As for the 480, the seating is not as comfortable and the value for money is better on the 500 and 206.
Not as comfortable as what? Which seats? Havent been in a 500 but the 480 front seats have all kinds of room compared to the 206. Depending on use, these may be the seats that are most important. Also, for a given model year and airframe time, the 480 will typically be 30% to 50% less than the equivalent 206, and it looks like similar numbers for the 500. Of course you can buy a 40 year old 206 with 13,000+ hours for a bit less than a 10 year old 480 with 1000 hours, but not sure this is a meaningful comparison.
Also important to consider the "whole product" - insurance costs, availability of parts and service, availability of training, etc. There is much more to aircraft ownership than handling qualities. It is said of some helicopters that the news is both bad and good. The bad news is that every part costs $100,000. The good news is that even if you have the $100,000, the part is not available. Could the 500 be toward this end of the scale, at least compared to the 206 or 480?
