Dear Mr. LarryBible:

Sorry to hear about your troublesome c240. However, I believe
you will now at least agree with me that newer Mercedes cars are like junk in terms of reliability. They may drive very well, but
they may also be gone bad AT ANY TIME, with all stupid problems.

I had driven several Japanese cars in the past (Nissan Sentra, Honda Accord, Toyota Corolla), and now have a 300SD as well as a 1994 c220. I've had so many crazy problems with the c220 and
have to keep fixing it all the time.

Remember that the number of Japanese cars being sold in the US is MUCH larger than that of Mercedes cars. Nevertheless, the Japanese have still been able to stay at or near the top of other
car manufacturers in terms of reliability, despite the fact that their cars have all kinds of electronics stuff just like Mercedes ones. Yes, Japanese cars may not drive as well as a Mercedes, but you need to keep in mind that a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla is less than 1/2 of a CHEAPEST Mercedes car.

You once said that your daughter had a very troublesome Honda Civic (new), but that might be only one of a few exceptions. The majority of people have great experience with Japanese cars.
Most people just need a car for transportation from point A to point B, so reliability is a very important factor for them. We (Mercedesshop forum members) are just a tiny minority who love the great driving feeling of a Mercedes car. Most people don't care much about that.

I'm happy the American manufacturers (especially GM) have been doing much better and even exceeding the German ones in terms of reliability. I hope we will be able to knock down the Japanese car manufacturers in the near future too.

For me, the 5 major criteria of choosing and owning a car (not a SUV or mini VAN) are:

- Reliability
- Safety
- Spacious and roomy
- Great gas mileage
- Very low cost of maintenance


The (cheap) Japanese cars actually satisfy 4 these criteria (except the #3). I'm 5'11" and I think Civic/Sentra/Corolla are kind of small for me. I finally found out that only OLD Mercedes diesel cars satisfy all of these criteria. They seem to run forever, drive very safely like a tank, are very spacious and it's very cheap to maintain them while getting great mileage. However, the newer Mercedes gas cars are too troublesome IMHO. Owning and maintaining them is like throwing money out of a window.

Eric