Jury is still out. Maybe MB have made the high-tech bits more reliable and/or easier to service. Remember, MBUSA has gone to free maintenance (including oil changes and other scheduled service) during wty period for all 2000 and post MY. OTOH, 220 includes many standard very high tech features (ADS, COMAND, etc.) that will undoubtedly entail much labor and costly parts to fix if they break.

Disagree that 220 is not stylish or attractive...on the contrary I now think it's better looking (albeit not by much) than the 140.
It's a dream to drive, the COMAND system is fine once you learn how to use it, and everyone loves riding in the car.

Reliability and durability - we will see how the 220 holds up. As noted in earlier post, both my 210 and 163 have had significant (warranty-paid) component failures. No repairs yet on my R170 but we hardly drive it (2100 miles in 7 months).

In any case, refer to the post on pages 3-5....MB used to build cars to a quality point, damn the build cost and selling price...grandma had a 1972 MB250 that she drove for 10 years and the interior and exterior showed NO visible wear (Nautical Blue/Navy MBTex) during that time. OTOH the car did need a bunch of service work (carbs, radiator, etc.).