Oh, come on! I grew up in Seattle - Magnolia Bluff, and I don't recall a plow ever coming down 40th Ave. West. Some years it doesn't even snow, and when it does, it doesn't last long.

I drove a '63 Corvette up and down the hills between Magnolia and Queen Ann - no chains either. They wouldn't clear the fenderwells.

I did "cheat" a bit - the Corvette had Michelin X radials and Positraction, and maybe the 3.08 axle and close ratio T-10 that yielded 76 MPH in first gear at 6500 helped, too. With that combination it was like a snow cat compared to most cars.

Duke

This is what our neighborhood looke like for 4 days this past winter. It was not until the 5th day the plow finally showed up to clear it, and then we still live another 1/10 mile further up a steep private drive..

http://demo2.marlinmedia.com/winter_pictures/

I maybe have been born up there but now we live in the boonies..

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Ah.. I thought it was in TN...

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Today after changing the brakes (which adds so much more feel back to the pedal its great) I go to adjust my seatback in my w220 s500 and the left mirror adjusts. I sat there blankly for a couple seconds and then laughed.

First glitch I've had with the car in 4 months that I've had it.

Larry, Perhaps a little bird told me(doubtful as we live very far apart) . I could be psychic. Or could it be that we lean a lot about members on this forum ,let's see you like stick shifts,you belive in the kiss factor,you already have a Corvette and a 124, the car is small and fun to drive but not a traveling car, Mini Cooper fits perfectly! what color is it I'd love one for these Mt. roads...........

William Rogers........

William,

Alright already! It's a standard MINI Cooper, the cheapest one you can get. That means manual a/c, no sunroof, great sounding stereo with in dash CD, tire pressure monitor, five speed, 8 spoke wheels that look like the Cooper S wheels, front, side and window curtain airbags, ABS, multi link suspension, etc.

I was amazed at how well the "stripper" model is equipped. The only feature that it does not have that I would like to have is a cruise control and maybe the sport suspension. The sport suspension I am adding, someone even gave me a set of springs. The cruise is not practical to retrofit. I drove my last 240D a half million miles without cruise control, so I guess I'll manage.

After selling my C I stumbled across this car on the showroom, so I couldn't be picky about color. All of the cars I've seen at the dealers are optioned out to an unreal price tag and with that comes all the gadgetry that led to the tragic demise of my C Class. Since the gas prices went up there are just almost none except the demonstrators at the dealerships. I would have had to wait three months to order one. They put this one on the showroom the day before. It is Red with a white top, white rear view mirrors, white 8 spoke wheels and a hand painted pinstripe and hand painted MINI wing logo in the pinstripe.

These cars have been out three years or so now and it seems that the bugs are worked out. I won't ever be first in line to get the first new model off the boat again.

What might happen now is that my wife or daughter will take it and I will drive it long enough to order a Cooper S and wait for it to come in. The car is a blast to drive around here and for short hops to Dallas and such. My trips to Kansas City will now be in my 300E.

Your clairvoyancy is unreal. Have you helped the police solve any crimes lately?

Have a great day,

Larry, Too cool I think they are the smartest overall design in a decade.I remember watching the original M.C's autocross very exciting car ,made fools out of some very serious expensive sportcars
of the day both in pro rally and autocross.
It is very hard too get either a new or used one on the west coast at least where we are. The lucky owners I've talked to could not say enough good things about them. sort of like when the 55 Chevy Belair hardtop first hit the streets there was an immediate consensus that GM had done it right and had a winner.History proved that conclusion correct.With the overwhelming number of car models I think the new M.C. stands out with the best of them...........

William Rogers..........

Dear Mr. LarryBible:

Sorry to hear about your troublesome c240. However, I believe
you will now at least agree with me that newer Mercedes cars are like junk in terms of reliability. They may drive very well, but
they may also be gone bad AT ANY TIME, with all stupid problems.

I had driven several Japanese cars in the past (Nissan Sentra, Honda Accord, Toyota Corolla), and now have a 300SD as well as a 1994 c220. I've had so many crazy problems with the c220 and
have to keep fixing it all the time.

Remember that the number of Japanese cars being sold in the US is MUCH larger than that of Mercedes cars. Nevertheless, the Japanese have still been able to stay at or near the top of other
car manufacturers in terms of reliability, despite the fact that their cars have all kinds of electronics stuff just like Mercedes ones. Yes, Japanese cars may not drive as well as a Mercedes, but you need to keep in mind that a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla is less than 1/2 of a CHEAPEST Mercedes car.

You once said that your daughter had a very troublesome Honda Civic (new), but that might be only one of a few exceptions. The majority of people have great experience with Japanese cars.
Most people just need a car for transportation from point A to point B, so reliability is a very important factor for them. We (Mercedesshop forum members) are just a tiny minority who love the great driving feeling of a Mercedes car. Most people don't care much about that.

I'm happy the American manufacturers (especially GM) have been doing much better and even exceeding the German ones in terms of reliability. I hope we will be able to knock down the Japanese car manufacturers in the near future too.

For me, the 5 major criteria of choosing and owning a car (not a SUV or mini VAN) are:

- Reliability
- Safety
- Spacious and roomy
- Great gas mileage
- Very low cost of maintenance


The (cheap) Japanese cars actually satisfy 4 these criteria (except the #3). I'm 5'11" and I think Civic/Sentra/Corolla are kind of small for me. I finally found out that only OLD Mercedes diesel cars satisfy all of these criteria. They seem to run forever, drive very safely like a tank, are very spacious and it's very cheap to maintain them while getting great mileage. However, the newer Mercedes gas cars are too troublesome IMHO. Owning and maintaining them is like throwing money out of a window.

Eric

ericnguyen,
What kind of problems did you have with your '94 C220.
I drive one and I love it. Knock on wood, I have'nt had any issue
with it. It drives like a charm and the power train is rock solid.
I don't think you can say the W202 is loaded with electonic gyzmos...

Looking at new MBs today and I get the impression the 'elimination of some 600 electronic features' never happened.

I was in the thick of it back then, and I still am today. MB has increased the "user-friendliness" of many systems, but overall I'd have to say the cars are far more complex now than they were in 2004.

Lest we forget. This is the same company that adopted that clap trap Rube Goldberg KE Jetronics fuel injection system.
As a Mechanical Engineer I doubt that my colleagues and I could have even envisioned a more complicated way of delivering fuel to an internal combustion engine than that.
The dealers must have made a mint fixing that system.

CIS just exchanges electronic complexity (D-Jet) for mechanical precision. In many ways CIS works like a hydraulically operated automatic transmission. And in that regard newer cars are somewhat simpler... the maze of springs and spool valves has been replaced with a few solenoid valves. Now instead of revisions in spring kits the car gets new software loaded over the OBD port when it's in for an oil change...

-J

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1991 350SDL. 230,000 miles (new motor @ 150,000). Blown head gasket

Tesla Model 3. 205,000 miles. Been to 48 states!
Past: A fleet of VW TDIs.... including a V10,a Dieselgate Passat, and 2 ECOdiesels.
2014 Cadillac ELR
2013 Fiat 500E.

MB has fallen into the trap of trying to appeal to the lease/short term buyer market. That's where the money is. I have known a few people who buy or lease a new one every two years - what do they care of reliability? Assuming of course that the car is built well enough to last for two years - and most of them are.

I am beginning to think that the short term option is a good one and made the decision to lease a new Ford last year. I will spend $11,000 on that car over two years. No surprises. It's not an MB, that would have been $22,000 for the same size/type over two years.

Point is, I've got a lease on a decent vehicle that meets my needs and I am going to walk away from it when the two years is up - I don't care much about how its built or whether the transmission is well made. Ford is going to cover it front to back during my time with the vehicle which will last around 30,000 miles. I figure around 55 cents per mile with fuel. I estimated that buying the vehicle and keeping it for 6 years including fuel and repairs and my per mile cost would have been around 75-80 cents per mile.

That per mile number could go down over the years if the car is well engineered and has few problems - but I can't know that now. I had to make a decision with the information at hand.

The paradigm is shifting for a lot of people and some makers are shifting with it and MB is right out there in front.

Years ago they made cars that would last for years. Those days are over.

Edit: I just did a back of the envelop calc on the cost of ownership of my 99 E320 including fuel and repairs. It is about 26 cents per mile, so far over 130,000 miles and 6 years.

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DS
2010 CL550 - Heaven help me but it's beautiful
87 300D a labor of love
11 GLK 350 So far, so good
08 E350 4matic, Love it.
99 E320 too rusted, sold
87 260E Donated to Newgate School
www.Newgateschool.org - check it out.
12 Ford Escape, sold, forgotten
87 300D, sold, what a mistake
06 Passat 2.0T, PITA, sold

Las Vegas NV

I agree with the idea that Mercedes tries to cater to new car buyser who only own the car through warranty. But even these people are now paying attention to the car's reliability. They are now wondering why the value of the car drops like a rock after the warranty period and are asking why the residual value is so low.

There was a time where Mercedes kept 80% of its value even after a couple years ownership. Those days are long gone.