of the interior.

Also, my Audi dealer experience is incredible. I can call for a service appointment on a Tuesday for a Saturday drop off and obtain a loaner no problem at all. As well as everyone being very friendly and wanting to help me. The service has also been much faster as well, with a 9am drop off usually ready for pick up by 1pm. Also Audi loans you cars from almost their entire range of cars, the cars excluded are the super high end (S7, R8) and the TT.

My BMW dealer experience was pretty awful. Have to call almost a month a head to drop off your car and get a loaner. In my experience, you were only loaned the equivalent of your car. So in my case I had a 3-series and I only had the opportunity to drive a 3-series loaner or X3, that's it. Towards the last year and half or so of owning my car I was no longer eligible for a loaner. They were only loaning those to people who's cars were going to be in the shop for longer than a day. That was not what they told me when I bought my car, the loaner was part of their sales pitch. I put up a fight every time to get one. Their attitudes sucked too. Stereotypical BMW attitude. And lastly, I would drop my car off as soon as the shop opened in the morning (I lived 5 minutes from the dealer), and my car would not be ready until late afternoon.

I'm sure there are good BMW dealerships out there, but as far as dealers in my town, I've not heard many good things about any of them. So, just be careful, because the dealer experience can make or break you're impression of the brand.

 

LOL Jason.
I lived in HOU for a few years, had E36 M3 from Advantage.
Momentum Sux. I walked in with checkbook in pocket for M3 before car released, before anyone knew, in '94. They couldn't/wouldn't sell me one. No list, nada. I'd wait. Nope.
Advantage got me one, 00016. First in HOU.
Hard to not sell me a car I want. They sucked 20 years ago.

Audi service here-Check light?? Sure- how's 3.5weeks for you? Sorry, no loaner unless you call owner. New S7? 2 weeks old? Bring it in. Call after 1 week, nobody has called you. Sorry, haven't looked at it yet. LOL.

I called owner on behalf of about 4 people I know. He patted me on head. OK. One bought S63 the next day, got 6k more on trade than owner offered. other 3 are shopping. Guy with new s7 hasn't gotten it back yet, electrical, they can't figure it out.

Look at all the dealerships, and the price of putting up with poor service kills a nice car, and is worth paying more or getting different car for better service. Especially on daily driver.

 

I bought my BMW from Advantage. I ordered the 335 when they were brand new and barely any in the wild, ordered around November, pick-up March 1 2007. I lucked out I guess, as I only had to deal with 1 fuel pump issue at around 65K miles, while many dealt with multiples before they hit 20K.

I only had one experience with Momentum (on I-10), it was the last service before I traded it in. I do remember everyone there being friendlier than Advantage. But that was my one and only experience so it's hard to say how they would be if I was a regular customer.

There's going to be issues with cars, occasionally and it's frustrating, but it's definitely the dealer that makes all the difference. I bought my Audi at Sewell here. When my battery was fried (defect covered under warranty), my car was towed to the Audi dealer on I-10 and they were great too. But again, just one dealing with them.

I would say we've established an important thing here, and I'll repeat it again, the dealer experience will make or break your overall brand experience.

 

This thing is beautiful.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnN6YDZV6oY[/ame]

 

I agree... Just ordered mine!
Will arrive late October😀

 

Very nice. Congrats!

What color did you decide to go with?

 

I'd love an F11 BMW and swap in the S63 engine from the M5...

 

I shrunk my wagon.
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Thanks!

We chose dark metalic blue with «cuoio» leather seats...

Best regards

 

My new wagon deserves a spot in this thread.
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need someone to drive it from FL up to MD for you?

 

Ha! It's already on a truck.

 

Wagon heaven.
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RWD or AWD?

 

It's an AMG S, so awd.

 

Awesome. I wish the CTS-V came in AWD.

 

What a terrible garage.

 

LS swapped 528 wagon with a 6 speed. Auction ends in under 3 hours.
http://bringatrailer.com/listing/1999-bmw-528it/

 

Is there any dealer in the US that specializes in selling station wagons? I now have a 1963 Volvo Amazon wagon and a 1960 Fiat Familiare wagon. Kind of getting into the wagon thing after years of Italian exotics and Porsche's. Thanks.

Kirk

 

Great garage.

 

+1. I'm finding wagons more interesting than sports cars nowadays. If I need to go faster, I hop in a race car.

 

Are you sure that the "S" is referring to AWD? I don't seem to recall that, but I can't find anything on the web. AWD in MB-nomenclature is 4Matic. What I do recall about the "S" model option was that it had a bhp boost and some aesthetic differences. But, again, I cannot recall clearly, and I could be wrong. When we bought ours, I don't remember the spec'ing options. Ours is an "S", though, and it is AWD. Again, IIRC (and I may not), I was under the impression that ALL E63 wagons after a point in time (MY 2014?) were AWD (4Matic) regardless of whether they were an "S" or not.

CW

 

I believe, AMG s E class is always awd, AMG s C class is rwd only.

 

I've had a quick look on the web, and I haven't found a definitive answer. I'd think that MB would have it on their website, but, while it calls it the "E63 S 4Matic Wagon", it doesn't specify what the "S" denotes.

FYI, here's the MB website configurator for it. If anyone can figure it out...

https://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/vehicles/build/class-E/model-E63S4S#tab=tab-exterior

It would appear, though, that ALL E63 Wagons are "S" and have AWD ("4Matic").

So, it may well be the case.

CW