I am officially dubbing this week “Mercedes Week” for myself. The majority of my recent posts have been BMW’s as that is mostly what I am in the market for but since the universe sadly does not revolve around me, I figured I best mix it up. What spurred this line of thought was a friend who suddenly found himself in the market for a new vehicle and asked for my help finding one. He wanted a wagon, preferably one with AWD as he lives up a particularly nasty dirt road in Vermont and his budget was about $10k. As with most folks in my native state, his first choice was a Subaru Outback and he found a couple solid examples right away. However given that he wasn’t completely married to the idea of having a Subie, he asked me what else he could get in the same price range with similar functionality. A4 wagon prices have stayed strong, particularly on the manual ones but the E-Class wagons, well those have depreciated significantly despite being a rather reliable rig. I found a few of these in his price range and a few that were decidedly not, clearly this one is the later.
At first glance I didn’t much care for this particular example, I’m not a big fan of tan interiors or light woodgrain accents. I much prefer a nice alcantara or perforated leather wheel, subtle dark wood trim if wood at all. However the more I scrolled through the pictures the more I began to appreciate the vibe this car is putting out.  It conjures up images of trucking kids to private school and neighbors in a freshly minted subdivision waving to each other in acknowledgement of their mutual success. While that might not sound all that great I think it perfectly captures why this car is a solid option for the enthusiast with a family, ultra sleeper status. Nobody expects they grey wagon with a beige interior to be a fun drive anymore than they expect the Inquisition. A set of sticky tires, upgraded sway bars, bushings, and CAI would make for an entertaining and very incognito daily driver indeed.
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