My mom and dad bought one of those Lexus RX300 things. When they brought it home I made the comment that it looked like a tennis shoe To say the least they did not like my comment. It drives pretty nice but it has all that computer stuff that has been mentioned above. I prefer simplicity I wish I could find a SD with manual windows.

There is an article in today's WSJ about the Consumer Reports 2003 list of "recommended" new vehicles. Again, there are quips about the deterioration of various German brands. Some quotes:

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,eyes_on_the_road,00.html
Europe's Luxury Brands Falter On New Recommended Lists
November 10, 2002 5:01 p.m. EST
EYES ON THE ROAD
By JOSEPH B. WHITE

"But Consumer Reports saves its toughest criticism for European luxury brands, including Mercedes -- which has exactly zero models on this year's recommended list. (The new, redesigned E-class sedan isn't rated.) Results for other European brands are mixed. The Saab 9-5 scored above average for reliability in Consumer Reports survey, but didn't outpoint Japanese rivals such as the Lexus IS300 or the Acura TL (which is made in America). Only one BMW model -- the venerable 5-series -- got an average reliability score. The Audi A4, a hot seller in recent years, was marked "well below average." Volkswagen, which owns Audi, fared poorly overall with its Volkswagen brand, with only the Passat achieving an "average" reliability rating. That doesn't bode well for VW's efforts to position the Volkswagen brand as a near-luxury make in America. Ford's Jaguar S-type and X-type models got branded as among the least-reliable models in their classes -- a setback for a brand that had made great strides.

"As they put more complex systems into vehicles they are finding the robustness of design is not there," he says. At Mercedes and BMW, he says, recent models appear to have more problems with electrical systems, power equipment and body hardware.

"J.D. Power and Associates, which has conducted widely-followed surveys of vehicle quality and customer satisfaction in the U.S. for years, is now trying to establish a similar franchise in Europe. This has proven difficult for a variety of reasons, but this year J.D. Power produced its first survey in Germany. What company ranked first for customer satisfaction in the homeland of Mercedes and BMW? Toyota. The highest-ranking German brand was BMW, in third place, while Mercedes trailed brands such as Honda and Mazda. No German vehicle ranked first in the individual segment categories, including "executive luxury car." (Winner? The Nissan Maxima.)"

It's important to remember what the JD power survey tests: "initial quality".

They go around and ask new car owners what they think of their cars sixty days after taking them home. Realistically, nothing should be terribly wrong with any car after only two months.

What this survey tests is how much people still like to brag about their new car sixty days later. Since most Germans are used to mercedes benzes being what they are, they probably don't think much about them for very long.

Give a german something new he and his neighbors haven't seen much of (like a lexus) and of course he thinks its still the best car in the world and he's happy to tell you all about it sixty, nintey, or a hundred and twenty days later.

Hell, I had a pal from Sweden who took an '82 Trans Am back there with him after college. He sold it for ten grand (American) within a week!

If it's something different, "quality" can be very subjective.