The best car in the (real) world

Last, for those seeking a bit more car at the BMW’s premium – and taking account that the 3-series has grown by a surprising 93mm – we added a Mercedes E-class, specifically a E220 CDI BlueEfficiency SE auto, a car of equal power to the BMW. At £32,515, it doesn’t quite conform to our sub-£30k criteria, but could do if you opted for a lower-power 134bhp E200 model, or denied yourself the excellent seven-speed auto, or opted for a standard SE, or any combination of these. Then you’d have a vastly roomy, quality-built limo with a reputation (arguably) even ahead of BMW’s.

We departed London on a crisp and sunny winter morning, heading for one of our favourite haunts on the Marlborough Downs. Here was the world’s best rear-drive, four-door sports saloon matched against a compact limo, a top-class diesel hatchback, a vast but capable estate and a star-car SUV, all of them around £30,000. From my initial vantage point in the 320d I had absolutely no idea how things were going pan out by the time we’d done 80 miles on motorways, grappled with rutted and pock-marked B-roads, forged country lanes barely a car’s width wide, attacked a selection of corners and brought it back home by dawdling through town.

Behind the wheel

One thing I quickly learned was that I’d developed a dislike for the BMW’s fascia – the bit of a car you spend most time looking at. Apart from lacking brightwork in favour of dull, foil-like accents, the BMW is hamstrung by a simplified iDrive system that, good idea that it is, doesn’t deliver ease of use. Chuck in a lack of logic to its architecture and you get a car whose most important cabin components (excellent sports seats aside) are poor.

The Mercedes also has some quixotic controls, not least its traditional single column stalk for all major functions. Its better use of brightwork, more logical dash and sharp styling give it an advantage over the BMW at £30,000. The drawback is an old-mannish quality Mercedes has always fought. The Skoda’s interior and cabin design is best described as ‘honest’. It sets no new standards and impresses no critics, but it is simple to understand and works very well.

The big winner here is the Evoque. Its combination of high seating, excellent visibility, high and wide centre console and intuitive instrument layout makes you wonder why others find designing such things so hard. For all its emphasis on front comfort and fascia design, the Evoque is quite roomy in the rear.

We pause for a moment to evaluate exterior styling, a near-impossible task with such a motley bunch. The Golf, nice though it is, is merely a Golf. The Superb is one of those laudable cars you rarely notice. The Benz is well dressed, but its size makes it stodgy. So the eye appeal contest is between the low-and-potent 3-series and the ‘slammed SUV’ look of the Evoque. The latter wins.

Comfort and speed

At the dawn of time, the badge ‘320d’ was the ultimate in sensible shoes, a car you chose because (a) it had been chosen for you by some heartless fleet manager, (b) you couldn’t afford better or (c) you just didn’t care much about driving. Today’s 320d is perhaps the best example going of how car makers have lifted their game. It is a 146mph car that can accelerate from 0-60mph in a GTI-crushing 7.5sec, yet return 61.4mpg on the government’s flawed but universal combined cycle and cover at least 550 miles on one tank of fuel. Next time you’re looking for an example to show just how much the world’s car makers have achieved in 10 years, choose this.

Throw in a beautifully balanced chassis that you control through one of God’s greatest steering systems from a near-perfect low and central driving position, and you have a truly terrific car. Shame about the interior, although at least that extra 93mm of length gives slightly improved rear room. Ride comfort is superb, too. The Sport set-up gives you a day-to-day choice of a compliant Comfort setting (occasionally slightly too bouncy) and a still-compliant Sport setting that controls the body perfectly. It’s the only one here with variable ride at this price.

Yet the others are good against the BMW. The Benz feels as fast, but isn’t quite, which is understandable because it’s bigger and roomier. It is still a swift machine on give-and-take roads, not least because the seven-speed auto (a Merc ‘must’) makes its performance accessible at all speeds. It can also turn 50mpg with the right kind of treatment – quite an achievement for such a big car. It rides beautifully, as befits a limo. Its steering is faithful and entirely uncorrupted, although it feels ponderous against the BMW (Mercedes owners seem to like it that way). Its only real Achilles heel is a somewhat tractorish engine, whose vibrations are noticeable through floor and pedals.

The Superb is the revelation, as these fine machines always seem to be on test. It is pretty big, and feels it, but there’s plenty of accessible performance and the six-speed DSG gearbox, which is our transmission of choice, delivers driving ease and smoothness. You can hustle a Superb wagon along, if you must, but it’s more for brisk, relaxed cruising with happy passengers on board and a huge amount of luggage in the back. In that condition, it still rides flat because the wheelbase is long, and the suspension is compliant because Czech roads are (occasionally) as bad as ours. Cornering grip is there if you need it, and the steering reaches the VW Group’s high standard, but this is an essentially conventional car.

Even against the BMW, the Golf GTD is great fun. It’s a diesel GTI, and VW knows plenty about making a success of that genre. Agility is this car’s thing against the rest, plus the fail-safe simplicity of front-wheel drive – especially since it’s accompanied by the ride sophistication of a sporty Golf, and all the quality. It’s a bit of a surprise, though, to see that it’s a bit slower than the BMW, and barely faster than the Benz. Given that VW is supposed to be positioned in Ford territory, it’s difficult to see quite where all the money has gone. Our test car cost £27,640 without many options. Seems a lot for a Golf diesel.

On the road, the Evoque follows a phenomenon that has grown familiar for Range Rovers over the years. They tend to be driven with an imperiousness suggesting they’re faster than they actually are. The eD4 had the least power, weighed most and had the largest frontal area. It was always going to be slowest. But it has a lovely, panoramic driving position and it rides beautifully (although we’d have knocked off a bit of surface noise by choosing 18in wheels, not the test car’s 19s). The mid-range torque matches that of the others, the ultra-high-geared (just 2.3 turns lock to lock) steering is perfectly weighted and accurate, and the manual gearbox has short throws and narrow gaps across the gate. The Evoque is very wide, and initially you feel odd in a vehicle like this without four-wheel drive (which adds 150kg), but it’s great fun to be in and has the virtue of being very different.

And the winner is…

Boiled down, this is a contest between the Evoque and the BMW 320d. For me, the Golf and Superb are cheaper cars; you can buy desirable versions of both for less money. The Mercedes is a fine car, but it simply lacks glamour and driver appeal in this company. From there, it’s blind prejudice. There’s excitement attached to being in, let alone owning, a Range Rover Evoque. But the keen driver will always choose the BMW 320d. It isn’t merely the latest generation of a much-loved model, but the ultimate expression of automotive progress. Until recently, it was not possible to associate such performance and desirability with such practicality. Now it is.