David,

I understand your concern and comments. Since I drive one of each, both manual transmissions, I see the advantages/disadvantages to both.

First off, I believe that if you're a stick shift fan, you would have enjoyed the six speed much more.

I'm a little confused by your bad road experience though. My 300E has mostly sportline suspension added, and it handles great. I drive 20 miles of winding, hilly, fun two lane farm road just to get to the highway. Even with the sportline components in my 300E, I have to give the handling confidence on this road to the C.

My friend the MB tech warned me before I bought my C, that there would be little that I could do on the car myself. But at the same time I have confidence in the reliability of the computerized gadgetry. The car has a fiberoptic network, rather than a zillion copper signal/power wires going everywhere. The system consists of fiberoptic cables leading to intelligent devices. I believe that in the long run this will prove more reliable than copper going everywhere.

The electronic devices that fail in most any car made in the last 20 years are the sensors. Most of the "gadgetry" you see is "programmatic", it's done with software. The same sensors and such are still there, and yes will probably fail at one point, but this is no different than sensors on a 124 car.

I will grant you this, when there is a failure, it CAN be expensive, but I feel that these will be infrequent, or I would not have bought the car.

All this said, I totally understand your desire to do whatever you have to do to keep your 124 on the road. All things considered, the 124 is one of the best cars ever put on the road. I feel fortunate to have one of each.

Have a great day,

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Larry Bible
'01 C Class, Six Speed
'84 Euro 240D, manual, 533K miles
'88 300E 5 Speed
'81 300D Daughter's Car
Over 800,000 miles in
Mercedes automobiles