Driven #41:- Mercedes CLS 350CGi

 
A customer of ours lives in a beautiful, detatched 1930s house in a leafy part of Berkshire. It’s on a big plot, has glorious period details and a spacious interior layout. It’s, basically, my dream house; except for the small detail that it’s being demolished later this year.

A wealthy man, he has decided that, as nice as his house is, he could do better. He owns the land, so he can choose what to put on it; probably some identikit catalogue mansion, straight out of Footballers Wives. Sadly, as much as the old adage rings true not to fix what ain’t broke, sometimes change for the sake of change is inevitable. So to the Mercedes-Benz CLS.

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Driven #19:- E65 BMW 730d

It’s funny how things change. Last time I drove an E65 7 Series it had belonged to my boss. This was going back a few years, it was a facelifted, 2006 ½ machine, in Sterling grey, and I absolutely loved it. Such was its imperious bulk, traffic would part the instant it appeared in its rear view mirror, it made you feel special, very special indeed. Everything about it seemed designed to remind you that you had gained admission to the BMW executive lounge. You had made it in life.

It’s now, with the benefit of hindsight, that I realise I had probably been brainwashed by the great Munich corporate propaganda machine that I was working for at the time. Now's a good time for a re-evaluation - for here on my desk are the keys to an original, 2004 E65 730d. 

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Driven #17:- Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG

If you're shy and retiring, and a your yearly bonus ain't what it once was, you might well eschew the baroque excess of a Maybach in the knowledge that a long wheelbase S-Class is more than enough luxury car for most people. The extra few inches in wheelbase over the regular car are found in greater rear legroom, all the better for allowing you to relax in the reclining, heated rear seats. Sunlight through the glazed rear roof panel sets the mood, an electric blind for that and all rear windows can be deployed should things get a little too heated. It may run short of the Maybachs electrochromatic roof, but is nicer than the pop-up glass panel in an old Fiesta.

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Driven #7:- F01 BMW 730d Sport

It was with some anticipation that I took the key from my work colleague.

BMWs recent history has been somewhat irksome to the enthusiast. When I worked for them, in sales, there were certain core values that we were told were cast in stone for all eternity. This was reinforced whenever we went on BMW UK training courses, where official guys from the firm who were paid to know what they were doing, and to say the right thing, would force the point home until it started to bleed.

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