My partner is a practical and patient driver. She has high budget and doesn’t care about brands. What’s the best daily driver that she can actually enjoy in terms of drivability?
Will she prefer M3 over 340i in her daily driving? Probably not. Can she make full use of a GTI or 4 cylinder mustang? Probably not. Maybe a prius/Prius Prime or model 3?
For daily driver. I think you want “quickness” rather than speed. You’ll probably want something with lots of torque down low to propel you from a stop and to merge into traffic etc. maybe something with a turbo which will give you tons of down low grunt.
For me personally anything less than 250ftlb of torque Ina mid sized suv/car won’t cut it.
If you want low down grunt for daily driving scenarios, you want something electric.
Agreed. But the op didn’t mention anything about ev so I just kept it ICE. But yea almost any ev will be better for DD power delivery. But you’ll just have to worry about all of the other things that come with EV.
Describe her commute and how she gets her kicks when driving. Does she like to drive? What’s her skill level? Is this also a weekend car, not just a commuter?
When I was living in Germany the back way to work was an unrestricted autobahn, where I topped out my E46 M3 regularly. On the other hand many people sit in stop and go every day, where adaptive cruise/ self driving is the thing. I’ve daily driven a wide range of cars. All were the best at at least one thing, all were bad at others: WRX, M3, VW R32, 1M, Fiat 500e, Tesla Model 3, Porsche GT3, E-tron GT, Ioniq 5… More info needed to suggest a direction.
Different strokes for different folks. Some prefer comfort and technology where others prefer sheer power and tactile feedback. Really depends how you intend on driving the car and what you’re looking for out of it.
I consider myself practical and patient as well, but enjoy having an M3 as a daily driver. I tried the whole comfortable and tame daily driver a few times and none of those cars lasted more than a few months.
My suggestion is an S60 recharge, quick and fast, and comfortable.
Macan. I’ve actually never driven one, but all the middle aged ladies in my neighborhood drive them. Maybe not all, but at least 5 or 6, and it’s increasing
What car does she have now? Is she happy with it? Did you ask her what car would she like to drive next?
M340i then. Problem solved.
Why settle for cheaper cars then? Especially when their noise insulation and materials aren’t great.
Etron GT inventory is very thin so EQE, Etron Q4 and Etron Q8 would be the first three cars I’d test drive.
I think a bigger question for this would be if you have easy access or can get easy access to charging. a Tesla Model3 Performance is one of my favorite daily drivers due to the sheer convenience. If i dont want to deal with traffic, id just run autopilot. Not needing a key is incredibly convenient. When you can charge overnight and never worry about having to fill up during your daily commutes, it makes life just a little more simple.
She is in the San Francisco Bay Area. So 1.5k miles of city driving, 5k highway commute, 3.5k road trip per year. It’s her only car. She likes driving generally but she is at most average on curved narrow mountain roads. She also complains when driving > 3 hours at a time and uses adaptive cruise control whenever possible for road trips. When merging into the highway, she wants it to be fast.
She can charge at the office, not at home/weekend. EV is fine; phev will use gas on weekends.
I’m not familiar with luxury EVs. Are they really better than Tesla/Kia in terms of driving? Do they lease well? How about luxury phev like X5e/S60 recharge? She charges at work so EV is fine; Phev will use gas on weekends.
M340 or M550
She has free charging available and lives with CA gas prices?
Ev all the way.
She drives a Wrangler 4xe now and is not very happy due to ride quality and lack of lane-centering features. She likes the driver assistant features in model 3 and the ride quality of the Mercedes S.
Jeeps have terrible ADAS.
My suggestion is GV60 performance or BMW i4 with DAPP.
Will hybrid/phev work? Or she should go full EV?