2015 lexus 300h or c350 merc?

[jackcramerr]

Which one should one go for?

Is plug in electric hybrid popular now? 

[jackcramerr]

I.e. Lexus 300h or Mercedes Benz C350e (2.0 turbo petrol electric)

[johnatg]

If you don't mind me saying so - a pretty daft question to ask on this forum! (Or on a Mercedes Benz forum!)

[Verbout]

13 minutes ago, johnatg said:

If you don't mind me saying so - a pretty daft question to ask on this forum! (Or on a Mercedes Benz forum!)

Glad your not a moderator, there’d be few threads allowed. 

Definitely most of mine. ;)

[Linas.P]

There is similar thread on mk3 forum. The consensus there seems to be IS300h is a winner  - which would be expected considering it's on Lexus forum... but I am not sold on that.

Basically I would have neither, but I see a lot of strong points for MB 350e or other relevant competitors e.g. BMW 330e over Lexus IS300h.

Now strong points for Lexus are:

• reliability, neither BMW nor MB have such strong reliability record and Plug-in hybrid doesn't improve on that.
• no need for charging station, obviously charging by effectively burning petrol whilst driving and little bit when braking, but considering charging infrastructure is currently non-existent in London  (yes the city which talks so much about pollution) that is important.
• rich standard equipment, great materials and built quality, BMW have great built quality as well, but neither BMW nor MB have similar quality materials (e.g. leather) and MB build quality is hit an miss as well.

Strong point for competition:

• Plug-in hybrids have actual electric range, so if you do sort of city driving as I am doing 2x14 miles a day, you might never need to use petrol.. ever. Lexus "self charging hybrid" is just stop gap solution, which improves mileage by using some electric power to minimise consumption in traffic, but it is still inherently petrol car.
• Both MB and BMW have reasonable performance 6.2s and 6.1s to 60MPH respectively, yet better MPG.. and as you know I was always complaining about how underpowered IS300h is, that is effectively solved by BMW and MB, so they are not only efficient, but as well reasonably fast.
• Plug-in hybrids qualify for government grand for electric vehicles, so you automatically have advantage of £4000 when comparing with Lexus, as because both are below 75g/km Co2  (in fact MB does 50 and BMW does 49)you get tax savings  if you take them as company car. Lexus is not eligible for any grands, nor any tax initiatives, hence you won't see any of them as company cars nowadays. 

In summary:

• BMW/MB are much more economical, can do pure electric miles and are much faster. They are effectively cheaper to buy due to tax initiatives as well. However, they are less reliable and requires access to charging point which are still surprisingly rare and hard to access.

So it really depends what is more important for you. I personally would go any day with BMW or MB if I would have where to charge them, because I want more performance  than RC300h, but sadly there are no option for BMW430e or MB350e Coupe. And I don't think that argument is so one sided as MK3 forum makes it - 300h option has quite a bit of compromise in it as well.

[ColinBarber]

9 hours ago, Verbout said:

Glad your not a moderator, there’d be few threads allowed. 

Definitely most of mine. ;)

I don't think he is saying he wouldn't allow the thread, just don't expect an unbiased view.

[Verbout]

On 06/03/2018 at 9:30 PM, ColinBarber said:

I don't think he is saying he wouldn't allow the thread, just don't expect an unbiased view.

Colin, I knew what he meant, it was a little levity, hence the wink at the end of my post.   “;)”

[jackcramerr]

I think it is much better to ask here as being owner of Lexus. I am not moving from Lexus but need another car as well.

What will be your guys view about M330e 2.0T plug in hybrid vs Mercedes C350e 2.0T?

Mercedes is far more kitted but to me M330e looks much better. How is re-sale value of these machines and which one would you guys go with?

[mhult]

I haven't driven either BMW 330e or MB C350e, but I am going to chime in anyway

I have read some comparison tests in some magazine where the testers found the BMW hybrid driveline to be significantly smoother than the Mercedes. I don't have the test at hand right now, and even if I did, it would probably be in Swedish.

Don't take my word at face value, but you might want to be alert to this when you go for test drives. I don't know about you other Lexus owners, but my eight years of Lexus driving has really spoiled me in the smoothness department.