Some dumb bastard ran a stop sign and creamed my E320 last Fall. Insurance totaled it. I bought it back and repaired it. Repair was good -- you literally couldn't tell my old paint from the repaired spot. Car tracked perfectly and handled flawlessly. Possibly unrelated issues began last month -- air flow meter, cruise control, timing issue, "check" light kept coming on. A look at the wiring harness and a twist revealed severe cracking -- confirmed my Sum of All Fears. Not worth the repair, IMO. It still runs, though idle is hellishly rough. So I started shopping for a replacement.

The best buy for what I wanted (an interstate road warrior) was the Lincoln LS. That is a nice car in a V-8. Then I decided to buy cheap and get a car that I could devolve to my youngest kid (who starts driving full time this summer). And I drove some Hondas and liked the Accord. Looked at some in the $5-$8k range/100,000 miles. There are some pretty nice ones out there. I was going to look at yet another Accord this morning and the salesman -- as salesmen do -- said he just got this Avalon in .... I drove it. It feels well constructed and responsive. 2001; 53,000 miles; $11.5K with trade in. So, WTF?

I intend to get into another M-B if the stock market regains it's loss. But at this point, I don't think so.