The A4, BMW 3-series, MB C-Class are all basically built to be each other. and each do different things well but fudamentally you can't go wrong with any of them.
As for the $150 oil change.. that is pretty much par for the course these days with synthetic oil.. 7-9 litres at $9-10L $20 filter and a bit of labour and you are there. The other side of it is that on most European cars you only have to change the oil every 15-20,000km not 5-8000 like on most Jap and NA cars.. Really it all evens out in the end.
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