Sorry Gillybenztech, when I speak of a "rich person" I'm talking about the top 1-5% of the US population(as far as income,but mainly assets). In my neck-of-the-woods a dentist is not considered a "rich person", a top brain surgeon might be considered rich. Yes, you are correct, many drug dealers are "rich". I just have to say that I'm shocked every time I drive by an elementary school and see "c" and "e" class MBs in the teachers parking lot, when I graduated a couple of years ago those teachers weren't driving MBs----something has happened to allow them to afford them(and these days its certainly not the markets performance). Another example, I don't think real estate agents are considered "rich people" but yet many, many in this area drive MBs, its just normal, whereas in Germany if you're doing business with someone driving such a car as an MB you would often think twice and wonder how wise they are with money, different business culture.

From my point of view, many people in the USA buy MBs because MBs are "reassuringly expensive" and tend to give one the feeling of fitting in or being "normal". Of course, different US regions may vary, but I'm referring to NYC, Houston, Chicago and Los Angeles in general.

I guess I know why you compare MBs in Europe to Fords and Chevrolets, but did you know some of those smaller MBs weren't made in Europe but in RSA?

Gilly, I'm confused, as I talked to a dealer principal who told me that his top salesmen and technicians were sent to Germany once a year as some kind of reward for good service and that this was something they strove for. I thought it was kind of a national program open to techs and salesmen.