I agree the prices are lower and there is a lot of value to the new MBs. I am put off by all the electronics and computers - they do wonders for safety, handling, and emissions, but as you said, will be very difficult to diagnos and repair, and probably very costly as well. A lot more research needs to be put into reducing the operational expense over the life of the vehicle and the need for inexpensive and simple diagnosis and repair of the complex subsystems. MB needs to incorporate factory dial - up diagnosis and predictive part failure analysis techniques for these complex electronics. Otherwise, complex hardware plus rugged environments equals either expensive maintenance, frequent failure, or both.

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JCE
87 300E, 65k miles
Smoke Silver