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Is the iPhone really the best choice?



The news is out – a new family of iPhone models has been released and, of course, they’re better than ever.

Inevitably, better means more expensive, and if you want the whole shebang you’ll want the rather tasty iPhone XS Max 512GB – seen here on the Apple store in the UK for a sum of £1,449.00.

You can insure it for an extra £199 with the optional AppleCare+ which gives two years of cover.

With plenty of power, storage and apps surely this is the ultimate phone for people who love cars – there’ll be free satnav apps, driving games, and hey – it’ll work as a phone of course, too! Battery life should be good – with charging only once per day expected. Some great apps for driving enthusiasts, with 3D graphics and motion sensors, mean you can begin to get a fairly accurate representation of driving, despite the ‘hand-held’ nature of it.

But how does this compare to some other phones we’ve found on the used market at the same or lower price?

Here are four alternatives we found on eBay.

BMW 540i – £1,450.00

On sale for just £1 more than the iPhone, the owner of this 4.4 litre Teutonic powerphone has suggested they’d be open to offers so we’d go in haggling hard, at £1,449.00. It has a built in phone handset, so your calls are taken care of. Storage should be ample with a reported 410 litres of boot space to store photographs and videos, and more….

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/bmw-540i-e39/362428498906?hash=item54626c03da:g:XGkAAOSwQmhbfGeL

Mercedes C180 – £1,300.00

A bargain compared to the iPhone XS Max and the BMW 540, the modest power-plant of the Mercedes still manages to get you to the limit faster than most rivals. It has telephone features built-in so you can call your friends, of course, like all good mobile phones. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedez-Benz-C180-Elegance/202432722253?hash=item2f21ee354d:g:Tp4AAOSwTw5bllLe

Jaguar S-Type V6 – £850.00

This one is a real bargain, giving you enough change to buy a cover or something. We’d recommend spending it on a mechanic to fix the broken sensor (which the vendor will give to you for free). This phone boasts a 9” satnav touchscreen in the dash, too, which is even larger than the iPhone Max’s 6.5” screen.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/jaguar-s-type-3-0-v6/332796037728?hash=item4d7c308a60:g:168AAOSwSI5bXu~x

Mercedes W124 – £720.00 (at time of writing)

This is another, slightly older, model from the phone manufacturer ‘Mercedes-Benz’. Nonetheless, it has a Motorola-engineered telephony system built-in. Act fast – this one is rising in price due to keen young trendsetters desperate to get the best in mobile phone specs – so it’ll soon reach four figures. At the moment, though, it’s half the price of the XS Max at just £720.00, and has more storage capacity than any other option here.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1992-Mercedes-W124-230E-Drive-it-away-Not-the-usual-rubbish/302874706532

How do these all compare? We’ve taken a look at critical things like price, storage, charging (fuelling) frequency, and of course insurance.

We’ve also rated the realism of the driving experience each can offer to petrolheads.

540i C180 S-Type W124 XS Max Cost £1450 £1300 £850 £720 £1449 Storage/TB* 2,648.7TB 3,068.5TB 2,584.0TB 3,359.2TB 0,000.5TB Recharging Weekly Weekly Weekly Weekly Daily Driving 10/10 9/10 9/10 9/10 3/10 Powerplant V8 I4 V6 I4 A12 chip 0-60mph 5.7s 9.4s 7.3s 10.9s n/a Insurance** £95 £95 £90 £90 £99.50

*For internal storage, we’ve assumed you’ll fill the boot with 2.92GB DVDs (standard 120mm x1.2mm size).

**based on a 45 year old App developer in Appleton, WA4, keeping it locked away at night and using another device for daily use

Fancy a quote for your classic car? We can call you back.