The Japanese must have a better handle on ensuring that the quality equals that of Japan.

Not sure with Benz. They may be relying on their US counterpart Chrysler for quality, and that may be where the shortfall lies.

I am from Germany, and have owned 3 Mercedes Benz's in Europe, and my family has always owned Benz's. All our cars have been consistently solid in both performance and reliability.

When I test drove the 430 ML, it seemed fine. Once off the lot, I was appalled to find out how bad the integrity and electronics were, when every 90 days something else would go wrong. The engine and transmission are from Germany and seem fine, but everything else is just of low quality.

I wonder why Mercedes did not put the traditional Mercedes sticker on the inside windscreen of the MLs' when all other Benz's have it?!!!?

The first pre 2000 ML were really bad, the post 2000 had some fixes, but still not great, let's hope the new 2006 ML's are finally a true Benz quality product.