Is this the same one in the big thread on this forum?

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Yes it is. What impressed me about that car initially. Is how well the cloth seats stood up over the years. Mercedes vinyl material would not have surprised me. As I have seen almost pristine examples of it up to 275K miles on a few examples. The paint color I have always considered is European in taste. Some other European brands used a very similar color. Color vision varies but I have always thought of that color as an orangish red. Or a reddish orange.

I had been wondering about the presence of some European features on my current 2006 volkswagon tdi beater. I was thinking it may have been manufactured in Germany. As they did not appear on Mexican built cars I suspect. I had a quick look for country of manufacture. No country of manufacture is on the label on the doorpost where it usually is. Yet the information shows it was sold in my region new. Sales may have been weak for them that year as well. Sold new in late 2007. A little strange for a 2006. Although the 2007s were never sold in north America. The diesel tdi came back in 2008 with a common rail injection system. Plus a cheating emission control system. If it was built in Germany could make sense. They are built better there and this on this one everything is still working well. I also have enough service records to indicate the car had very few issues before I acquired it.

One can only surmise they thought they could get away with the cheating emission system. Actually they did for some time until it was detected. It is my personal belief that they took the chance as the odds of it being detected where in reality quite long. The massive penalty they experienced financially is representative of the odds of it being detected. Or as in any gambling the odds where very long. Just not quite long enough it turned out.