There doesn't seem to be too many options currently on the market for Premium/Luxury EV Sedans.
If you could pick between either of the Model S plaid (~$200k) or the EQE53 AMG (~$230k), which one would you get and why? Noting that one is $30k more and the Model S plaid is not yet available in Australia.
Update: Added poll options for BMW and Porche just for fun.
"Absolute shithouse brakes" - you mean the brembo's?
@dealsucker: It doesn't matter who makes them. The car is severely underbraked primarily due to its massive weight.
@MS Paint: Model S is lighter than EQS einstein. Mercedes is a boomer’s brand and you are a brand snob. Everything else is bull you know what
@dealsucker: Show me a video online of an experienced car reviewer driving the plaid hard and complimenting the stock brakes. I'll wait.
BMW M EV is coming soon.
Badge made with Sauerkraut, 99.9% of the rest out of China….
Neither.
Model S is very old. Merc EQ looks odd.
If I had to buy a luxury EV, it would either be the Polestar 3 or the Porsche Taycan GTS
Porsche Taycan easily
That's like saying Grand Seiko is just a Seiko
A Porche is a Volkswagen
So is a Bentley or Lamborghini. That wasnt a very smart quip mate.
How’d u end up with this sorta money for luxury vehicle with that kinda thinking 😂
Serious question - are you buying a car or a badge?
If you're already dead-set on the Mercedes AMG badge as a lifelong dream, then just go for it. I don't know why you would need to ask for opinions if you've already made up your mind.
Where did I say badge? Mercs are cool. 😎
I was just joking. Otherwise, I wouldn't have considered a Tesla? Yes, owning an AMG is a dream, but I have to be practical too. If there are better options, I could consider.
@thousandsuns: I'm not having a go at you, don't know why you're getting defensive. I'm actually saying that if you want to fulfil a lifelong ambition, then you should just do it. It's clear from your replies here that you've made up your mind already with wanting to go with the Mercedes.
Where did I say badge? Mercs are cool. 😎
How are they "cool"? What does "cool" even mean?
@p1 ama: Nah, man, I'm not being defensive. I have an open mind. Aside from people telling me I have a big pocket and I shouldn't be discussing expensive cars on a bargain forum lol.
When I say cool, I love the design of the Hyperscreen. Interior wise, it looks quite sleek in comparison to the Tesla.
Speaking about dreams, I always wanted the Aston Martin DB, too, but that is a bit out of reach at the moment. I don't want my bias towards Mercedes to cloud my decision if there are better alternatives on the market that not only perform better but also have a better build quality and prestige rating.
Fortunately, there are plenty of very knowledgeable people here, which is great!
Agree some of their SUV cars share platform but where is the VW equivalent of Taycan? Definitely not now but perhaps in future.
Jokes aside, a Taycan has a dud range, so it's a pathetic EV in my books.
Haha what? Drive has the Porsche on top. It also won World Car of the year in both luxury and performance.
Im convinced you have no idea what you're talking about.
Here you go: https://www.porsche.com/australia/models/taycan/taycan-model…
I'm talking about range. I might want to blow $200k on a car but not one that has rubbish range.
PS: You've linked an article from Sep 2021.
Mercedes Benz EQE53 AMG
Why - Elon!
Its pretty hard to get something that isn't offered for sale in Australia, like the Model S Plaid.
For $200K I'd get a R34 GT-R.
In 50 years time when that car is worth $1million dollars+ people will still turn heads and go wow.
You're not wrong…."Wow….a $1m Datsun!"
Buy the plaid (when it actually comes out here) and register in a corporate or trust name in ACT. No stamp duty, free rego for 2 years. Save at least 15-20k on stamp duty. No limit to the car price. Resell in a year or two. No proof of residency required in ACT.
Corporation will incur FBT due to above the EV limit if you cant claim business use, so a cheeky trust sale always works.
I like how you think!
Could I not do the same thing with the Merc? 😅
You could but to be honest I picked the Tesla on the basis that resale and the pool of buyers is likely to be higher. Mercedes is still quite new to EV land, and I’d probably pass on the first gen.
Wow had no idea.
Why resell in a year or two. And what do you mean by cheeky trust sale?
I tend not to keep cars very long. If you flip them quick enough (and if they are unique cars) you can retain value pretty well, even pre-covid. By unique cars I mean BMW m-cars, performance cars, niche things like LR defenders, grenadiers etc. Things where people tend to buy pretty quickly and are well off.
Teslas are known to have significant build quality issues and I mean - if you look at the person running it I would never buy a single product they make. Musk is a complete moron.
Not to make assumptions, but is Musk actually a narcissist?🤔
Would explain why everyone hates him so much?
Of course he is a narcissist. Think of how he invests his money.
He could be building a model suburb that is walkable, entirely powered by solar, and entirely serviced by public transport. That would be revolutionary in the USA.
Instead he builds tunnels and puts cars in them rather than train tracks.
The guy doesn't care about improving things, he just wants to be famous
People don't hate him because he is a narcissist, they hate him because the media told them to, after he started hurting their beloved twitter
If you followed that logic, you’d never fly Qantas due to Alan Joyce.
I expressly don't fly Qantas and won't until he's gone. So it does happen.
Build issues so egregious that Model Y was rated the safest car ever tested by Euro NCAP per their latest most stringent tests. And it is a pure co-incidence that top 3 cars with the least probability of injury in an accident as tested by NHTSA are all Tesla's.
The EQE53 must be the ugliest car out there. It looks like the fascia has been printed onto the front of the car.
Neither i rather buy a cheaper ev and have the rest of the money actually work for me than puff my chest out with the new version of penile extension.
Plaid. It's the fastest production car in the world. It's hectic. Plus it's cheaper by 30k to retain your Ozbargain membership.
Nice video.
Is it in production? Lucid has made countless promises to its customers and is currently under-delivering on their promises. We'll see how they go. Plus they'll probs be 1.5x the Plaid.
The Bugatti engineers should be embarrassed for that $4m promise of a car.
Haha, mate, I'm not sure if I'll still retain my OZB membership if I were to buy either of these, considering none of them are a deal 🤣
Is this the Merc that they want a yearly subscription for to unlock the artifically software limits? If so, fark that.
That merc looks terrible, like what you think an AMG should look like mixed with a bit of Prius.
I'd get the plaid. - But I'd get a Taycan over any of those 2, easily the best looking EV imo
Don't cheap out mate, get a Porsche Taycan - with some extras you can easily go higher than the Mercs price ($230k).
I was seriously looking into this until I watched this video: https://youtu.be/l2ojCqhqGZ8
This car got smoked by a Turbo 911. I thought electric cars were born to be faster than petrol cars?
In what world did it get smoked? Did you actually watch the whole video….?
I'm referring to the initial drag race. The Taycan should have won easily since it is an EV, and there is no power needed to be generated via combustion. The energy should be instantaneous. You'd expect a bigger gap in such comparisons when it comes to acceleration.
@thousandsuns: The reasons why EVs are faster is because of gearing, because they don't need to change gears.
A supercar gearbox is going to overcome that
This car got smoked by a Turbo 911.
10.2s vs 10.3s.. yeah.. 'smoked'
From reviews of existing Merc EVs and Tesla, you can count on the following:
Excellent points! Appreciate the input.
What about value and resale wise? An AMG would retain higher value over time in comparison to a Tesla?
Also, another point is to consider here is whether or not functionality trumps quality? I personally would buy a better quality car overall rather than one that comes with extra features, but that's just my opinion
Mercedes have been around much longer than Tesla.
AU is a young and growing EV market, but in USA Tesla cars' depreciation is lower than all other car brands (https://caredge.com/compare/depreciation/tesla-vs-mercedes-b…)
Fossil "sports" cars like AMG, M-badge etc. have on average much higher depreciation because of high-strain and high-cost parts (and high initial price due to being in luxury segment)
However in this case we're talking AMG EV so it should be much less maintenance and maybe less depreciation.
It's impossible to tell because Merc EVs are all new models and there is no data available yet.
fossil fuel V8 amgs seems to be appreciating these days!
OP: choice is basically betweeen, poor build quality and best in class electric vehicle tech, vs high quality and refined everything else and less than cutting edge tech.
I'd say for liveability you're probably better off with the mercedes
- mature dealer network, repairs, complaints process, loan cars etc
- build quality I'd say would be a level above tesla, both in quality control and quality of materials, maturity of ergonomics etc
- their in car tech has been pretty good in the last couple of years compared to regular brand cars, not sure against a tesla
Telsa, I couldn't see the point of Plaid over a regular performance (model 3, y etc) model tesla for half the price, which is probably why they haven't launched it here.
fossil fuel V8 amgs seems to be appreciating these days!
That's like collectors item these days.
There is actually an excess of new and used vehicles in Australia, manufacturers are holding them back to maintain high prices.
Re-sale on all cars will tank, EVs will lag higher but will fall.
Who knows when the veil will fall.
Re: functionality - I can't live without the features I already have in my M3, so I can't relate. On trips kids watch Disney+ and Netflix cartoons, sometimes we play games (with 2x wireless controllers), I like watching sentry cameras around the car from my phone, I stream Apple Music directly from the car when driving, I'm so used to Autopilot that I use it even on short drives, I'm used to the performance that all other cars feel slow to me now.
I'd love to switch to the the Plaid S/X for the Ryzen GPU and Steam support + 17" screen, even more performance, ventilated seats, cabin refinement.
Similar to when I try to help out people choosing between Tesla and Polestar, Hyundai, BMW etc. I highly recommend renting one for the weekend (once they land in Australia) and living with them for a while - playing with all the features, checking the drive around where you live, packing it up with your usual gear, family, pets etc. That's how I made my choice. I used https://www.evee.com.au/ to rent the cars I wanted to try out. Merc dealers usually also do longer test drives…
The big question is when will the new Teslas start shipping to our country. There is hope for mid 2023, but nothing official just yet.
I think Mercedes automatically having better quality interiors is a prejudice from legacy days. They are not.
Show me a Tesla which does this —> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEMEC834Er4
Honestly. I hate the EQ series of cars. Just crammed with so much unnessecary tech. That will age poorly over time.
And the Tesla. While it can rip your face off with its acceleration. I don't see Telsa as a luxury brand. And I still hear horror stories over parts avaliablility.
I am not sold on electric cars yet. I still see them as cars for people trying to show off and impress their friends with the latest tech.
But if I did have to choose.
I would go for a BMW I4. Or a Genesis. Or Hyandai Ionic 5 or 6.
Sadly the i4 looks outdated still 😮💨
True. If I was spending Model S Plaid money.
But needed a family hauler.
I would be getting a BMW M3 Touring (Wagon).
Id be buying a Southbank 2 br apartment and a much cheaper car mate
Thank me later
Already have an investment property, but thank you 😊
Lucid Air? Looks good. Faster than the Plaid S.
How much?
Both these articles says around $235,000 AUD
https://www.carsales.com.au/editorial/details/lucid-air-2022…
https://www.whichcar.com.au/reviews/2022-lucid-air-dream-edi…
KIA EV6 GT
LOL…
not that it’s a bad vehicle.
1) its not a sedan (more of a crossover suv)
2) not competing in the luxury vehicle segment
eh, its what Id get if i wanted to spend stupid money on a car.
You may as well get a Lambo then over a silly KIA 😂
Consider few other options than just those imo…
Not that I can afford in my lifetime, Porsche Taycan would be really awesome.
needs an "other" or "none of the above" option
Why?
because of all the chat about other options
I wasn't looking for a discussion for other options. I just wanted a comparison between the two cars stated above. 🤷♂️
Genesis ev60? Seen a youtube video last night… Looks great with face and touch id
why not a Taycan?
I've seen it get smoked by a 911. Doesn't seem like it has the power, plus too many extras need to be added on it, which blows the price of the car. AMG better in that respect. Just my opinion.
Unfortunately not many cars drive as well as a Porsche, even the SUVs/Sedans. And generally Porsches are seen as more desirable and reliable.
I have a Cayman and the thing it is such a good allrounder. A Taycan would be the ultimate electric car.
I'm pretty sure everyone talking up the Taycan here doesn't realize that it has a mere range of only 369-437km. That is a rubbish car in my books in comparison to its competitors.
yeah…. nah.
if i had that much money to blow i wouldnt buy either but if your forcing my to choose im picking a Merc over Tesla
Please enlighten us on what has been your investment strategy. I might learn a thing or two.
MS Plaid is $232k AUD according to the CS agent when I checked a few months ago, so price isn’t a factor between the two.
The Merc will be nicer inside and built better, but its butt ugly on the outside and lacks the Supercharger network which has been invaluable for the longer trips in my M3, plus I’m a speed freak so I can’t pass up the Plaid.
Neither. If I’m that rich and wanting a prestige branded EV with high performance I’d get a Porsche Taycan.
Seen one up close in the flesh, really like the styling. It even had a child seat in the back so it’s practical :)
Taycan Cross Turismo? Yes please.
If you're spending that much money make sure you get a car that drives itself.
they both look like a turd, neither.
Why not go for something like an EV6 GT? You'll have enough money left over to buy one for me too!
What the heck is "plaid"?
Plaid!
Merc for sure.
But I would wait a few years for the infrastructure (charging station) to catchup in Oz.
Model S Plaid and spend the $30k on a used Harley-Davidson LiveWire
For yet more options beyond the ones mentioned here, there was this review where the Genesis G80 electric got rated higher than the EQE on all the measures.
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/comparison-test/a415739…
And how about the BMW i7 with its absurd backseat TV?
BMW i5 is apparently on the way - sounds much better than both to me
Buy which one you like better. Nobody actually cares what car you drive except you. Just like no body really cares if you wear a tudor (entry level luxury) or rolex (standard luxury) or a lange (premium luxury)
I agree. I suppose I created this discussion because I wanted to see what people's views are. I tried to justify myself going for a Model S but coming to think of it now, even this isnt comparable to an AMG.
Yes it won’t probably help your decision because everyone likes different things.
I know, I suppose seeing how the majority picked the AMG it is still a good indicator. I don't mind either cars but plenty of good comments here for comparison. This is great!
Valid point! As you've mentioned, it's also outdated in design.