S/b welcome back to the bay area- glad to hear you had a chance to enjoy your car safely and w/o further mechanical incident

Peter- I totally agree w/ you re: the what happend to the old MB...? Seems like there are trade-offs in each generation/decade of MB vehicles (+/-)...hopefully on the whole MBs are offering better and better ownership experiences. Case in point- I don't see the previous quality in materials and construction in today's MBs- - however, we also don't see the lofty old world pricing as well.

imho- MB currently would do better to incorporate 200k longevity, low maintence, and trouble free characterics of my '88 Toyota Celica (247k-motor never cracked open) then- - it would be a economic no-brainer paying for the premium for all the other good stuff in the MB package....

I'll be taking my '94 E500 (39.2k) Starmark into Smythe European in San Jose, CA tommorrow to have some fluid leaks addressed:
>p/s?
>hydraulic?
>trans?

hopefully, I'll have it back neat and tidy again same day

regards
-fad