I have a yr 2000 Mercedes E320 cdi. It is the most unreliable car I have ever owned. Most of the tech has broken over the years. Also, it is rusting to bits due to reported all time low in quality control. However, once inside, you are wafted along on a silent magic carpet and can, if necessary, out-accelerate modest hot hatches and enjoy sideways progress by drifting round roundabouts (ESP turned off).
Its power to weight ratio is about half that of the Golf, its acceleration is unreliable since it resembles putting a request to a committee and if the variable-ratio turbo and the slush box gearbox are on your side it will pull up its skirts and shift briskly, but sometimes not and you are left in the doldrums.
I am bracing myself for a bumpier ride with the Golf, maybe I won't be able to straddle those cushion speed bumps, perhaps I'll be frustrated that I can't get a bike in the back (the E class swallows two into its boot if you take the wheels off). But my real need for a big car has passed, I would like some reasonably inexpensive fun before the petrol runs out.
Has anybody made a similar transition?