I bought a car magazine today and saw Nissan has launched the new CIMA or Infiniti Q45 in japan and THE HELL IS THAT IT LOOKS 70% LIKE IN APPERANCE A NEW S-CLASS AND AT LEAST 90% IN INTERIOR DESIGN. It got exactly the same frony as the S-class and even the side mirror indicator.

The rear lamps on the new Q are straight off the Audi A6.
The rear end is almost a carbon copy of the Audi.
If I won that car in a contest, I'd drive it straight into a tree.

__________________
1989 300CE - 269,000 km
1994 SL600 - 59,000 km

Your post made me laugh!!! I shouldn't give those bastards a nickel! Blaupunkt here I come!!!!!!!

__________________
1989 300CE - 269,000 km
1994 SL600 - 59,000 km

On the CD, It came from America (James Russel, 1965, at GE Richland labs and Batelle Memorial Labs, 26 patents) just like the "Sony" Trinitron picture tube (Lawrence Livermore Labs). Phillips of Europe was one of the first to license the CD patents, Japan (Sony) followed.

[Edited by JCE on 01-24-2001 at 01:46 PM]

__________________
John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

You know what REALLY po's me is that though I like the COMAND system in my CL, within at least the next two years, MB is going to a DVD based system and redesigned already on the CL and S-CLass's. Oh well.

It doesn't matter what system MB goes to, it will never compare to the greatness of the Lexus nav system.
Have you ever seen one or actually got a chance to play around with one?

I've seen and tried the Lexus nav. I agree, I do like the ease of use, with the caveat that I have no problem using the nav in my CL. That said, I think MB may just trump the Lexus nav when they rework it. Besides the obvious DVD rather than CD, I would hope they would do something better with the graphics like the Acura. I am sure it will be the best for at least a month or so.

I am like many of you loves cars, period. Unlike Mr Bible, I do not hate cars that aren't MBs. We all know that Japanese cars have given the Germans and Euporeans a scare with well built and affordable cars. They have great engines that runs on poor octane fuel, and excellent transmissions. I believe all manufacturers are capable of producing duds every now and then.

I am not sure why Mr Bible think Japan lacks raw materials? Sure they don't produce them but they can sure afford to buy them in!! Making cars from beer cans? (hic!)
A Lexus with an aluminium body? Now, that's an idea!

franj

'89 190E 2.6
'95 E220
'98 V6 Passat
'99 Subaru Forester
'00 Holden Astra
'99 Mitsubishi Verada

I don't hate non MB's. If you were to see the cars around my house, you would see that. My wife drives a Toyota 4Runner. I have a Corvette and a Ford 4Wheel drive truck. Over the last 37 years I have owned Japanese, American, German and even British cars.

Next to an MB, I believe that Toyota products (which of course includes the overpriced Toyota called a Lexus) are the most reliable and long lived cars made.

I'll give you an example of Japanese car "lack of raw materials" that I talk about. I had a Honda Civic that I bought to put in shape and resell for profit. The heater was not working right. I took apart the heater control valve and it had a plastic plunger that had melted due to the heat of the coolant. DUH!!! You use a material that won't handle the heat in it's application? My neighbor made a plunger out of brass on his lathe and I improved that part by a thousand percent.

The raw materials used by the Japanese have improved, but they are still inferior compared to even the American cars

I will say for the umpteenth time, if you are going to buy a car and drive it a few years and maybe 100,000 miles, most any car will do this with minimal care and preventive maintenance, even a Lexus. Where the MB is proven superior in almost all cases is when you drive it to ultra high mileage. At hundreds of thousands of miles, the car is still solid with nice paint, upholstery, etc. It is worth rebuilding an engine because there is something left to put the engine into that you can enjoyably drive and be proud of.

A few years ago, my Boss had a one year old Lexus LS400. It was a very nice, beautiful driving car. The seats had already begun to crack like crazy. I asked him if he had treated them with a leather care product and he said yes.

I saw him not too long ago and the plastic on the dash was discoloring. The Lexus is a nice car for the person who trades every few years, but if you drive in excess of 50,000 miles per year like I do, and have to drive my money out of a car, the Lexus or any other Jap car won't cut it.

I would suggest that you start looking at the fifteen year old Japanese cars on the road and pay attention to the condition of the paint and trim. Also look at the fifteen year old MB's on the road. Overall the Toyota's and Honda's will have faded paint and discolored plastic, while the MB's overall will usually look pretty good. Then get in one and drive it around the block. See which one will still have a solid feel after fifteen years.

Have a great day,

How many Lexus' do we see driving around with excessive milage.? Lexus is one of my favorite makes, and I love the new IS 300, however in the long haul. MBZ takes the crown. AS for technology, just because their nav systems are good, that isn't the most important thing. Look at MBZ keys, the 98 and up models hae the Smart Key that makes a car unstealable. Does Lexus havea Smart key? Look at the various Cabin filtration systems On MBZ like the special
Charcol filters, and the over all technology in the entire car, such as a driver adaptive tranny. So what Lex has a nice NAv system, and a better sound system. MBZ is on top.

__________________
"Damn the torpedos, four bells full speed ahead"
-Admiral Farragut




-1987 300E Smoke Silver
-1997 S320 Black on Black
-Soon To be E55 AMG
-27 foot Grady White Offshore Sportfish.

Lexus LS400-Excellent for daily city driving. It is comfort, relax and quiet that anyone would be impressed when experienced.BUT, don't try to drive in highway more than 100 km/h - too floaty just like a standard Toyota Camry that even the basic Mercedes would be much more stable. I drove my Lexus LS400 to a long trip and the max. speed I tried was 190 km/h - very floaty and the wind noise made you feel as if you are taking off from the groud.
Supreme durability is its selling point. I never ever experienced any problem since new up to 90000km and my friend had a 1990 model and it is up to 240000km on the clock but still problem free !!!I could not find any difference between the two cars I dare to bit that if you use the leather conditioner regularly, the seats would not be worn out or crack !! (The salesperson told me that Lexus spent serveral millions to study how to prevent the leather cracking). Lexus offers 5-year/200000 km warranty including parts/labour and maintance and it is indeed very helpful. I am not going to judge it is a Mercedes killer or not, it depends on your point of view and what you want to get from your car.( And in fact, I chose Mercedes S320L as my next car and I really love it). I just want to share my experence for living with my Lexus !

David,

200,000 kilometers on a Mercedes gets you to the point where the car really starts to run good. That is not high mileage on a modern car.

I think Lexus wasted their money on the leather research.

Have a great day,

Larry,
Do you know in Hong Kong's go-and-stop driving condition, how long will the Mercedes's transmission last? Commonly, less than 100,000kms before they slip or become harsh.My 1990 300SEL had it on 80,000kms-My fault? Not really, several friends of mine had Mercedes like W124 230E, W126 300SE, W124 260E and even the W140 500SEL. They had either of the two problems probably the same kms on the clocks. Once I spoke to a very experienced Mercedes mechanics as if it is a common case. The answer is....I really don't like it ....Yes, all the Mercedes have to rebuild their transmissions around that kms or even earlier and that's why the authorised Mercedes dealer in HK only offers 3-yrs/ 60,000kms warranty on every new Mercedes sold!!! When you ask any Mercedes owner in HK, they probably tell you the same story. Fortunately, it only costs around $2,000 US to rebuild whole naughty thing.That's why I usually drive my BMW 318iS for daily home-&-office use.As a civil contractor, I travel more than a 100 kms with my company's Toyota 2.2 Carmy to construction sites and I use it quite roughly and again it shows its supreme durablility to me and the transmission is as smooth as new (170,000 kms today ! Cheers!). As a result, we chose the 3.4 Toyota Prado to be our new contract's car rather than the Mercedes ML320.The price difference ($12000 US ) is just a bit comparing to a 25 Millions project so its not the main decision element. I am a Mercedes enthusiast as you are and I am not glad either to face that facts.

Have a good day

I'm not an automatic transmissio person. My daughter's car is an automatic, and I've had two other automatics in a Benz. I avoid an automatic transmission like the plague. So my experience base with these units is very low.

The transmission is only one part of the whole equation.

Have a great day,

I owned a Lexus GS400 and loved it it was great at high speed and was very dependable (123K) before it got totaled by a head on 55-65 MPH collision. My wife walked away so I am very grateful. The Lexus was my first high end car but my family is not unfamiliar with MBs. My dad has had a 560 sel, a s500 and a 500 SL which he currently drives. His winter car is A Lexus. I love them both. As for repair the MB wins hands down there is only one parts supplier for Lexus and that is Lexus. The lexus is much less temperamental than a MB and I love their sound system. On the other hand the finish on the MB is solid. An average Joe can work on them and hey its a Benz! I am working the squeaks out of my TE as I write this but the lexus is far from a piece of crap. with the exception of a $1600 brake job and a dirty fuel injection system the Lexus served me great not to mention again they are safe. I have seen far more problems on MBs with much less mileage than the Lexus and as for a Lexus going 20 years time will tell. I love MB but Toyota quality is far proven.
P.S. I am buying two more TE's for my company if Lexus made a wagon I would have a very difficult Decision to make. For those that want to flame me I won't drive a camry wagon because if I am going to drive a grocery getter its going to be a Benz. I feel after owning both, it should be a valid opinion, and that is all it is an opinion.

[Edited by rsbiomedical on 02-07-2001 at 10:26 PM]