I think it's tough to not get caught up in the prestige of the 3-pointed star, but for me it's more a kind of pride. I enjoy the long, illustrious history of inovation, performance, and engineering excellence that is behind the cars. I know that living in America there is the 'snob-factor', but I differentiate that somewhat with 'prestige'. I am more proud of the fact that MB's are used as taxi's around the world than I am that they are percieved as status symbols.
I
do get plenty of admiring/jealous looks from people, but if someone's willing to approach me about the cars, I'm happy to discuss they're more practical and performance-related aspects ad nauseum.
I've had fun edcuating my other car-nut friends about everything listed above, and a few are considering a Benz for next car because of it. I wouldn't say 'prestige' as much as appreciation of the design is what contines to give me that giddy feeling whetn starting up my reliable old W123 300D in the morning, or making that effortless jump from 60-100mph in the E420
