The wagon decision thread.

The lady has decided that she's ok driving a car and I'm not unhappy to move on from the gx460. It's not a bad car, it's just not that great. It's been Uber reliable, but it isn't quiet, the throttle is very much non linear, it drives "sporty"and it turns like an aircraft carrier. It also averages 15mpg. It's got 160ishk miles. My sequoia is plenty big enough for any needed suv things. 

we still owe 2 years on the Lexus at around 500/month. That's just over 11k. Carvana has offered us 14k. I may see what CarMax will offer today. I had an odyssey that was dying and rolled some underwater money from that into this. The odyssey ended up nearly eating a brand new serpentine belt that I had put on the day before after CarMax agreed to buy it. I believe it just has some legit crankwalk due to cylinder deactivation. 

Regardless, I began looking casually for an older accord/Camry not Nissan product for swmbo to make the 15 min one way commute daily. 
my goals are:

safe,

30 highway mpg, she's tired of going to get gas weekly. If I could grab the plug-in q5 or something for 500/month I probably would- I'm cheap when it comes to depreciating assets  

reduced payment (money is still decently cheap to borrow, I'd rather keep my savings)

Enough room for 4. 

not painted white. 
 

we all know prices are up- and it seems people are willing to pay double for Honda and Toyota products. 
2 cars have caught my eye that I'd like your feedback on: 

2014 328d wagon.  
things I like- good looking car, 45 highway mpg, wagons are cool. Plenty of tech and neat interior. Also super clean. This one is listed at 14k. (!!!)

https://miami.craigslist.org/pbc/cto/d/pompano-beach-2014-bmw-328d-diesel-328i/7498202134.html

2012 Mercedes E350 4matic wagon 

this has the v6 and is rated for 30 highway. 
things I like- beautiful car, should be very safe, larger than the bmw and has the backwards facing rear seat. 74k miles, should be fun to road trip and looks like a car you keep forever. The bad- rebuilt title. 14k. 
https://miami.craigslist.org/pbc/cto/d/pompano-beach-2012-mercedes-benz-wagon/7497494464.html

I haven't looked at either car. I'm a little worried that the 3 is going to be too small- but it's also very hard to argue with 45mpg. We are driving to Long Island in a couple of weeks and this would literally save $500 in fuel on that trip. It may require a $500 roof topper for our stuff though. 
The Benz looks great but there's a reason it's rebuilt and how well? I'd prefer long term ownership with this thing likely- massaging seats and understated and all that- but is it a time bomb? 
Happy 4th and all thoughts appreciated. 

Not wagon, but a sedan that keeps catching my attention for lux and mpg is the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid.  

2013 is the first year for the swoopy-body and its rated for 38 mpg.  

2011 & 2012 is the boxier shape but still 38 mpg.  

Hmmm, I've not seen one of those- is it just a fusion with a better trim? I actually really like the fusion hybrid and would look at those but anything hybrid right now is nuts. 

In 2013, the base MSPR for the MKZ Hybrid and MKZ Gas was the same price.  Therefore, there are quite a lot of MKZ Hybrids out there.

Yes, it is generally a tarted up Fusion.  For 2011 & 2012 they look very Fusion-like.  The 2013+ is a bit more unique styling.  The Lincolns also offered cooled seats that i don't think the Fusion offered.     

Sample 2013 w/ 84k asking $13k.  Yeah, its white but just a sample. 

Edit:  oops, that one is not Hybrid.

For a keeper, I'm not against a rebuilt title.  But really need to know what caused it to be totaled.   Pictures, documentation, etc.   Hard to find unless buying from the owner who owned it when damaged.   I don't do flood cars and any front end collisions make me walk away.  Just my .02.  

In reply to Caprigrip :

I have similar feeling generally and 99% of the time rebuilt is a pass. This one looks great though so I'm curious. 

In reply to grover :

Get the vin from the seller.  Often, if you just put the 17 digit Vin into google, it will bring up pictures of the salvage auction.  This then gets you "before" pictures.  You can also just ask the seller if he has "before" pictures.  

Seller has not responded in 24 hours after asking for the vin. Also asked to come see both today and no response. Probably just trying to catfish. 

My wife has the same wagon. 2014 diesel. 

A few things that come to mind. 
- 93k miles
- will do 40+ mpg
- you will get ~550 to a tank
- the transfer case on that year will self grenade, it happened to me. BMW wanted $8k to swap but they then came in with a recall, so fixed for free. 
- The giubo between the transfer and rear driveshaft is solid aluminum from the factory, its part of the problem. They replace it with a rubber one during the recall. 
- Mine has the bigger nav screen, its delaminating. I need to figure out how much is a new one. 

Check that the transfer recall has been done and make sure they put in a new transfer! Some cars got away with just changing to a rubber giubo, I had to make some noise at the dealerahip to get mine changed. This is the most critical thing with this car. 

Other than those problems, it has been easy to maintain. I am on the third set of run flats. I do most of the maintenance myself since its been out of warranty. Oil changes are nasty ... I hate diesel oil, but easy to do. 

Any questions feel free to pm me. 

 

Here is a picture of the nav screen. This started a couple of months ago, I am sure the heat has something to do with it. 

The fancy seats in the MKZ are NLA.   I forget now if it sets a message on the dash when they fail.

I have never heard of a good story about BMW diesels.  Lots of very expensive engine part failures.  The fuel savings do not make up for those and the one you are looking at will be getting into prime failure mode.  Hard pass for me.

A friend of mine just sold their 328d wagon. It had the transfer case issues early on and was repaired, I'm not sure which version of the repair was done. But part of the reason they dumped it was that it recently started exhibiting the early signs of another trans failure. Other than that it was a really nice car. Slow, even with a tune, but nice to drive with a lot of nice tech. I think that one was pretty well optioned and not super high mileage, but CarMax gave them $18k for it. So that one listed for $14k is either a really good deal or way too good of a deal.

In reply to Slippery :

This is very useful to me given that we are basically in the same town, thanks! Did Braman do the recall? Did you buy it new? 

In reply to dps214 :

Very helpful- thank you! 

In reply to Aspen :

That's how I'm starting to feel.